Hello and welcome back to my blog. Today I will share part of my experiences taking self portraits for the past couple of months, you can find those here. I will also give some ideas to get inspired and ideas for actual photos. Without further ado, let us dive into it. Here are my top tips and ideas for self portraits for beginners.
What do you need?
There are some things that you need to have to take self portraits. The main thing you need is of course a camera. Then you need to take the photo of yourself, so it needs to have a self timer or a remote control setting. I shoot with my Sony a7rii and use my phone to take the photos. It really helps if you can see yourself as well.
How to get inspiration
How to get inspired if you are not really feeling it yet. You feel that itch to create a self portrait, but don’t know what or how yet. I have a couple of things that I do to get inspired. The first thing I do is I check out some common hashtags on Instagram, like selfportrait and advancedselfie. Besides instagram, I also often use google to search for ideas and examples. Other ways for me to get inspired is to listen to music. I resonate with lyrics more than I do with melodies. So sometimes a sentence just hits me and I just know what to do, either the image appears before my eyes or I just follow that feeling and start doing something. From there I just keep it going and create. The last way I have been inspired that I want to share with you is by series. I have been inspired by several series and just want to create something to honor that inspiration.
Ideas
In this post I will post some concepts you can use to create self portraits, but there is no step by step guide to it. So I won’t be sharing that. I hope you can use these concepts to create your own art. Here are my ideas for self portraits for beginners.
1. Recreate works of others
The best way to start out when you are a beginner at something is to recreate works of others. I tried that in a way when I recreated this supergirl poster.
2. Silhouette
Use the outline of your head to create some intimate photos.
3. Use photoshop to make it extra normal
Not everything is possible in real life or is close by and possible for you at the present moment. So use photoshop to make it possible!
4. Use photoshop to interact with yourself
Stuck in quarantaine, or just want to create that concept with yourself? Photoshop is your best friend again 🙂
5. Use a bedsheet/anything can be a prop
Literally anything can be a prop if you want it to be. I have used a bedsheet to create self portraits, so who knows what else is possible.
6. Try different faces
My face is not often cooperating with me. So often I just try very unnatural things with my face and see what it looks like.
7. Change up your outfits
In order to set the mood for your self portrait, outfits are very important. I sometimes choose the outfit if I can not come up with an idea yet and it will come from the outfit.
8. Just you, pure you
Just sit in front of the camera for a while and think about how you are feeling in that moment. Then just try and get that across. It is not easy, but with practice this can lead to very powerful images.
9. Lots of props
If you are not feeling like showing yourself, you can always get some props in the frame. Books, flowers, hats, cameras and so many more items can help tell a story in your photo.
10. Top down
This one is a bit weird maybe, but try lying down on the ground and shooting from above. Or change your perspective in another way. I haven’t tried this one, but will definitely try to soon!
11. Colors
If you can’t yet think of how you want to take the next self portrait, maybe focusing on colors can help. It can set the mood for your photo or create a playful scene. You can use the colors of your outfit to either stand out from the environment or blend in.
12. Mirrors
The last one for this blog is mirrors. Mirrors have always been a fascination of mine. Mostly due to physics, but also because of concepts like the mirror of erised. (yes harry potter). It showed the desire of the person looking into the mirror. This would be a cool concept for a photo.
If you want to keep following me, check out my instagram page here! I share photos and behind the scenes content on there too 🙂
Leuk blog, Robin, met heel veel tips!