My First Self Portrait Feedback if you would not mind :-)

[btafly]

Hi All

well here it is my first self portrait

INFO IS...........................

Olympus E520 Digital SLR Camera
Shutter Speed 1/50th Sec
Manual
F 5.6
ISO 100
Focal Length 40mm
Flash Did not Fire
Center Weighted Average Metering

What would I like Critique on.................................

- Lighting
- Composition
- Focus - I know its slightly out of focus if anybody has any idea of how to get clear focus while being in front of the camera I would love to hear it.

Feel Free to Alter the Photograph if you wish to.

[natek313]

Nice picture.

The lighting, for the most part, looks all right. The only thing I noticed was the shadow right next to your nose. It looks like you had the light coming from camera right, so you could have put a reflector on the opposite side to help bounce some light back onto the right side of your face to even out the lighting.

I think the composition is fine. Nice job on the crop.

Yeah, the focus is a touch soft. Self-portraits are not the easiest thing to nail. What I did when I took one of mine is used a small aperture (I think mine was around f/10, but can't remember exactly) to increase the DOF and increase your chances of achieving a good focus. I set my camera up on my tripod and attached my remote trigger. Then I prefocused (manual focus) on an object to get the focus in the ballpark. Then I replaced the object with myself and started snapping pictures while moving myself slightly toward the camera and slightly away from it to increase the chance of getting "the shot."

I've heard of some people piggy-backing their camera on a laptop so they have the laptop's screen to assist with focusing. If you search Google (or your preferred search engine), you'll be able to find several tips and suggestions on how to take a self-portrait.

Hope this helps.

[mrdale]

Good job for your first try. Some comments: To me its under-exposed, add some light. This will also allow you to use a higher shutter speed. Even with the camera on a tripod at 1/50 it is difficult to remain motionless. You can minimize the nose shadow by turning your head slightly to your left but a reflector would be better as already mentioned. Your hair is lost in the background, again some light is needed to separate you from the background.
Here is an old trick for nailing focus. Place an object (stuffed animals work well) in the position where your head will be. Test shoot to get focus. Don't move the camera. Now tie a length of string to the camera (anywhere on the camera is ok), stretch it out to the stuffed animal (where you have focus) and cut the string. Put yourself in place, put the string on your nose, drop the string and shoot.This is more tricky with wide open apertures but is nearly flawless from 5.6 on up. Seems kind of hokey but its been used for years.

dale

[RLucas]

I think it pretty good for your 1st or 2nd try! Self portraits aren't the easiest things to shoot.
Compositionally speaking, it's pretty strong to me.The only thing you could have done different is to give yourself a little more room in the frame on camera right. The lighting seems just a tad too harsh for my taste, but not bad. Your eyes are fairly sharp, which is a big plus for a SP! They are very pretty by the way! The only thing that really bugs me about it is that there seems to be quite a bit of noise for such a low ISO shot. And there seems to be too much of a magenta cast around the bridge of your nose, and around your hairline.

Your post said to feel free to edit, so I took the liberty, and just made some minor adjustments.
I tried to balance the color as best I could. It's not perfect, but it was the best I could do. I added a little Gaussian blur to soften the lighting up just a tad, then just did a high pass filter. I hope you like it!

[photo-take-a-lot]

I like it and agree with all the earlier comments....I cant wait to try the string trick.

[naeno]

Compositionally, this looks good. Your eyes are gorgeous!

For some reason, I'm seeing strange pink blotches on you, but since no one else said anything about them, I'm guessing it's just my monitor. I would recommend putting some hair lighting behind you.

Big tip for SP focusing, take your camera to the spot you want to be in. Turn around and focus on your tripod. Take your camera over to your tripod and mount it. Put it on manual focus, and go back to your spot. Now your camera has the correct focal length for your SP.

[btafly]

Thankyou to all who responded, i am so grateful, I will definately be trying some of your tips next time can't wait to give it another go thanks again