How do I take pictures of myself?

[Carl911]

I have been wanting to take some pictures of myself. Im not vane or anything but I always take the pictures and one day Im going to wonder what i looked at many years ago.
My partner is just terrible at taking pictures so I thought Id ask how people take pictures of themself.
How do you set the camera up, eg, how do you focus on nothing, how do you know you have the right position?
Im assuming you take a few pics untill you have it right.
Can some one let me know best way of doing this.

Cheers Carl

[Mr Guy]

Multiple options, and all of them are tricky, take practice, and involve getting to know your camera well! I'd put in a shameless plug for the fiftytwo group here but I'm over a month behind so I don't have room to talk!

Easiest, but the least precise way is to use a camera on a tripod with a remote, set to autofocus on the remote press. The difficulty here is making sure you have a pretty good idea of where the autofocus is going to pick.

More precise but with a degree more difficulty is to manually focus where you know you will be. Lenses that include the distance scale can be helpful for this sort, as well as getting a good sense of the concept of depth of field, and using settings that give you the most room for error. A depth of field calculator, like this one I keep bookmarked will help you understand what you will accomplish and how much room for error you're giving yourself.

More on the tip side, and less on the technique side is to use a stand in. My personal favorite victim is a large teddy bear on a barstool.

[Carl911]

Thanks for that Mr guy, I'v saved the calculater as that will be handy. Like the idea of the large teddy..lol.

[Drax]

HI, I second what Mr Guy said.

@ Mr Guy, thanks for being so clear and detailed.

[kencaleno]

What I do is set one of the wife's dolls on a chair or stool, where I will be sitting-
camera on tripod
A/Av mode autofocus on doll-switch to manual focus-this locks focus
Set self-timer to 20 seconds (Gives you time to settle and get comfortable)
Press self-timer button
Press shutter button-get to seat and pose (after removing doll, of course)
Done

Regards, Ken

[captainkimo]

^Great portrait, Ken! Your photo's really amazing.

@Carl - or you can try using a mirror. Here's what I did. It is just a 'casual' photo though.



Cheers!

Captain Kimo

[kencaleno]

I have a mirror shot, too. regards, Ken

[spazoid1965]

You can also place an object where you will be. Manually focus on that object then remove it. Or focus on an object the place youself next to it. Make sure you are the same distance from the camera as that object. You'll need to set the self timer or use a remote. I rarely do self portraits, Mainly becuase I'm an ugly dude. But here's on I did about 19 years ago with my wife. It was with an Olympus film camera. I just focused on her, set the timer, then jumped in the photo.

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/224...nwindowcq5.jpg

[mrdale]

All good tips mentioned by others and since its digital I do a lot of chimping. I also sometimes use the old string trick. Use some kind of stand-in, get the composition and focus you like then tie a piece of string to your camera, stretch it out to the stand-in and cut it off. Replace the stand-in with yourself and put the string in the same place. Doesn't matter where on the camera you tie off but the cut end should be on nose, forehead etc. Kind of dorky but it works.

dale