Hey, guys! My name is Elena and just like Ashley, I am a photography addict. When Ashley emailed me about guest posting, I was in the middle of some craziness but I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity, so I said yes!
So some of you might know me as the girl who does self-portrait tutorials and Selfie Saturdays, others might not have even heard about my blog, Selfie Magic. But basically in short, I am huge on self-portraiture. I’ve been doing self-portraits for as long as I’ve been doing photography, but I REALLY got into the creative side of things about 3 years ago and never looked back. For some of you, self-portraiture might be scary, intimidating, seemingly vain, pointless but for me it’s a way to express myself while recording my life for future generation ( Hey, my life is worth recording!).Today I will write about the basics of getting started in self-portraiture. I am sure some of you are intrigued by the idea, but are too afraid to try it out and I am hoping that seeing Ashley’s progress in the field as well as this post will give you another nudge to give it a shot (pun intended). Here are a few simple steps on how to get started!
Step 1
Realize that self-portraiture is NOT about vanity, it is NOT embarrassing. It is a form of art, just like any other. And in my experience, it teaches far more about photography than shooting random objects does. It is challenging, but that’s exactly why every self-respecting photographer should get decent at working the camera from the front. Once you stop thinking of self-portraiture as something frivolous, you’ll find yourself taking more and more photos.
Step 2: Get the right equipment
You’ll need a remote and a tripod. Mostly, you need them to make your life easier. I’ve taken self portraits for years (back before I was heavily into it) without either of those two items, but buying a remote and a tripod will really take you to the next level of self-portraiture and save you a LOT of frustration. 
They make self-portraiture so easy that you’ll be surprised why you have avoided it for so long. It will also help to start off with a remote and a tripod, because otherwise you might find yourself so frustrated trying to get the focus right and run back and forth to the beep of the 10 second in-camera timer that after a few attempts, you’ll decide selfies are not for you. You can buy the remote and the tripod I use here and here.Step 3: Master the Focus
Focus is probably the most difficult aspect of self-portraiture in the beginning. That’s where the remote helps A LOT! But if you don’t have your remote just yet, use a “placeholder” that you can focus on. Choose one that’s approximately your height and is light enough (a chair, a tripod, a tall plant) to move out of the way within 10 seconds. More detailed tips on focusing with or without a remote are here.
Step 4: Find the right pose!
The scariest aspect of self-portraits is the fear that you will look bad on the photo. And it is understandable, since you can’t really see yourself in the viewfinder, you have no idea what you’ll look like. So it’s useful to remember a few key rules about poses and angles in general. You can read more about it here. But here’s an example of some of the more flattering full body poses for women:
Step 5: Involve your family and friends
One of the more useful and rewarding aspects of having the skill of self-portraiture is being able to take your own group photos. Once you’ve practiced some selfies, you will be happy to find out that you no longer have to be missing from your Christmas cards and friends’ group pictures. It will become so easy that you will do all your own shoots: anniversaries, maternity, family portraits, Holiday cards, girls’ nights out. And the best part is you can do it any time you want and any way you want: no scheduling conflicts, no style clashes, no waiting for photos.
Step 6: The final step in self-portraiture – GET CREATIVE!
You will be amazed at how much more creative you can get when you’re the photographer AND the model. You can bring YOUR vision to life without any hindrances. There are so many creative ways to explore self-portraiture and here’re a few of them: CLONES, JUMPS, Magic Tricks, Me then- Me Now photos (where you recreate your old photographs), collaborations and much much more.
To conclude this post, I’d like to say this: I often get “but you’re so pretty, it’s easy for you to photograph yourself” line from people and I would just like to say that it has nothing to do with how attractive you THINK you are.Photographers don’t turn down people who they consider unattractive. We don’t ONLY photograph “traditionally” beautiful subjects. Most of us, as photographers, find beauty everywhere, so why shouldn’t you start with yourself? Don’t make it about your looks, make it about the art of capturing a moment or about the message or about the creativity of the shot.
It doesn’t have to be an “in your face body shot”… It can be faceless, it can be just one body part, you can turn away from the camera. Try to capture a feeling, not a person and the confidence will eventually come, I promise.
I’m sure you have seen the wonderful progress that Ashley has made in self-portraiture and the mind-blowing selfies she now churns out regularly and I really hope that this will inspire you to try it out yourself following the simple steps above. If you’re still not sure and would like to learn more, feel free to go through my past tutorials on Selfie Magic and participate in weekly self-portrait link ups.
Thanks again Elena for sharing your secrets and inspiring us to turn the cameras on ourselves. It was Elena that started my recent obsession with self-portraits and I really do encourage you to go through her tutorials if you haven’t done so already.
With that said, Elena’s post today concludes my “blogcation” guest post series. I’ll see you on Sunday for the Scavenger Hunt!
