=PoisonedPure

All contents of this site is copyrighted to Poisoned Pure ©
Do not reproduce under any standard.

~PoisonedPure



I got asked a while ago how I go about doing Self-Portraiture, so I decided that I might "try" and give a few tips to people that are interested on how I got started.

Poison’s Guide to Self-Portraiture


Beginners: It might sound funny but begin by making friends with a mirror. It is the best way to test out expressions before getting in front of a camera. It also helps to overcome shyness as you are getting used to the way that you look and express yourself, and makes you take notice of your best features and work out ways to play them up.

Next I suggest that you make a tripod your friend. These little gadgets are invaluable when you are starting out or getting serious with any sort of photography. A tripod can be made out of a couple of crates and a beanbag for stability, or tying your camera securely to an object that will not fall down for those interesting angles.

The next step is taking photos. I cheated a bit here because I actually started self-portraiture through a video camera not a photo camera. It had a flip back screen so I could learn positioning and effects better. I later found a digital camera with the same feature and found it invaluable in self-portraiture. If you are not lucky enough to have this feature and/or are using a film camera then I suggest that you get used to framing your shots. It is a tool used commonly by painters but you have got an easier objective that you can place your camera exactly where you want it to be then envision where you would like to be in the picture, whack the timer on and jump in front of the camera instead of having to sketch everything out and using rulers to get the perspective right. I would recommend not getting too technical at this stage but keeping your pictures fairly basic and your focal points simple.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

Intermediates: Here’s where it starts to get fun. By now you have learnt basic picture formats. You can now start working on the elements in your pictures. Keep an eye out for interesting surroundings or textures to work with. Get creative with angles, shadows and light. By this stage you should be getting fairly good at scoping out your environments and knowing where to place yourself and your camera. Don’t worry too much about composition at this stage, as you are really learning how to put yourself into an environment. Remember you can do virtually anything that you can do behind the camera as you can in front of it. All it needs is imagination in envisioning yourself into the shot.

Hopefully you are still remembering that tripods are your friends.

Practice, practice and more practice.

Advanced: By now you’ve become a pro at prancing in front of the camera and taking photos of yourself. You’ve worked out that a camera is your friend and are not afraid to look into the lens of the camera as you are taking a photo. You’ve also got so used to angles and positioning a camera that you can hold and snap a camera at any angle and know fairly well how the end results will look.

This is also when you pay attention to the compositions of your pieces. When you were first learning how to position yourself a hand in the wrong place, a tree sprouting from your head or clutter in a picture could easily be cropped out of the end result. Now you are really setting up your environments and making sure that yourself and your surroundings will all compliment without having added noise in the picture. You begin to pay attention to depth and how to best use your picture framework.

Nothing is stopping you now. You’ve become a pro at self-portraiture. It takes a while to learn when you don’t know or can’t really see what you are doing, but practice always makes perfect. It’s really not as hard as it looks. Give it a go and see what you can create.

Have fun!

Footnote: I have a subscription so watch out DA as I will most definately be making the most of it. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I will try and interview some DA artists that I admire and post them in my journal. I love my subscription. I only hope that some lovely person gets me a new one when this one runs out. (hint hint)

I am also still updating my gallery so please be patient as all my work will slowly be put back online.



Moderator for Australian Artists Community


Member of Self Portraiture Group


Tattoo Community