self portraits with a nikon d7000?

[RG17]

Can anyone give me any good advice on taking self portraits? I just ordered a nikon d7000 and it will be arriving on Wednesday. I had portraits taken for my website last year but would like to update them on my own instead of finding another photographer. Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[KmH]

Put the camera on a tripod with the camera in the portrait orientation, and use the built-in self timer to release the shutter as you are in front of the camera. (Read The Camera Fine User's Manual - RTFM).

The key to a quality portrait is the lighting, the pose, and the background.

You don't mention if the portrait will be just a head shot, head and shoulders, 3/4, or a full portrait.

What lens(s), kind of lighting, and light modifiers, will you have available, and describe the place you intend to do the shoot?

You will likely want to drag the shutter if you intend to use strobed lighting.

 

[Rocan]

KmH has the right idea... we need more info though. Tripod is a must, but i suppose you could get away with just a solid surface. running back and forth to the camera to set up the image will be a pain; a remote release would be helpful. I say set up the stage by photographing someone else. A classic portrait uses as wide of an aperture as you can shoot with (a 50mm f/1.8 is gold here) and if you want it to look good, youll need some flashes. do not use the built in flash unless if using it as a fill light; id say the minimum you can get away with to make it look decent is having a flash reflected off of a white ceiling.

you pay a lot of money to get a proper portrait taken because a lot of time goes into doing it right. Find someone who owes you a favor and take a hundred pictures of them, adjusting exposure and flash location and such in each shot, making note of what everything does. The more you practice the more you'll understand how to use different flash techniques to do it right.


If your not shooting with a nice flash though, then your best bet would be to maybe shoot outside and use a reflector (cheap, about 20 bucks from most photo places) and a non distracting background to do it right. I've taken many excellent shots outdoors using a large foldable reflector to soften the shadows created by the sun and not much else.

 

[Davor]

what you could do to make it much easier for you is buy a cheap remote trigger, then tether your camera to laptop or a computer and face the screen towards you, and snap away. With this you will be able to stay relative to your camera at all times and change poses and see the results from a distance without having to get up every time to see the results. Good luck! its very fun

 

[kasperjd4]

The Nikon remote trigger is only 16 bucks. I got mine of amazon.

 

[Rocan]

I'm with davor on this one. If im shooting portraits i usually hookup my old macbook (which somehow survived wine spillage) just so that I can check the image is sharp around the eyes in every shot. what looks good in the camera may be totally off when you look at it full size.

 

[RG17]

thanks so much everyone! I bought a remote so I'm golden there.... but love the idea of hooking up the laptop!

 

[ghache]

best way to do it is to get someone to focus and press the shutter for you. Even if you helper doesnt have any idea what he is doing, pressing a shutter is not that hard
This doesnt make it a self portrait anymore hahah