how to make self portraits? help!

[kev curry]

Speed Graphics do the Mechanical self timers than Donald mentions. There listed in there catalogue but not on there web site for whatever reason. They also do the air driven releases that might prove to be more convenient in practice.
http://www.speedgraphic.co.uk/prod.a...Air+Release+6m

[harrykauf]

There is also a thing called autoknips. A mechanical timed release.
I havent used it myself but it looks pretty neat and you can get it
very cheap on ebay.

http://www.submin.com/general/collec.../autoknips.htm

[katie cooke]

Thank you so much for all the good suggestions! Very much appreciated.

I'm going to be rigging up something based on these ideas and having another bash at this today and tomorrow, and also hunting for releases that are both a. long and b. strong enough to trip the shutter.

(and it would be much easier if I could afford some pola to do quick tests, huh?)

[Ole Tjugen]

You can find the long bulb releases here: http://www.hama.co.uk/portal/articleId*2854/action*2563

[chilihead]

Attach a small cheap video camera to the top of your camera - then zoom so the video camera is seeing exactly what your LF lens is seeing (there might be a little parallax)- then get a small cheap TV and hook it up to the video camera - adjust the TV so you see it from your sitting position - now you will see exactly what your camera is seeing on its ground glass - then, with a very long cable release in one hand and film in the camera- when you are happy with what you see on the TV screen - make the exposure! One could, if you set this up right, do a series of portraits of people that they take themselves - the results could be fascinating because it removes the Photographer from the "photographer - subject relationship" and replaces it with subjects "seeing" themselves.

[Paul Fitzgerald]

Hi all,

"Attach a small cheap video camera to the top of your camera - then zoom so the video camera is seeing exactly what your LF lens is seeing (there might be a little parallax)-"

or you could mount a large mirror by the lens board; fast, easy and readily available.

[Bob Jones]

One of those styrofoam heads used for holding wigs mounted on a light stand or a broomstick might work better than a stuffed animal as a "model", since it will help you to see how the light will look and you could put crosses or some other marks at the eye position to give you a focusing target. After that the knotted cord would get you at the right distance.

I'm not sure if this would help, but if you could use two knotted cords to form a triangle (maybe from two tripod legs?) with the apex at the subject position , it could conceivably give you not only correct lens-subject distance but right-left position as well. I haven't tried it so it might also be more trouble than it's worth.

[C. D. Keth]

One of those styrofoam heads used for holding wigs mounted on a light stand or a broomstick might work better than a stuffed animal as a "model", since it will help you to see how the light will look and you could put crosses or some other marks at the eye position to give you a focusing target. After that the knotted cord would get you at the right distance.

I'm not sure if this would help, but if you could use two knotted cords to form a triangle (maybe from two tripod legs?) with the apex at the subject position , it could conceivably give you not only correct lens-subject distance but right-left position as well. I haven't tried it so it might also be more trouble than it's worth.

That still leaves up-down movement a mystery. You can easily cover several inches by sitting straight or slumping.

I've done it quite successfully by posing with a mirror first. Then you use a c-stand arm to mark the position of an eye. Then you can set the camera up, focus on the black plastic o the end of the c-stand arm, frame by estimation, and shoot

C-stands do everything!

[Bob Jones]

That still leaves up-down movement a mystery. You can easily cover several inches by sitting straight or slumping.

OK, how 'bout three cords? Frame wide and crop? Crossed laser pointers?

[Joe Blaze]

To do self portraits, or when the sitter wants to see the pose while the photograph is being taken, I use a large gimbled (Manfrotto) frame, about 4'x4' on a stand which contains a mirror with a hole in it. The mirror is directed to the sitter and the camera lens goes through the hole in the mirror.

I did a commercial job where an entire group took their own 'self-portrait' by using this set-up. I performed the 8x10 polaroid film loading and processing and indicated when the camera was 'ready' to shoot. The sitters controlled the air release on the Sinar P.

For self portraits this set-up is convenient since one can observe the pose easily. Since I don't usually employ a large lens opening, I solve the focus problem by indicating the plane of focus with a piece of tape on the studio floor. The studio is sufficiently large to place the background well behind the sitter, so it is out of focus.

Since the camera and mirror are out of the scene, the portrait lighting is not affected by the mirror.

I often use this mirror setup with non-self-portrait sitters, since I find that it gives them confidence in their appearance. Sometimes I shoot first with the mirror and then remove the mirror (its on a wheeled stand) and continue the session. The sitter's attitude with and without the mirror are often quite interesting.

I have two such mirrors, the first is glass and is truly flat and non-distorting, and the second is a plexi-glass mirror which is never fully flat. Depending on the humidity, it provides interesting distortions for the sitter, which seems to hold their attention longer.

The hole in the mirror is relatively small, so the eye direction of the sitter is not adversely affected. There might be curved mirrors available which would magnify the image for the sitter, but I have not investigated that possibility yet.