A self-portrait setup

[Harold_4074]

In the image-sharing forum, a few comments have appeared regarding tricks for self-portraiture, and in particular ways of getting accurate focus. A while back I got interested in this, to the extent of assembling an electromechanical controller for a Packard shutter (I really wanted to see how a Heliar performed, and didn't have a willing subject available.)

The whole setup is shown below; the brass ball focusing target is suspended slightly in front of the stool, with the counterweight off to the right. The image corner indicators are bits of masking tape located (by trial and error) to fall just outside the image area. (The white lines were drawn into the picture along with the labels; they weren't on the backdrop.)

What is not, unfortunately, visible in the picture is the large mirror (actually, a closet door scavenged from someone's remodeling project), It allowed me to see when I was directly in front of the camera by getting the reflection of the framing marks to bracket the camera. Using four corner marks rather than a simple centerline made it easier to get a sense of the composition--it is surprisingly easy to make a self-portrait that resists cropping into traditional proportions.

In practice, I would prefocus on the ball, then sit down and line myself up in the frame. By lifting the counter weight, I could get the ball to hang freely just touching my (closed) eyelid. To make the exposure, I would drop the counterweight, which lifted the focus target out of the frame, and then trip the shutter.

The hardware performed marvelously; I wish I could say as much for the photographer or the subject:(

[Tom J McDonald]

Thanks Harold. I will try it.

[pound]

thanks for sharing this technique. :)

[jon.oman]

Thanks for providing this information!

[Drew Bedo]

To get a head-only shot, I clamped a picture frame in front of my camera. a sheet of paper was taped to the frame with a focus target in the center (a bar code from a package). When all set up and focused, I sat behind the frame, removed the paper and leaned forward into the frame .Eyes level with the frame, nose in front, ears bhind. Reached out to trip the shutter directly by hand—worked out OK. Got a near life sized image on 8x10 neg.

[Scott Davis]

There's always the rope trick- set up once with someone else as a subject. Set up the camera and focus it where you want. Tie a piece of rope to the front standard of your camera, then bring it out tight to the subject's nose. At that point in the rope, put a knot. Mark the knot with a flag to indicate what that distance means (tight headshot, head-and-shoulders, etc). Mark the camera bed/rail for the focusing position. Then, when you want to shoot that kind of shot again, just pull the rope to the sitters' nose using the appropriate knot as a distance marker and set the front and rear standards to the appropriate position(s). This of course assumes you are using the same lens every time. Make a new rope for each lens you use.

[ericantonio]

I second that rope trick. Learned that back in the 80's. Guess it was probably a lot older by the time the 80's came around :)