iPhoto 5. The Missing Manual
Authors: Pague D.,  Story D.
 Published year: 2005
 Pages: 23-24/179
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3.4. Self-Portraits

Sometimes it's easier to take your own picture than to hand the camera to someone else ” especially when you're practicing with your camera.

The preceding discussion about blurring the background applies to pictures you take of yourself, too, of course. But there are a few other considerations.

If you're on vacation, the natural scenery might be all the backdrop you need. If you're shooting a picture to use on a resum or to post on your Web page, however, find a well-lit room with some open wall space. The blank wall (preferably light-colored) will serve as your backdrop. Natural light coming in from windows is best for this setup.

Find a stool or a low-back chair without arms, and position it about five feet in front of your backdrop. If possible, it should face the brightest window in the room.

Next, you'll need a way to position your camera. A standard tripod is best, but you can use a pocket tripod (page 53) on top of a table if necessary. Either way, position the camera about five feet from your stool.

Tip: In a pinch , you can use a standard hotel-room lamp as a tripod. The threads that are designed to secure the lampshade to its support bracket are exactly the right diameter for your camera's tripod socket!

Turn on the flash. The ambient room lighting is often bright enough to provide overall even illumination , but the flash will provide a little burst of front light to smooth out facial blemishes and put a twinkle in your eyes.

The best cameras for self-portraits have a flip screen and a remote control. The flip screen lets you preview how you look in the frame before you shoot the shot, and the remote control lets you actually take the shot while sitting comfortably on your stool.

If you don't have these options, put your camera in self-timer mode. To help you frame the shot while you're not actually on the stool, use a table lamp as a stand-in.

Check your hair and clothing in a mirror, press the shutter button to trigger the self-timer countdown, and then sit on the stool (preferably after removing the table lamp).

Once the camera fires, play back the photo on the screen. Did you zoom in close enough? Are you in focus and centered in the frame? How does the lighting look?

If you need to add a little light to one side of your face or the other because it's appearing too shadowy, you can construct a homemade reflector out of white cardboard or similar material. Position your reflector as close to you as possible (although not in the photo itself) and angle it so it bounces light off the brightest light source onto the area requiring illumination. This will help lighten up the dark areas.

Shoot another round. Once you get the basic setup looking good, experiment with different angles and facial expressions. One advantage of taking your own portraits is that you can be more creative. Remember, you can always erase the embarrassing frames ”or all of them. Remember, too, that self-portraits don't have to be dull headshots; they can be every bit as interesting as any other photo.

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3.5. Kid Photography

Children are challenging for all photographers. They're like flash floods: fast, low to the ground, and unpredictable. But with a little patience and perseverance , you can keep up with them and get the shot (Figure 3-9). Here are some tips:

  • Be prepared. Rule one for capturing great kid pictures is to have your camera handy at all times, charged and with memory-card space to spare. Great kid shots come and go in the blink of an eye. Parents don't have the luxury of keeping their equipment snugly stowed away in a camera bag in the closet.

    Figure 3-9. If you want great-looking kid shots, you've got to play on their turf. That means getting down on your hands and knees, or even your tummy.


  • Get down there. The best kid shots are generally photographed at kid level, and that means getting low. (Flip screens are particularly useful for kid shots, because they let you position the camera down low without actually having to lie on the ground.)

  • Get close. Your shots will have much more impact if the subject fills the frame, plus you won't have to do as much cropping later in iPhoto.

  • Prefocus. Shutter lag will make you miss the shot every time. In many cases, you can defeat it by prefocusing ”that is, half-pressing the shutter button when the kid's not doing anything special. Keep your finger on the button until the magical smile appears, then press fully to snap the shot.

  • Burst away. Use your camera's burst mode to fire off several shots in quick succession. Given the fleeting nature of many kids ' grins, this trick improves your odds for catching just the right moment.

  • Force the flash. Indoors or out, you'll want the flash to fire, since it provides even illumination and helps freeze the action. Switch your camera's flash setting so that it's always on.

    Figure 3-10. Photographing fast-moving children is easier if you use your camera's burst mode, which lets you hold down the shutter button and fire off a sequence of frames . Chances are, one of them will capture the decisive moment.
    On most cameras , you choose burst mode using the onscreen menus . Nicer cameras, in fact, offer a choice of several burst modes: for example, one that captures full-resolution shots but not as quickly, or a more rapid-fire mode that takes lower-res photos.


  • Make it bright. See page 62 for a discussion of red-eye, but don't bother using the red-eye reduction flash mode on your camera. By the time your camera has finished strobing and stuttering, your kid will be in the next zip code.

    If red-eye is a problem in your flash photos of kids, make the room as bright as possible, shoot from an angle that isn't dead-on into your kids' eyes, and touch up the red-eye later in iPhoto, if necessary.

  • Fire at will. Child photography is like shooting a sports event ”you'll take lots of bad shots in order to get a few gems. Again, who cares? The duds don't cost you anything. And once you've captured the image of a lifetime, you'll forget about all the outtakes you deleted previously.

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iPhoto 5. The Missing Manual
Authors: Pague D.,  Story D.
 Published year: 2005
 Pages: 23-24/179
Buy this book on amazon.com >>

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