we are taking pictures of ourselves more than ever before in history and
it's all because of the interweb,
sites like plusbook, googleface and titter all have our picture on them and we want
to look good in our pictures don't we?
But of course you've got business sites as well, sites like linktin
and i dunno, get a job here and all that kind of stuff,
and we want people to like our pictures now they say many different styles of
selfie that you can do isn't there, i mean there's the standard kind of
looking drunk in a night club with those people you met from Belgium taken on the
mobile phone
but you may want to look a little bit cooler or maybe a little bit
more professional.
So how do you go about taking a good selfie?
Well the thing to do is to think about it, that's the first step,
what's the picture for? is it just a case of i want to do a self portrait and
look pretty good well that's one thing
if it's to go onto a website, what is the website? is it a professional website?
is it a social media website? is it just something for the family?
think it through that's the starting place and then we can go
and start to do it in reality with cameras and things like that.
This way. Windows are a brilliant place to do selfies because you've got
free light, now think about the light that's one of the first things.
How do you want to look? Do you want to look a bit moody and craggy or do you wanna
look soft and groovy and dirty?
Now i like this window because it's facing away from the sun,
though the Sun does creep in later in the day, and if you have hard highlights
coming in it doesn't look so good.
Go and watch the window light film and that will explain about that.
But this is a really good place.
Now think about what sort of thing you want to achieve, what kind of light, what
kind of look.
So let's just quickly run through the main lighting again, so Lorna
if you go round to your right a little bit.
There we go, now you're looking at me I got a brighter side to my face and a darker
side that's kinda male lighting it,
it's shifting across here and it can look pretty good if you want to do a much
more moody thing,
particularly when you do a bit of post-production on it but if we go round the other way
but keep looking at me as i just turn
and Lorna goes out into the garden, can you see how the light on my face
completely changed
as we just kinda moved around like that. If i come out into the garden, so that
the light can fall down on top of me we just kinda move back together
you should be able to see the light on my face changing
as we move outside now I know that there is an exposure change probably going on
there
but from here you might see the way the light is falling on my face is different
and it's gonna look different on a girl too, light is weird stuff cause
it's invisible isn't it, you can see where the lights coming from
you can see what its landing on but you can't see the light itself.
that's why I like using water as an analogy because it behaves a little bit
like water.
Let's have a look and see how that'd look on Lorna. Lorna you're gonna
have to give me your camera.
Excuse us viewers there's gonna be some wobbly going on here.
Right if i get hold of that, right there we go. Lorna's just gonna put the headphones on,
Thank you Lorna.
And cool, so Lorna is now doubling as model
and camerawoman, so Lorna if you just kinda move back a bit and now you've gotta keep looking
at the camera,
here we go and as Lorna goes inside, you'll see the light on her face
starting to change, look at that, look how that light has changed.
woo that looks really nice.
Now if we come around to the side slowly slowly slowly
like that, just need to brighten it up a bit, now Lorna has that side light going on
and it's, on Lorna it looks pretty good, because Lorna's really kinda young and
she's got a nice smooth complexion,
on me it makes all the wrinkles stand out so there's a couple things to think
about with the light.
Now how about the camera. Why have i got my camera over here?
the shot i'm thinking of is gonna use the light from the french windows,
I want to use this wall here as a plain background, i wanna use the side lighting
coming in
that's the thought, so let's just think our way through that shall we.
The first thing you're gonna ask is how you're gonna focus on yourself when
you're not in the shot?
well think laterally, think outside the box
think photography is not just what goes on in the cameras what goes on in the
world around you
okay how could I work out where I'm gonna be in the shot
when I'm not in it, when i'm over there focusing the camera.
Right what's going on around me, I got a door frame just here haven't i? it's right next to me
so if I stand on the same sort of plain as the edge of that door
the distance between me and the camera and the edge of that door and the camera are
only gonna be a minutely different
so therefore, i can focus just here,
manually lock it and then I know that my focus is already set for me being just
here.
how do I know exactly where i'm standing? well as I've said i can line
myself up with the edge of the door frame
but i have my script here, so if i put that on the floor
it's giving me an extra mark so i know where to stand.
the other cool thing the door frame, is that if i stand next to it
I kinda know how high to compose the camera high to set the shot, now this is
gonna be a nit of trial and error going on here but
if I stand next to this put my hand on top of my head
its about there isn't it, i know that's about where the top of my
head is.
so if i include sort of up to the top there in height i know
I'm gonna not cut the top of my head off, Now obviously we're gonna have to do a
little test,
but that's the first step, let's go chuck it on the camera.
I want it a portrait type shot, that way up so let's just
turn the camera over on its end like that on its side.
I know it want's to be a bit higher and i'm gonna try and shoot it around about eye level
so let's just sort of if we can rack this on up,
i managed to break my winedy handle off so
it takes a little while and i have too try and be careful not to cut a finger.
There we go cameras up here.
So using auto focus because i think it's the most accurate
I'm just gonna move the camera a little bit,
everything in the way. Right okay let's have it round that way.
Focus on the edge of the door,
there we go. So that means the edge of the door frame is sharp,
that means that focal distance is okay. How am i gonna lock it?
you just click your camera out of auto focus onto manual
i can press that button till i'm blue in the face now it isn't going to change the focus.
turn the camera around, and line up my shot.
so I'm including the top of the door frame as i kinda said.
if I just take a quick test shot like that,
there we go we can see the environment that i'm gonna be standing in.
I can lose the edge of the mirror by increasing the focal length a bit and just kinda
re-composing the camera
with a tiny bit of a zoom going on there, there we go.
Pop the camera in place, and i reckon I'm about right.
now if you're cool and trendy photographer you may have
a radio controlled release, i am a cool and trendy photographer but mine doesn't work,
awesome work so there you go, i'm gonna have to use the self-timer.
Just wack that around there to self time.
test shot, let's just see where i end up in the picture, you can hear it beeping.
I remember my uncle doing this at family picnics.
just stand here and look cool for the camera.
what does it look like?
That's not bad you can see that it can zoom in a little more, so
let's kind of push that focal length in a little bit lower.
Let's just tilt that camera down a tiny bit, that's not bad.
let's try another one.
press the button you get the idea and then once you find these things once
you've got yourself setup
you can pre in make yourself look extra good for the real thing
that's not bad again
in fact I say that's perfect now we have to do is shoot some pictures.
and don't forget to change your frock, if you wanna make it look a little bit more
business-like all you've gotta do is sling a jacket over the top of it.
I quite like that one, but what i don't like is wearing a jacket, i hate wearing jackets
they're not really me are they? So
i'll throw it in the garden. Right what do we take mor
selfies on the anything else these things don't we?
phones they get used all the time I mean I think they're pretty cool i mean you can
take
all these kinds of pictures, and i think they look really good. But they're also great
for something else as well we were talking
about how light, i'm always on about how you can't see the light.
you can see the torch you can see what shining on you can see the light in
between it
but you can use a phone if you
switch on your camera reverse it round, so you're gonna do a selfie
you can see yourself in the screen, the cameras pointing back to you,
you can watch the light changing in the viewfinder
as you move around so remember we did that
in and out thing if I just set this on to video
briefly, there we go,
I'm video myself ok, so i'm now
being filmed with the mobile phone and the main camera
you can see the line is doing this thing on the side of my face
but you can also look at yourself in the view finder as you turn around and you can
watch that light changing on your face
isn't that easy? That is much much nicer light than earlier it's kinda made me look
an awful lot younger.
I should have done it like that, you'll wanna go in and out jut like that, just like we
did before.
Look see, if i walk outside you can then see how the light has changed on my face
when I go outside and it's not
very nice is it, I'm much better off inside.
How can i take a nice sort of a portrait with a mobile phone? You don't have
to keep going
and being crazy like i was earlier and most people do. You can of course
shoot anything with a mobile phone, virtually you can with the DSLR you wont
have the flexibility
of the lenses but you can do some really cool stuff. let's say i'm gonna shoot a high key
portrait, high key selfie of myself using the phone, and I think phones are pretty good
because you can really kinda look at what's going on.
Its not a function of the phone is a function of the light and where you are
so in here how could I do it? we've got lot's of light going on
this end of the room around these windows
because the lights coming in from the windows and it's kinda
blowing in this direction as we move back
in this direction the light is falling off so we've got a door way here,
I can go on about this because I kinda done it lots of times but
with practice you'll be able to do it too.
Through this doorway you've got a much darker area through here, so it stands to reason
the light over here, is gonna be brighter than behind than
it is in here, so if i face that way and do a selfie i'll get a high key portrait
with the brightness in the background over here, Lorna do you wanna wizz through there
and then you can turn around and we'll have a look.
Let's do the video camera thing again here, just so you can watch it happening.
Stick that onto video, okay actually straight away, i'm gonna move my
camera because it's sticking up in the background,
those are the little things to watch out for.
If i start videoing there, you can see as i move forwards
into the doorway how the background should
starts, there w go, look at that
we've got a high key, we did have, high key background going on there like that.
That's really quite cool isn't it, and of course you can use your phone to take
pictures.
Let's just have a little play and see what we can come up with.
it's really really simple isn't it this stuff is just not rocket science
so look at that I've got a really nice high key thing going on,
aw that's really cool, i like that.
I'm just gonna give myself a moody look
and a smile, and a tilt.
You see, you're watching this happening for real you know, in really life this is
a really good little spot. Remember you don't always have to use your phone that
way up,
you can return it the other way up and also let's get a little bit creative
with our
composition and think about looking into the lens of the phone that's the little tiny dot
over here by my
ear speaker on this one, so i can set up my composition
and then I can look straight into
the little lens,
like that or like this.
You see how easy it is to shoot some really nice selfies, just gotta have a little think about it.
I really look forward to seeing some or your pictures, please put them onto our facebook page
would really like to see them meanwhile get out there shoot yourself some selfies
I know that photographers generally speaking don't like being photographed themselves
but hey
get over it everyone else in the world loves seeing who you are.
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