Taking self-portraits has always presented challenges to the photographer. Whether professional or amateur, just about everyone wants to take a picture of themself or get included in family shots. While just about every digital camera out there has a self-timer, the problem is not actually taking the picture, it is framing your composition and focusing the shots properly to get pleasing results.

One of my interests is photographing renaissance faires and festivals. I also have a keen interest in edged weapons. Therefore, I wanted to get some shots of myself wearing renaissance garb with my favorite sword. Since winter is a good time for indoor activities, I planned to take my own portraits in full costume with my sword in my own portrait studio. The challenge would be positioning myself before the camera with focus tight enough to capture the detail I wanted and framing I felt was needed to prevent having to crop the shot.

Here are a few samples and how I took the shots follows. Click the thumbnail to see a larger version of the image.

The biggest challenge in taking self-portraits is positioning yourself to get proper framing. That is why many self-portraits are shot of people in seated positions or beside fixed props. As you can see, though, I was standing before a studio backdrop. I did not have an "X" on the floor, but that is a very simple way to get the right position if you have some way of positioning your camera to take the shot in that exact location.

Being rather creative about these sorts of challenges, I soon found a simple solution to my problem. I used a microphone stand and placed my cavalier hat on the extended mic stand to manually focus the camera at the position I wanted to be in relation to the backdrop. Then, after the camera was in focus, I moved the stand to the side, maintaining the distance between my 10x12 backdrop and the stand's base to give me a point of reference when I stepped before the camera. I simply aligned myself with the camera lens and the mic stand while the timer ticked away... ten seconds later... the shutter clicked and the self-portrait was taken.

One thing for which I did not plan was the reflection in my sword's basket hilt of virtually everything in the studio. There were my lights, umbrellas, the camera and tripod, the light stands, even a bicycle in the corner... doh! It took a lot of time for me to edit out all of the unwanted reflections in my sword's hilt. I used the "scratch removal tool" in PaintShop Pro version 9.1 to complete the task. I later steel-wooled the basket hilt to prevent such beautiful mirror reflections in future photo sessions when I might be carrying this sword.

Be aware that you might find unwanted reflections in your own self-portraits when you wear eyeglasses, or watches and other jewelry items. There might be articles in the room or props that will catch reflections that you missed during setup. It happens in the "movies" all the time. There's a scene in the movie "The Matrix" where a camera reflection can be seen in a doorknob. It happens and even the best professional editors sometimes miss them.

The advantage of digital editing is that you can easily remove unwanted reflections, but the scratch removal tool in PaintShop Pro is by far the most efficient way that I have ever found to accomplish the task.

Self-portraits are harder to take than people realize, but, with careful planning, you can get some really great results. I had plenty of excellent shots from which to choose. The three you see here are part of a sequence of pose variations that I took during this session. My main goal was capturing the hat and sword.

Renaissance clothing and props make for interesting photo opportunities. Whatever your hobby or craft, try to pick props that add interest. Just remember that smooth, shiny surfaces may produce the same sort of reflections that I had to remove from my images. In my case, the only thing I could have done to prevent these reflections was steel-wool the basket hilt. Next time I won't have that problem.

If your props include reflective surfaces, you might have to experiment with different angles to avoid reflections. If that is not possible, be prepared to edit your shots to remove any reflections or offending glare resulting from flash strobes or floods. Oh, and don't forget to smile. I'm still working on that part. :o)