My Process to Creating Ethereal Self Portrait Photography
Alright, here it is! A video of my step-by-step process when it comes to scouting surreal locations, setting up when I find “the spot”, the technicalities involved, the rogue cows, and finally the magical *attempt* to capture a dreamy self portrait. (…which only sort of worked, but you can’t win every single photoshoot, right?!)
The Basic Rundown:
Step 1: Wander the Location.
Bask in the glory of nature (or the city, or wherever you are). Let your feet take you where your curiosities draw you, noticing how the light and angles can change everything, every few steps apart. The longer I wander around on a scene, the more opportunities and angles I find for my images that I wouldn’t have noticed before if I stayed in one spot. On the other hand… this can also be overwhelming when the magic light or atmosphere (like the fog in the above video) is fleeting. Ahh! It can be very easy to feel rushed and then not actually get anything at all - which happens to me quite often, but if that’s the case I like to think of my wandering creative sessions more as scouting missions, and I mentally take note of all the spots I’d like to come back to when the time and light is right. In the above video, I actually spent an entire month exploring and scouting locations in that one foggy forest, and came out with maybe 10 images. For me, it’s less about the quantity of what I can create - but more about the present experience of letting myself be completely awed by the surroundings, and creating with intention when the inspiration hits.
Step 2: Claim your Scene, Find your Angle.
More often then not, I have no idea what “exactly” I’m looking for in a scene until I see it. When I stumble around a corner and I’m suddenly whacked with inspiration upon the simple sight of, say, a single ancient tree standing out strongly amidst her forest friends in the atmospheric golden sunset back-light as the fog also rolls through the background fading out all the otherwise distracting objects (is that all too much to ask?!). In those moments, I drop my camera bag to the ground as instant inspiration hits and the image ideas just start appearing in my head. Though sometimes, it’s not quite that easy, and when the conditions aren’t *quite* that perfectly ideal, yet still promising, I’ll work a few test shots to see how I can pull it together.
Quite often I’ll end up finding a way to frame the image with some blurred foreground branches, or some soft texture by shooting through close-up leaves or grass (this adds more depth and/or leading lines to the subject in the frame, making an otherwise simple image seem much more dreamy). Hot tip: For this blurred-foreground dreamy effect, I love shooting super low… like, an inch off the ground low. I’d say maybe 50% of my work is shot from ground level. And yes, I am a pro makeshift tripod maker when it comes to balancing cameras precariously on pebbles, rocks and sticks. But if I was smarter, I would remember more often to bring my Platypod on my shoots - it’s amazing for shooting at low levels!
Below image shot with my camera lying on the ground amongst the numerous sheep sh*ts of Scotland
Step 3: The Technical Setup
Fun fact: I am really not that technical at all. I never knew how to explain the technical side of taking my images for over 10 years until I had to start practice sharing that information in public speaking settings… which sounded a lot like, “So then I just turn my lens circle thingy around until the picture is softer but then I use this button to focus on one spot and then I turn this dial thingy until it looks lighter and this other dual dial thing that I believe makes faster images?”. Yeah, no one had any idea what I was talking about. I’m a very visual artist and have only excelled at learning by visual experimentation and figuring out what all the buttons and dials do by simply watching my images without knowing any of the technical terms of what I was actually doing. Until now. So, here we go - my personal technical setup:
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Aperture / ISO / Shutter Speed: First, for most of my work, I tend to like to shoot at as wide an aperture as possible. (f/1.2 - f2.8 range, depending on the lens I’m using). This allows me to keep a lower ISO (less graininess in the image - I try to keep my ISO at 100 always, unless it’s getting dark out, then I’ll crank it up as I need to). This also allows me to let as much light as possible into the lens/camera, letting me crank the shutter-speed to take faster images (capturing sharp movements of my actions or dress without motion blur). I usually adjust my shutter-speed last according to the balance of my Aperture and ISO, but sometimes I’ll re-adjust the ISO to a higher number if I need a faster shutter-speed in dim lighting.
My favourite part of shooting with a wide aperture is the shallow depth of field it gives, where the foreground and background are dreamily blurred into an aesthetic bokeh, taking out any busy texture distractions and adding a more painterly/soft effect in my images, where only the focused subject truly stands out sharply. This isn’t *always* how I shoot, though - sometimes when I want more of the details of the landscape to stand out (especially when set up in a way that the background doesn’t distract from, but rather adds to, my self portrait), then I will shoot at a narrower aperture (f/4 - f/10 range) which will keep everything evenly focused throughout the scene. But my personal preference tends to lean toward wider apertures for 90% of my work. -
Focus: Once I have the above technical trio set up, I focus my lens on where I’m going to be in the image. If you have someone with you, this is where they come in handy - have them stand in for you exactly where you want to be in your image, focus on them (I usually zoom in on my camera screen and let my auto focus grab them), and once the focus is right on them, lock the lens/focus mode to manual so it doesn’t change. Then, when you’re ready, simply switch places with them (make sure you stand in the exact same spot), and you’ll be in focus.
If you don’t happen to have a spare human with you (which for most of my life of self portrait photography, I never did), you can simply place a rock or a stick in the area you plan to be, and focus on that instead, before moving it out when you move in. Or, I actually have my dog stand in for me to focus on, and then we switch places when I’m ready to selfie! (I should really train him to press my shutter button, too.)
Step 4: Intervalometer / Remote Control
Once everything else is set up, the focus locked, and you’re ready to rumble on down to your selfie spot, the final step is to set up “how” you’re going to be taking these self portraits. I used to use a hand-held remote control, but unfortunately the range didn’t work more than a few meters from my camera (not good for when I wanna run far, far off into the mountains for my selfies), and it was hard to hide the remote in my hand while posing in front of the camera. Also, I kept losing them; dropping my remotes into rivers, puddles, down glacier crevices, crushing them by sitting on them or running them over with my van… you name it, I did it. RIP remotes.
The next best thing was when I discovered the Vello Shutterboss Wireless Remote, which came with two pieces: The part that attaches right to the camera, and the handheld remote. I basically threw away the handheld piece immediately (down a glacier crevice, by accident), but during that such moment of peril I discovered the phenomenon known as an “intervalometer”. Turns out, the part that attaches to the camera was an intervalometer - meaning, I could set it up to take continuous photos, however many seconds apart I wanted, for as long as I wanted. Was this too good to be true?! This meant I didn’t have to carry a handheld piece anymore or have the fear of walking too far out of range of my camera. I just simply had to set up the intervalometer (I usually set it to take one photo every 2 or 3 seconds), press the start button, and then run away (into the photo, that is). I could stand out in front of my camera forever, striking various poses, knowing my camera was capturing each moment every 2-3 seconds… and eventually, I would just return to the camera and turn off the intervalometer, and review the 50+ photos it just took (sometimes I let it keep rolling for a few hundred photos… which yes, is more to sort through later, but also a higher chance of at least a *couple* images turning out where I look semi-graceful and not totally derping around awkwardly in front of the camera).
NOW, most newer cameras have a built-in intervalometer, which is what I’ve been using on my Sony a7R III for the last few years. This is even better, because I don’t have to carry any extra camera pieces anymore - everything is just in the camera, and easy to set up simply by going into the camera menu and pressing the “on” button for the intervalometer mode (you can choose in the camera how many seconds apart you want each shutter click to be).
Step 5: Review the Images
After every selfie session, I usually take a quick scroll through all the images on my camera to make sure they’re properly focused and that I’m happy with the poses in them. Quite often when reviewing the first round of images, I get newer better ideas for how to pose if the previous images didn’t look *quite* right, so I’ll run out in front of the camera for round #2 or #3 or however many times it takes to get “the” shot. It’s often a practice of patience, careful reviewing, assessing what I like and what I want to change, and then trying again.
Step 6: Reward Thyself
Congratulations! You have succeeded in taking a self portrait (whether or not it turns out how you imagined it, you still attempted!). The effort is always worth an award. My personal reward preference is chocolate.
Note*
One third of my self portrait shoots I end up scrapping when the results don’t live up to my expectations. Which is totally normal! Don’t beat yourself up when you’re not happy with how some of your photo-shoots turn out. Think of it as an experiment and an experience. I choose to focus my love of photography on the process itself over the results: Being out there, present in nature, romping around in the act of creating. If the results turn out great, then great! If they don’t, who cares?! The part I’m still going to remember the most from each photo-shoot is the action of actually being out there, trying, and immersing myself in my beautiful surroundings. It’s a goal of mine I’m always working on: Living my life presently through my own eyes, and not always through that of a camera lens, judged by the results of an image.
And there we have it! That’s all I have to share today - hopefully you learned something from this, or at least enjoyed the video and reading. If there’s more you want to learn about my creative process, please do let me know and I might try to write another article/make another video in the near future.
Thank you so much for your time and support!
With love, peace and gratitude,
Lizzy ♥