The creator marketing industry continues to grow – according to this report from Adobe, 165 million creators joined the global creator economy in the last two years. Whether you’re just starting your creator journey or you’re just looking to become more consistent in creating fresh content, these tips will make shooting your photos alone much easier.
If you’re a content creator, then you probably know the struggle of producing content consistently and finding someone to help you shoot regularly. Good help can be hard to find but that shouldn’t stop your goal of growing your platforms. So today, I’m sharing how to take picture of yourself alone. Whether that’s taking outfit or travel photos or shooting beauty and lifestyle pictures at home, these tips will make your solo photoshoots go much smoother.
Planning Your Solo Shoot
Before you start shooting, you’re going to want to come up with a plan. This is going to save you so much time and energy versus trying to freestyle things the day of, which may leave you stressed, which can then effect the quality of images you get (your energy will come through in the images, so try to remain upbeat and positive the day of the shoot).
To prepare for your shoot, you need to decide what you’re shooting (this includes the post concept and subject), where you want to shoot, and if you’re a fashion content creator this is probably the most important, your look(s). Based on these three things, you’ll create your shot list, which is a checklist of the type of images you want to get.
Select Your Location
This was also mentioned in the planning bucket but location is very important when it comes to photography. Having a location in mind (or a least the look you’re going for) will also help make shooting yourself alone a more seamless experience. If you’re shy, you may want to go somewhere that has less traffic so you draw less attention. For this post, I went to the top level of a parking garage around the early evening on a Sunday and it was practically empty. I was able to get a lot of shots and I didn’t feel awkward because I didn’t have to worry about gettingweird stares.
Choose Your Equipment
Whether you’re using an phone or camera, a tripod is an essential for any self portait shoot. Even though I have a DSLR, I shot these photos with my phone and a small tripod because it’s easier and this setup was smaller and less conspicuous. However,yIf you want high-quality images for a blog post or brand sponsorship, I would recommend shooting with a DSLR. This gives you more control over how much you can edit your photos and keep the quality. But if you’re shooting for social media, a phone works just fine.
Pro Tip: Be sure to charge up your camera/phone battery and clear the storage/memory card you will be using.
If you’re shooting with your phone, I highly recommend the Lens Buddy app, which is self-timer photo app that lets you select how many photos you want to take each session, the time before it begins shooting, and the time between each shot. It is a lifesaver for taking pictures of yourself using your phone. If you’re shooting with a camera, then I suggest purchasing a small remote so you’re able to set up your camera, get in position, and then start shooting. This will save you time on walking back and forth to press the shutter and rushing to get repositioned before the self timer goes off.
Getting good pictures of yourself takes practice but I hope these tips will make things easier. If you want to see all of the equipment I use to blog, check out this post.
xx,
