Do you feel uninspired? Have no models or interesting subjects available? You are the best model and photographer at the same time! You can always take a picture of yourself. A self-portrait has been a popular form of expression since man first saw his own reflection.
Self-portraits are often confused with selfies. Indeed, selfies have been a major trend in recent years. And by actually learning how to shoot a proper selfie, you can achieve some great results with this technique. However, self-portraits are different.
When you are your own model, everything is up to you – posing, lighting, composition and equipment. Of course, to take a good self-portrait you’ll definitely need a tripod to secure your camera. You will also need to set a self-timer on your camera or get yourself a remote shutter. If you want to take a series of photos while you do your certain acts, set your camera to continuous shooting mode. Then you can choose the ones you like best and delete the rest.
Here I have collected 101 amazing self-portraits to bump up your creativity (and to inspire you to take your own and finally change your Facebook profile picture). Every picture shows how different and extraordinary every individual is. There is a range of different kinds of photos – from shy photos made with the help of a mirror to amazing soul-searching portraiture. All these models-photographers transform themselves lots of times to produce exceptional self-portraits. You can work yourself into crazy poses, convey all kinds of emotions, dress up or dress down and do whatever you want. Don’t be afraid to experiment on yourself and create something really new.
47. Linedanser
58. Allan Roney
60. Atte Tanner
61. Maria Sanz Leon
68. Kailey Thompson
69. Stephen Crutchfield
72. Simon Withyman
Now is Your Turn
My showcase is over and now it’s your turn to take a self-portrait picture. It’s the best time to drag out your camera, set up a timer and become the main subject of your next masterpiece. If you have some pretty neat self-portraits that you’ve taken, don’t hesitate to share it with curious Photodoto audience in the comment field.
Here’s mine.
Thank you for sharing! 🙂 good one
“A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant.” – excerpt from Wikipedia.
Nancy, there is a great deal of photos in the post that are NOT portraits.
e.g. 36, 82, 83, 84, 87, 90, 91, 98
We are all sick and tired ….of these amateurs’, non-professional articles on photography…….
Thank you for your comment, Nick. Every opinion makes us better and motivates to improve our skills.
The point of this article was to show how people make photos, having themselves
as models. Even if there’s no face visible, it’s a person capturing himself or
herself, being a photographer and a model at once. In this sense I see no
contradiction in calling these photos self-portraits.
I would say that you have a very strict understanding of a portrait, quite limited by Wikipedia, also you ephasize word “face” completely missing word “expression”, if you see self-portrait of Dali (this one for example http://sociologyisascience.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/soft-self-portrait.jpg?w=500 ), I doubt you would find his face anywhere, but more the perception of himself,look of the artist inside of his soul, expressed not only with features of the face. Last year I had the pleasure of visiting the exhibition of self-portriats at the Orsay museum, and some of them were just a reflection in the mirror or just had a shadow of the photographer. Please take some time to read this aricle on photo self-portraits to have a wider perspective on this question http://users.rider.edu/~suler/photopsy/selfportraits.htm
By the way submissions to this blog are quite open for the authors, and if you have something to say to the readers, I gladly encourage you to submit your materials here.
Dali’s face is clearly identifiable in that painting, which rather undermines your point.
The definition of what is a portrait is quite narrow in purpose, each art has its formal definitions in order that practitioners and the general public know when they are talking about the same thing.
If everybody will stretch definitions to the point of breaking, like Maradonna saying “your definition of football is quite narrow, I have decided you can use your hand to score goals as well”, then you can as well take a picture of anything, say that it is a reflection of your emotional state, and thus a “portrait”, and put a serious face expecting others to play along with the idea.
Since when did Wikipedia become a reliable source?
the fact that you used a quote from wikipedia makes the rest of your arguement completely invalid…
This black and white self portrait was taken with Nikon..
enlarging the pic will give a proper view..
I like this portrait! You look gorgeous in the suit. Thank you for sharing, Siddharth 😉
🙂 thanx Nancy ! its my pleasure.. the article shown innovative ways of making self portrait.. will try to experiment more ! meanwhile plz take a look at this snap.
I like this one too. I think self-portrait is one of the ways to express yourself 🙂
Great article! I really loved all the photos! 😀 Here is one of my Self Portraits:
wow! Amazing photo, Donna! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Who knew how tricky this would be! Super fun though 🙂
Thank you for thins article.. Loved the photos. and I’ve got some new ideas….
Here is mine !
Thank you the article. I absolutely loved the photos. And I’ve got some new ideas now. 🙂 Here are two self-portarit I took a few days ago. 🙂
amazing!
hyy this is meee
i feel bad about my profile pic now. lol. still im probably going to use one of these… just saying.
Thx for this post 🙂 Here’s mine.
so cute 😉
here’s one of mine 🙂
dreamy 🙂
my self portrait with lumia 820
seems like you have planned some nasty things to do 🙂 I’m kidding 😉 great night shot!
hahaha 😀 thanx nancy
You gave me a few great ideas since I often do self portraits. Thanks.
Here is one of mine
Here is mine! Hope you like it! 😀
Heres another one! 😀
Here is mine!
Hi!! This is Alejandro, from Argentina. Great website! It gave me so many ideas 🙂
This is my portrait. Thank you!
haha 🙂 You’re so funny, Alexander 😉
Haha thank you! 😉
The Change… B|
And here is Mine :-p
i don’t have any 🙁
One of my photography instructors told me that the quickest way to become a good photographer is to do lots of self portraits. I totally understand that now.
Here’s mine.
wow! I like it, Margie 🙂 Your hair is so cute!
Here’s one from meee (:
This is my try at self portrait. 🙂
Here is one of mine
Here’s mine
Loved these ideas! I’m definitely going to try some of these! Love the creativity. Here is one of mine. 🙂
Cool! Here’s mine!
sta. monica pier?
This is mine based on which reality is real
One of me 🙂
I like this one the most
Here’s mine!!
One of mine (:
one of mine (:
You guys are amazing! I am heartened though; a couple of my ideas were shown above – that means I’m on the right track! Now, to work out how to do them 🙂 I tried my first ‘selfies’ earlier this year; I was surprised by how they came out. I’ve received some advice on how to improve on a couple, but here’s my fave.
Now get to know how people look so good in their Facebook profile photo. So these are the tricks! Ok now its my turn to impress others with my profile picture.
This is mine. This board really inspired me to try some new things!
Its so funny to make self-portrait. 🙂
Its so funny to make a self-portrait. I can express myself 😉 Thank you for this great artical and inspiration!!! 🙂
Been working on an entire project of Self Photography. these are great inspiration.
a couple of my attempts
Here is mine 😀
Here Is Mine……….Torsk Fish..Kill to Deth..
After reading this article, and viewing the images, I have a new idea for a self portrait.
I like it 🙂 good job, Tina!
my favorite me!
Amazing post. I like most of the image hare. Thanks for share.