I know this is kind of dubbed as my "gaming blog", however I'm planning to use it much more as a place to let out my geeky side as a whole, which includes tech and entertainment topics alike to spruce it up from just video games alone.
I constantly get questions on my Facebook and other social media sites about what camera I use for my self portraits, along with my editing program and a bunch else so I figured why not do a big post on everything :) This isn't so much a tutorial on how to get self portraits, but rather showing you the difference a good camera can make in your photos, and the even bigger difference that editing can.
I'm by no means a camera expert and I'm actually really horrible with photography, so this is mostly a post just to show you some test pictures of what my Nikon can do in case you were planning on picking one of the same model up, and how you can except pictures of yours to come out as well :)
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My camera model is a Nikon D3100, currently priced at $399 on Amazon.
I use the kit lens that it came with: so everything you see is going to be the bare minimum apart from a few filters I picked up for cheap on Amazon, which I'll talk about and link at the end.
I originally got my camera back a few Christmas's ago at Target, priced somewhere between the $550 - $700 range if I remember right. Though that is a TON of money to invest into a camera, especially if you aren't a photographer, I was really drawn to a Nikon for the idea that is isn't a digital camera that will last you 6 months and you'll need to replace: as I mentioned, I've had this thing for years already (if I had to guess it would be at least 3 or 4 by now) and this thing is still in pristine working order. If I had bought a digital camera to begin with, I'm sure I'd be on my third one at least by now, so the investment is truly worth it. If you're someone who could never imagine paying that much for a camera up front, check out sites like QVC that will let you pay it in separated payments to make it easier on you!
Okay, now that all of that is out of the way, I'll show you my little collection of self portraits so far that I've taken over the years :) I'll do a completely unedited version straight from my cameras memory card on the left and a super "Lizzy" edit on the right. My current editing software is Photoshop CS5 that I've been using ever since Picnik shut down, but there are free alternatives out there such as GIMP and various free photo editing websites for those on a budget! If you're a bit of a computer whiz, you might even be able to find Photoshop for free *hint hint wink wink nudge nudge*.
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*Because these are all from months ago, many of them even years, I'm not sure what camera settings any of them were on, however most were with the basic settings straight from guide mode to shoot as I'm still a novice myself!
1) Fluorescent Lens Filter With Flash
NON-EDIT EDIT
2.) No Flash, Simple Edit
3.) Flash With Heavy Edit & Complete Shirt Color Change
4.) No Makeup, No Flash With Bright Lighting (Odd mess up with eye color too when uploading to blogger: original pictures are bright orange contacts. Wierd!)
8.) Flash With Slight Makeup Darkening
8.) Harsh Window Lighting Without Flash, Slight Darkening Edit
9.) Harsh Flash, Strong Color Edit
10.) Bright Window Lighting, Major Darkening Edit
11.) Nearly Unsalvagable Blur And Coloring, Natural Heavy Edit
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In conclusion, you can see that with a nice camera, you by no means need to be a pro to get great self portait shots, or be a computer genius to edit them good either. These were mostly edits I did in my teenage years which I still mostly use the same methods today (except that super green color "fix" haha), so if 15 year old me can figure out how to edit I know you can too :) Just play around with different settings and see what makes your pictures stand out and look pretty.
Also, as a last side note, sorry for the super lack of variety and angles in these. As I mentioned above I've never been good at photography so I basically always go back to the position and lighting that worked for me, but I know some people take absolutely awesome "tumblr worthy" shots of themselves all the time where they aren't posing up front and are much more photographic. I've always been horrible at shots like that, but once again, its all about having fun and playing around with different scenes and edits, make photography a fun hobby to do in your free time and eventually you'll be capturing some insane beauty yourself soon enough ^_^
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