Is your Instagram feed selfie-heavy, or are you usually the one behind the camera? If it's the latter, a profile picture that really feels like you or the occasional candid shot of yourself might be worth a trip outside your comfort zone.
While it's true that a self portrait – or 'selfie' – carries a whiff of narcissism, when you really think about it, in 20 years' time, you won't want the only picture of you to be mid-Christmas dinner, paper crown slipping off your head, will you?
With this in mind, we challenged eight British female photographers to turn the lens on themselves for once and create a self portrait – whatever the term means to them.
To take their pictures they used the new Honor 8 handset, which – with its dual camera, ability to manipulate the depth of field, and pro photo function that lets you control multiple aspects such as the ISO and exposure, and so much more – can create some unrivalled shots. That's right, these were all done on a smartphone!
Forget the standard selfie; here's how to take a proper photograph of yourself.
Joanna Cresswell
As a writer, I spend a great deal of time talking to artists and photographers about their work, and I regularly find myself returning to ask the same question. What makes a true portrait? More often than not, people tell me that the truest, or most honest depictions are those that capture something of the essence or energy of a person and who they are at the time. The same goes, I think, for self-portraits – some of the most beautiful ones I’ve seen have been enigmatic or metaphoric representations of a part of someone’s character – beautiful images that trigger a moment or a state of mind.
I like images to be minimal and almost graphic in nature, and I like to see what happens when you reduce the contents of an image to blocked colours, lines and forms. This picture was taken on the floor of the Barbican Centre, because my boyfriend and I agreed it was the perfect shade of red. I framed it up and then he took the shot. Because we were indoors and in low light, I set the aperture on the phone's camera to F2.2 to let in lots of light and I was impressed at how it managed to draw out this image. Even though the ISO was at 640, the image doesn’t have too much noise, which is rare for an image taken indoors. There’s a pleasing crispness to it. I also used the range of editing tools to deepen the shadow falling across my face. It makes me smile. It was a rainy day, but it looks sunny there to me.
Photographed by Joanna Cresswell.
Flora Maclean
Who we are is determined a lot of the time by who we spend time with. I wanted to take a photo of an interaction between me and someone I’m close to. This is me and my mate Isobel. To me this image is much more descriptive of me as a person than any image solely of my face. It feels positive. I like looking at it.
Self portraits are a great way of discovering as well as expressing ourselves. But they don’t have to be so literal, just as long as they say something about you.
This was one of the first images I took on the handset as I was just getting to know the camera. I used the pro photo setting on auto, which gave a deeper depth of field so the whole display was in focus. I took the image using the 10 second timer. The camera takes crisp, bright images, which suits my style of photography. I increased the contrast slightly and cropped the image after. The colours were already really strong so I didn’t have to do much to the actual image.
Photographed by Flora Maclean.
Nadine Ijewere
I wanted to capture an aspect of myself that didn't document my features but instead gave the viewer an insight into my personality and my style of work. The flower is something that is referenced in many of my images. I think the image is very stripped back, simple yet effective. Self portrait to me is an image that one creates to identify themselves, it can be anything and everything but gives some insight into the person's character. I prefer self portraits that aren't as literal but are more abstract and get you to think and speculate about what the artist is trying to say.
I used the Honor 8's manual pro settings for this image because I wanted to have more flexibility in terms of the outcome. I used a slow shutter speed so I could get a sense of movement in the image – like the wind that blows the grass in fields. I used the macro button to shoot this image so that I could get a shallower depth of field and a more abstract and dreamy aspect to the image. I also used exposure compensation to brighten the image more and, again, to give a dreamy feeling. I really liked the macro mode on the camera because it offered me the benefit of being more versatile when it comes to mobile phone photography; always on the go, I like to snap images for inspiration or just for fun so I'm able to be creative at the same time instead of taking just a standard snap. I also like the pro photo options; being used to these functions on my camera equipment means that I can implement and have more decisions in the final outcome of the images.
Photographed by Nadine Ijewere.
Anna Jay
Like a lot of people, I'm not confident in front of the camera – my comfort zone is firmly behind the lens. I love the effect of blurring the 'wrong' part of an image, so sometimes it's nice to turn the 'focal point' upside down.
I found the fully manual pro settings on this phone really easy to use and ideal if you're looking for a bit more control when photographing, without carrying a bulky camera. The manual focus means you can choose which parts of the frame to bring into full focus, and here I chose the sky with the infinity setting. I don't usually post pictures of myself on Instagram, but this one's definitely making the cut!
Photographed by Anna Jay.
Matilda Hill-Jenkins
I rarely like photographs of myself. I thought about taking a photo of my hand holding an object, or to hide my face or turn away from the camera. When I take a picture of someone else, I have seen a combination of elements that make me want to take the photo; it isn't just about whether or not I think they will like the picture. It has to be about more than that. So for this image I had to put my own insecurities about myself aside and look at the image objectively, which was harder than I thought it would be. I realised my style as a photographer is very much about the sitter and their expression, which is why I stripped it back to a simple white wall and a chair.
I was amazed by the quality of the Honor 8; to be able to take such a good quality image on a phone is incredible. It's pretty cool to have the option of changing depth of field, something I would love to have on my current phone.
Photographed by Matilda Hill-Jenkins.
Meg O'Donnell
I love a selfie – although my ‘selfies’ tend to not necessarily feature my face but usually focus on my hands or objects that hold a personal significance for me. Autumn is my favourite season and I took this photo as an appreciation of a lovely autumnal weekend away with my family. The flower head had fallen and begun to disintegrate, a nice little ode to the end of summer.
For this photo I used the depth of field mode (which I have never seen on a mobile phone) to gain a crisp focus around the subject. I also chose to add a filter and, after a great deal of deliberation over which one, I decided to use the Feminine – Literary filter and I'm rather pleased with the outcome! I’ll never have to use Instagram filters again!
Photographed by Meg O'Donnell.
Rosaline Shahnavaz
I spend almost every day photographing people. With my camera I get to know people in a unique way. I can ask strangers questions and get them to open up to me in such a way that wouldn’t be possible given most other situations. The relationships and experiences I build with my subjects ultimately are what I seek to photograph. For me, it is the in-between moments and the glimpses of their character which speak volumes.
When turning the camera on myself I pose the question, how can I expose the ‘real’ me to the camera? There isn’t a straightforward answer. Naturally I am preoccupied with what my hair looks like, what I’m wearing, how tired I look, where should I take it?
I set time aside each day to take this self portrait but it felt unnatural to schedule it. I decided to keep the phone in my bag and capture moments from my day-to-day. This portrait was taken at a petrol station by my house. I was on my way home from a job when I had stopped off to grab some milk. It’s late, I’m tired, I was wearing what I had thrown on that morning. I don’t want to take perfect photographs, I want to take real photographs.
The pro photo function paired with the flawless lens accommodates full camera control from the depth of field to fast speed ISOs. The camera’s versatility offers a freedom to shoot in all conditions, even in low light, like no other camera phone has yet.
Photographed by Rosaline Shahnavaz.
Lottie Bea Spencer
I guess I don’t take a lot of self portraits in the grand scheme of things (maybe the odd selfie or occasional hand shot) but they never really have the same impact on me as an image i’ve taken of someone else; they’re always a little throwaway. So it was nice to spend a little longer than usual and try out a few different set-ups when taking it.
I like to be playful when it comes to my work, whether that be experimenting with colours, objects or composition, so the image was just an extension of all of those elements.
A self portrait can be anything from an image of a belonging, to a hand, to an image of your whole self. Abstract or not so abstract.
I used the 10 second self timer, rested the phone against something sturdy and then got posing. The other settings I used were: ISO 400, f stop 2.4 and then auto flash and white balance. To edit the image I used the the phone’s adjustment software. I really liked the amount of image options the phone had, it also looks really pretty!
Photographed by Lottie Bea Spencer.Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
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