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stellauk -> RE: How To: Making an Awesome Profile Pic' (12/28/2012 10:44:53 PM)
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Okay.. I can offer some tips...
These are given in mind for people who don't have anyone to take photos for them and probably aren't skilled photographers.
Step 1 - Preparation
All camera manufacturers will have you believe that you can simply 'point and shoot' to have great looking pictures. Not quite true. If you want good photos then you need to do some preparation and think about some things.
The things you need to think about include setting, scene, lighting and equipment.
If you're wanting to take profile photos then in addition to a camera you might want to invest in a mini-tripod and - if you're wanting to take photos on your cellphone, a cell phone holder for your mini-tripod. These two cheap items (which you can find on e-Bay or just as cheap in a dollar store/pound shop) will hold your camera steady and also allow you to make use of the self-timer.
You might also want to consider adding a compact lady's make up mirror which will help you prepare a suitable facial expression and give you some idea of your best angles. We are all assymetrical, and if you care to spend a minute or two looking at this in a mirror or your existing photos you will find your best angles.
Next you might want to consider your scene and setting. Where do you want to take the photos? At home? In a room? Or somewhere outside? Think about clothing, and if taking a photo at home you might want to find a good place in your home to take the photo - somewhere uncluttered, with a point of reference such as a door, window, or item of furniture, and it must also have decent lighting. You can easily ruin a good photo with bad lighting, and lighting is perhaps the next most important thing to consider after the camera itself.
The best lighting for portrait photos is natural daylight, either in the morning or late afternoon. If you're taking photos indoors then a decent light source is necessary, either normal lights or LED lights - avoid flourescent lighting and also energy-saving bulbs.
The next thing you will want to consider is where you position the camera in relation to the subject (you). For a facial photo the lens needs to be above your eye line, a head and body shot level with your chest and a full body shot roughly around your abdomen. Make sure that the main light source is on the same side of you as the camera.
Any decent or professional photographer will be able to tell you about the 'rule of thirds'. As I'm not a decent or professional photographer I will leave the explanation of the 'rule of thirds' to them. I have a similar 'flag of Scotland' technique adapted from my stage work in theatre.
As you know the flag of Scotland is a white St Andrew's cross on a navy blue background. Divide your picture with two diagonal lines like a St Andrews Cross to give you four triangles - left, right, top, and bottom. When taking a facial photo align the edge of your face with the centre of the cross so your face finds itself in one triangle. You can also align the edge of a background object such as a door or a window to the centre of the triangle you occupy.
If you're taking a photo of more of you then you occupy one triangle and your point of reference, window, door, etc occupies the opposite triangle. This 'frames' the photo and gives the viewer a point of reference. Avoid taking photos with the object of interest in the dead centre of the picture, looking directly into the camera, or having too many objects in the picture. Taking a photo of you in a cluttered room will emphasize the cluttered room to the viewer, not you.
Step 2 - taking the photos.
You need to take lots of photos. For example when I decide to update my profile photo I take at least fifty photos and select the best ones.
Be kind to your camera. If you have your camera set to Auto I would suggest changing it to Portrait and the Self-Timer to 10 seconds. If you're taking photos indoors or the evening you might also like to try Incandescent or if you don't have strong light Night. If you have a high end compact digital camera (10MP+) you might want to reduce the resolution to somewhere between 5MP and 8MP.
make sure also that you can get from pressing your shutter button into position inside 6-7 seconds, to give you time to relax and form a facial expression. Keep the mirror in one hand and quickly check your facial expression as the camera prepares to take the shot. Freeze.
If you don't have much time or don't want to go through all this palaver to get a profile photo you can cheat and video yourself. If your camera records AVI video this gives you 29 or 30 frames (or photos) a second and with Motion JPEG or MPEG gives you 24 frames a second. A MOV file gives you 24 frames a second.
You can download a free video editor called Avidemux from which you can extract photos from your AVI or MPEG files. Avidemux is a simple video editor for cutting and arranging video sequences. You simply open your file in Avidemux, and play your video or go through it frame by frame and when you find a frame you want as a photo click 'File' then 'Save' then 'Save as JPEG' or 'Save as BMP'.
I use a Linux system and do all my photo editing in the GIMP - which you can also download for free.
The simplest way of using the GIMP is to use the menu you get by right clicking on the mouse over your image. I normally just go to 'Colour' and from that menu select 'Levels' and adjust them automatically.
You might want to resize your image which you do by right clicking on the menu over your photo and selecting 'resize' from the 'Image' menu. I tend to make my CM profile photos either 640 pixels (width) by 480 pixels (height) or 400 pixels by 400 pixels for facial photos.
For a facial photo I select a square area by using the rectangular selection tool (usually the left hand menu top left hand corner), then from the Edit menu 'Copy visible image' and then I right click again and select 'Edit' then 'Paste as new image' which gives me my finished photo.
As far as I'm aware Photoshop is very similar or the same and I do the exact same in Photoshop.
Hope this helps...
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