Don't be selfish - take a selfie...

Human nature is a funny thing. You can command people to do things and they will refuse outright. You can plead with them to do things and they will take great pleasure in ignoring you. But provide them with the means to make fools of themselves and they will claw through each other to do it.


I found this out when I set up a self-photo rig at a party earlier in the year. It was a simple thing - a camera on a tripod with the on-board flash raised up. A green screen backdrop. A radio-link trigger for the subject to hold and away they went. Later I stripped in a backdrop to replace the green screen and it was a lot of fun. None of my friends issued writs, so they must have been pleased.

Last Saturday saw the Mk II photo booth. Gone was the green screen - it tended to intrude too far into the outline of the subject and the computer program associated with it then left very ragged edges. Photoshop and Photoshop Elements did a far better job with the magic wand and a little manual selecting. This time the backdrop was a white muslin screen.

Gone was the on-board flash. This time it was a coiled TTL cord up to a Nikon SB700 on a Manfrotto light stand. The SB700 fired into an umbrella - simple stuff, classic even lighting. I clamped an SB600 with a little Honl snoot to the crossbar of the backdrop stand using a Manfrotto Nanoclamp and there was my hair light. SInce the SB700 acts as a perfect TTL commander to the SB600 slave, all I did was dial up the exposure ratio I wanted and let the machinery do the work.

Photo booth work is close stuff - any wide zoom is going to do it, or if you have it, a fixed 20mm. Since you're going to be firing at the same distance, you might as well focus manually and tape the barrel. Then stand back and watch the fun.

Some people put mirrors on the tripod legs to let the customers see what they look like as they pose. That tends to inhibit them - far better to let them gurn and grin as much as they like without the feedback. They will do far more weird stuff for the camera. If you ever want to gather blackmail photos of your friends and colleagues this this the way to do it - and the beauty of giving them the radio controller is that they will take the picture themselves. They can't even accuse you of malice because it is them with the face AND the shutter button.

This is also probably one of the few times that you as a photographer can take a good selfie - as long as you can figure out a way to hide the controller as you press the button. I concealed it behind a martini - I had to make sure it was a large martini with three olives to cover the controller. That's the key to success - thorough preparation.

Note - if you are Cindy Sherman the term "selfie" makes no sense. There is no other sort of photograph...