Self-Portrait Camera Mirror
Inspired by Samsung's new Dual View TL220 digital camera that has a second LCD screen on the front so you can see yourself when you snap your own picture, I velcroed a small mirror to my existing digital camera and saved over 300 bucks!
When I thought about how many pictures I have taken of myself while holding the camera at arms length, I realized that a feature that would allow you to see what you're shooting would actually be pretty darn useful.
The mirror shows exactly what's in the center of the photo, so as long as I can see a nose or an eye in the mirror when taking a self portrait, I can be pretty sure that the photo will come out well situated. Bye bye half-head self portrait photos!
When I thought about how many pictures I have taken of myself while holding the camera at arms length, I realized that a feature that would allow you to see what you're shooting would actually be pretty darn useful.
The mirror shows exactly what's in the center of the photo, so as long as I can see a nose or an eye in the mirror when taking a self portrait, I can be pretty sure that the photo will come out well situated. Bye bye half-head self portrait photos!
Inspired by Samsung
Way to go Samsung - this is a good idea! But, since I've already got a digital camera that meets my needs and hasn't broken *yet*, I thought I'd take 5 minutes and 2 bucks and modify my existing camera to have the same functionality using some old school technology - mirrors baby, mirrors.
Materials
This project is dead simple:
- Digital Camera
- Sticky backed Velcro
- Small 1" - 2" mirror (convex is best, flat is ok, concave w/magnification is no good)
Liberate Mirror
Unscrew the wingnut and liberate the mirror from the handle. Then, pry the little bracket off of the back of the mirror using your hands or a pliers. Careful, don't break the mirror.
Flatten the Back
The bracket leaves two little bumps on the back of the mirror. Since the mirror has got to lay perfectly flat on the camera body to work, use the pliers to squash the bumps down and make it smooth.
Stick Velcro
Take one piece of the sticky backed Velcro and attach it to the camera just below the lens. Take the other piece of Velcro and attach it to the back of the mirror. Press firmly.
Attach Mirror
Attach the mirror to the camera.
Use
The reflection in the mirror isn't nearly as big as the entire field that will be captured in the photo, so I just use it to target the center of the image, making sure that my self portrait captures the most important stuff - ME, or me and my loved ones/friends.
We've all seen bad examples of how bad self portraits can be, where half of someone's face get's chopped off. The images below are of some of the Instructables Staff testing the self portrait mirror out, and as you can see, the result look pretty good!
We've all seen bad examples of how bad self portraits can be, where half of someone's face get's chopped off. The images below are of some of the Instructables Staff testing the self portrait mirror out, and as you can see, the result look pretty good!