Photo & Video 101 | How to Use the Timer Countdown

Today’s lesson was a big challenge for me. I’ve never been able to figure out how to use the timer on my camera. So how the heck was I going to teach anyone else how to use it?

I thought, “well, great. I’d better get our intrepid photographer Gus to help me with this one.”

The first rule of using the timer is that you have to have someplace to put the camera. Even I know that one.

Ideally you’d use a tripod. Here’s what Gus used:

lego tripod

We found this Lego table for free in the alley. It makes a pretty cool tripod don’t you think?

Next step – take a photo of where you’ll be sitting. This way, you can be sure you’re in the right spot.

our portrait throne

Next step – figure out the timer on the camera. The Kodak camera has a 10 second interval between when you press the shutter and when the photo is taken. Here’s Gus’s first photo:

oops

Guess tying your shoes takes more than 10 seconds. Let’s try that again:

Ok, so we’ve got the timer somewhat figured out.

I think we've got it!

Now let’s get creative. We found that the Nikon camera had a super cool feature. You could set the timer to release the shutter one second after you give an audio signal, like yell, “Cheese”.

Gus decided to do things a little different. He decided to yell, “Roar!” to make the camera take the photo.

ROAR!

This one is ok, but he wanted to get truly adventurous. So he got rid of the chair.

now I'm scared

Well, he did make the shutter release, but he almost got his head cut off. It’s certainly safer to sit in the chair we placed for our photo. But this is still a cool shot.

Unfortunately, his face is hidden in shadows. The exposure seems a bit off. We used auto setting just to make things easy. Gus seems a little dark. That is easily corrected in Photoshop.

A real roar!

We simply selectively boosted the exposure in this one to bring his face out of the shadows.

One hidden benefit to using the timer – you never get camera shake! You aren’t actually touching the camera while it’s taking the photo, so this isn’t a concern. Unless, your little brother wants to use the Lego table.