Hi, raychelemmons, and welcome to NRF. You will find a lot of us are in what one might call the "outside the lines" category, but this may be what makes a creative photographer, ha, ha, ha.

For a self portrait... suggestion: Set the camera up, pre focus and set to manual, with a string, use self timer. The string allows you to get exactly the correct distance from the camera as the self timer wants to focus as you push the button, and it will not refocus when you move in front of the lens....or I do not know how to get it to do this yet.

Shoot dozens of exposures with various expressions, try imaging in your mind, good and bad, funny, serious, anything you can think of. Then, sit down and do a first camera edit....dump the ones you do not want. Even if you dump them all. Keep trying and when you get two or three.... go to the computer and work them up. When shooting, try to at first look into the center of the lens...Exactly into the center! Then you may try some variant.

And if all this makes no sense...come back to the forum and ask some more questions. The idea of live view may never get you the shot you want as you will not have the eye contact which is where the power is in a portrait.

To op: Take a look at the new D3200. It should remote preview with an android device.

To Willis: OP has a valid question. You have a dirty mind.

Doesn't the 5100 have live view? Surely you can swivel the view screen to face forwards?

I nominate this thread for creepiest post in NR history.

I want to photograph myself. So I rigged up a foot remote for the shutter. I need to live preview my shot which I cannot do in any software while using this foot remote. It is frustrating. I have to hook up a video camera below my camera D5100 and preview the shot that way or shoot and look, shoot and look when the shot shows up after on my computer. Makes for a lot of wires. Worst part is the remote keeps going off line if I wait too long.