It shouldn’t be so hard to take a good selfie. But we are all too familiar with that feeling when your confidence and pose do not translate into the dream selfie you wish to use for your Tinder profile or Instagram post.
You may keep snapping away till you finally get something that works, but how about getting it right from your first attempt? You don’t need to play the probability game.
I would lend my expertise in transforming you into a pro selfie maker.
Here are six recommendations for taking a good selfie going into 2021.
1. Good Lightning Is a Gamechanger
Lightning is the numero uno in the selfie world. It is the one beauty product you do not have to buy. Natural lighting is usually the go-to, but other light sources will work effectively if well used.
Good lighting could be as easy as turning towards an open door or window. Better still, you would maximize all the light you can get by going outside and basking in the freely given glow of sunlight — sunscreens on.
Perfect lighting is capable of making your undereye circles/eyebags completely fade away.
An efficient but cheap lightning tip is to place a piece of white paper underneath the chin. It will illuminate your face by creating a natural bounce of light and reduce the double chin effect.
2. Master When To Use the Flash
Finding natural light is a crucial tip for taking a good selfie, but it’s not always possible. There are times when it will be dark, and you will still need to take a selfie. Maybe on your couch or in the club. How do you get the perfect selfie?
In this case, turn to our beloved Snapchat. This app has a unique flash feature for your front camera that the regular photo applications of your iPhones may not. You will have to tap on the tiny lightning bolt at the top left corner and take your selfie.
Doing this makes the screen burst a bright white light on your face and would not render a perfect image, with the face becoming more visible. Any other improvisations to increase the amount of light on the face, such as using a rechargeable light source or turning on the room light, could enhance the process.
3. Create and Angle or Tilt
An angle or tilt is an easy tip to accomplish. Simply put, tilt something! You may angle your Creating an angle is an easy tip to accomplish. Simply put, tilt something! You may angle your phone slightly down, up, sideways, or keep it perfectly straight while you slightly tilt your face. Alternatively, try tilting both the phone and your face slightly.
The aim is to get the best phone-head-tilt combination. Whatever you do, always remember that taking a selfie straight will usually result in a plain old boring picture.
Traditionally, photographers would maintain some distance from you before taking a picture. In the modern photography world, we tend to come much closer. The reality remains that features look different from varying distances. For instance, the size of your nose may appear much more prominent on a selfie.
Tilting something takes the attention of the lens off prominent face features like the nose or eyes (especially the nose). This way, you are guaranteed a very evenly toned selfie.
4. Enhance the Background
Are you standing in front of a mirror, car selfie, the blank single-color bedroom wall? I’ve been there and done it all. A selfie shouldn’t be a complete photo studio, but still, the background should be inviting.
Don’t get me wrong; you could take selfies anywhere, in the car, in the room, in front of the mirror, etc. Just make sure there is always some color and attraction behind you. With the right angle, a display of apples at a grocery store could make a rich background.
For moments when you are not feeling particularly creative, a few options enhance your selfies. Facetune’s Backdrop tool is one such example. It allows you to change the background of any photo. You will be spoiled with choice and replace boring scenes with catchy, solid-colored options. Additionally, you may use your favorite photos as backgrounds. Simply put, you could be in the bathroom but fake being at the beach or mountains.
5. Smile As You Mean It
Smile as you mean it and make it look as natural as possible. Do you remember that kid in kindergarten that would never smile in pictures or that yearbook photo that still haunts you? Those are what you try to avoid with a sweet natural smile.
It takes some practice mastering a natural camera smile. Unnatural smiles are not authentic, and they come off as stiff, robotic, sometimes creepy. You may only start getting the perfect smile after a crapload of attempts, but it is by all means worth the practice.
During smile practice, you should try the following:
- Purse your lips in multiple ways
- Open your mouth halfway
- Slightly turn up the corners of your lips
- Smile showing all your teeth
- Smile with a closed lip
In the end, you must figure which of these feels the most “natural” and which one can be nailed without much thought.
6. Discover Your Good Side
Discovering your good side is the last tip I will be offering, but it is just as important as any other. By now, you have already tried tilting your camera in different ways. It is time to worry about the actual pose.
The reality is that almost everyone has a good side or a better side. A good side is the side of the face you prefer. Do you know yours? You may have more freckles on the right side that give away your bubbly personality. Or maybe you would rather hide the left side because of the scar on your nose.
Decide which is your good side and selfie from that angle. Doing this will save a ton of retakes. The rule is, “If you feel better with a side of your face in the mirror, you would most likely prefer it on camera.”
Last Words: How to Take a Good Selfie
So there it is — a few tips on how to take a good selfie. Keep them in mind the next time you bring out your phone to take a selfie, and there is no telling. You may be the next social media sensation.
