Don’t we all wanna take the best selfie possible? And in this digital age, do we even have a choice? Call it an addiction or whatever – but we wanna post our awesome-sauce vacation selfies and OOTDs and bestie-selfies with all the filters to give everyone FOMO! But if you wanna get better at it, or wanna learn how to take a good selfie, here’s a bunch of basics inspired by those who do it best – the celebs!! While not all celebs know how to take a good selfie either, these certainly do!
How to Take a Good Selfie: 9 Basic Tips
What you learn in any photography class is that if you have already selected a subject, two things can make or break the final picture: framing and lighting. Same rules apply to a selfie.
1. Angle
People who know how to take a good selfie know what angle best suits their face, or highlights their features. You could either take one from top, or from a front, looking into a mirror even, or with your body angled toward the side – depending on what’s most flattering for you. What are your best features? Try to make sure they are accentuated. If you have a great jaw, take a selfie from the side, slightly turning your face. If you have enviable abs, try to pose in front of a mirror to show those off! If you have beautiful eyes, look up into the camera to make them look wide open.
2. Lighting
If you’re indoors, avoid facing the light if it’s right above you, because it’ll create shadows under your eyes. Instead have your back or side towards it, so that your face is evenly illuminated. Or have a light source is in front of you, at level with your eyes such as a camera flash.
If you’re outdoors in daylight, try to step under a canopy, etc. to have softer light. You can even face away from the sun to illuminate your face evenly and softly like Selena Gomez here:
Or Ariana Grande doing the same car selfie!
And by all means avoid disturbing light sources in the background like Rihanna’s selfie!!
3. Expression
It goes without saying that you want to choose the expression that best suits your face.
And try to be creative, try different expressions for different selfies. For example, if you’re always making a duck-face, mix it up by smiling or laughing! Don’t make your insta-feed monotonous!
4. Outfit
It depends. Unless showing off your OOTD is the idea, choose a neutral or solid-colored outfit so that it’s more about your face and expression. Put the limelight on yourself, not your outfit!
5. Makeup
It depends on how much makeup you usually wear, or what’s the selfie occasion, so by all means, show off your best makeup. Keep your skin tone even with the foundation or base, because filters don’t work like brush tools! (Why isn’t someone working on that?) Make sure your concealer matches your foundation, as always. Because some lighting can be very unforgiving. Concealers that don’t match are selfie-kills!
6. Background
Add a nice background. Yes, it shows. Work on the framing to make it look interesting. If you’re taking a selfie at home, make sure the room is clean or photogenic! Make sure your siblings aren’t doing nasty faces to ruin your background!!
Or use the gorgeous locales of your vacations like Alessandra Ambrosio here in Mykonos!
Avoid messy backgrounds like these:
7. Hair
Try different hairstyles – bedhead, messy, wavy, pulled back. They give a different look to each selfie and add the interest!
8. Include Your Friends
Have fun with your friends, like Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid below. Or your pets. Of course you already do that! If you’re taking a selfie by yourself, you can even bring in props, like food or your favorite stuffed animal.
9. Have a Signature Thing
It could be an expression, an angle or a background that you can repeat in a lot of sefies, and let it become your signature ‘thing’!!
Be creative
It’s great to have your signature feature, and other than that – try different things – postures, angles, backgrounds. Be witty and funny. Keep trying different themes to show an overview of your whole personality or life – vacation, party, friends, casual, sleepy, work. Have fun and look happy. If you’re in doubt, just remember to keep it real!
Ohk, selfie-razzi, hope you got helpful good tips on how to take a good selfie. Do post your instagram accounts below so we can check out each other’s best selfies and like them!! Also: who out of all these celebs do you think knows how to take a good selfie?
And here’s mine from my vacation!!
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Shilpa Ahuja the editor-in-chief of ShilpaAhuja.com, which she founded with the goal of inspiring confidence in the modern working woman through fashion. Other than defining the direction of the magazine, she also writes about fashion & beauty trend forecasts, industry analysis, and opinions.
Shilpa’s work has been published in the University of Fashion blog and Jet Airways magazine. She is also an artist, illustrator and cartoonist. She is also the creator of Audrey O., a comic series that represents the lifestyle of millennial women. She enjoys creative writing and world travel. Her art has been exhibited at Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Aroma Hotel, Chandigarh and been published in Chandigarh Times.
Originally from Chandigarh, Shilpa also has a degree in architecture and has worked in interior project management. She is also the author of the book “Designing a Chinese Cultural Center in India”. Shilpa has a Masters in Design Studies degree from Harvard University.
For feedback and questions, please email [email protected].
I’m terrible at taking selfies! but I need to practice so this is really going to help me! Thank you for the tips 🙂
Sorry! I thought the first one didn’t worked! you can delete this one hehe
I’m glad you liked it Paula! Looking forward to seeing your amazing selfies! Do tag us #slubadvice so we can go like them! 🙂
I’m the worst at taking selfies! so I find your tips really useful, I’ll try to practice more hehe.
Thanks for the tips 😉