Although the craze for selfie sticks to take pictures of oneself is a thing of the past, selfies still dominate many users’ image galleries. Whether it’s a casual outing, hanging out with friends, a vacation, or a holiday, most people still prefer the front-facing camera of their phone to quickly take pictures and share them on social media. While the advanced camera technology on today’s smartphones is forgiving, it’s best to remember the good old tricks that will take great selfies no matter what device you have. After all, it is not the camera that shoots, but the photographer.
To take a good selfie, you just need to know a couple of fundamental things.
Shooting with natural light
Even with the best front camera in the world, your selfies will come out average if you’re not looking at a light source (preferably natural). It belongs both selfies and your regular photos. Whether you’re using a dedicated lamp in the room or taking selfies outdoors in sunlight, you should always look at the source for the best results. Direct light will highlight the main subject (your face) in the picture. You must also avoid hard shadows on the face. They appear, for example, when you stand sideways to the sun or another strong light source and the shadow from the nose falls on the cheek, one half of the face is overexposed, and the other is almost black. This is terrible.
The sun is the most powerful source of light, but it is too hard, so you need to use it, but you need to do it wisely.
If you are using an artificial light, such as a ring light, to lighten the scene, do not place it above the eyes, as this can lead to dark circles below them. You must keep away from the source light or use a diffuser to make the light softer. Also, avoid fluorescent light of any kind. This results in a blue or green tint to the skin and spoils the natural look.
Even more interesting articles and useful tips in our Yandex Zen.
Don’t use screen flash
Although most phones have the ability to light up the scene with the screen to create a flash effect, you should stay away from this. Screen flash not as effectivelike a special ring light. The screen flash can only highlight the central subject and doesn’t light up the whole scene, leaving you with a bad shot. It can even lead to the appearance of red eyes, although now automation effectively removes this effect.
natural smile in pictures
Your best angle or ideal lighting conditions won’t matter if you do fake smile selfie. Use a natural smile, as your friends and family can immediately recognize a fake. Try taking a few selfies to find a natural lip position that reflects who you are. Actually, it may not be a smile, but another emotion, but it should be natural.
A natural smile is better than a fake one.
What is the best angle to take a selfie?
You don’t want your social media account to be filled with the same selfies, right? Hold the camera on top, lower your chin, turn sideways and try other angles. Until you find one that is worthy of publication or preservation.
Some people may not look their best looking directly at the camera. Often it looks too banal. Try to look away, past the camera, or maybe even close your eyes, pretending to be pleased. In any case, shots from the side often look much more advantageous than from the front.
Experiment with angles and everything will be 
Portrait mode on a smartphone
Most front cameras have portrait mode. It blurs the background and focuses attention on the main subject, making the picture visually more professional. If your phone doesn’t have portrait mode or you forgot to use it, you can always use Google Photos to add background blur to your selfies.
Apple even goes one step further and offers different lighting effects in portrait mode. You can play with contour lighting, studio lighting, stage lighting, and monochrome effects to apply studio-like lighting. True, it only works on iPhone 8 Plus and later.
Wide angle shots
Sometimes it’s hard to keep everyone in the frame. For group selfies, you should use the wide camera mode so that everyone fits in the final shot. If your phone supports such a feature, you will notice a multi-person icon on the front camera interface. However, keep in mind that the closer a person’s face is to the edges of the frame (especially the corners), the more it will be distorted in ultrawide mode.
Ultra-wide shooting angle is inextricably linked with distortion. Sometimes this can be done with an effect, but when the face is stretched in the same way, its owner is unlikely to be happy.
Photo editing apps
With simple pictures, even good ones, you will hardly surprise anyone now. If you don’t like the default filters on your camera, you’ll be happy to know that there is no shortage of photo editing apps. Many of them are either completely free or have a pretty good version with inaps that you won’t need.
You can use the Pixlr app to make collages, or use Photoshop Express to play around with different filters. Try not to go overboard with effects, filters, stickers, frames, and more. Fine tunings tend to stand the test of time better.
Now that you’ve taken some good selfies, it’s time to share them with your friends on social media. We are there too. For example, here our channel in Telegram and Telegram chat.
The post 7 tips for taking a good selfie appeared first on Gamingsym.