Do you need some new selfie ideas for your social media profile?
Are you wondering how to take a good selfie?
Today we’ll take a look at these selfie ideas:
- How to pose for selfies
- Neck position to improve your selfies
- The importance of a great background
- How to smile in a selfie
- Lighting
- What you actually should do while shooting
- Black and white Selfies
- Your location
- Selfie composition rules
- Secrets of a good selfie
- And a bonus video at the end of the article from a professional selfie artist.
If you learn how to pose for selfies, you’ll obtain much better images of yourself. Selfie photography is becoming a distinct type of portrait photography these days. Taken with a small mirrorless or a smartphone, selfies travel the world at fast speed thanks to social media.
Many people have become experts at taking the perfect selfie no matter if it’s to promote themselves or a product. Bloggers, Instagrammers, or Influencers have learned how to make the most out of their social media presence. Different types of selfie poses and creative selfie ideas are an essential part of that.
Here are some great tips and best selfie ideas for you to take your selfie game to the next level.
Scroll to the end of this article for a bonus video from a selfie expert and professional YouTuber.
Once you’ve read these tips, if you want a complete guide on how to take a good selfie you can read my post here.
Selfie Ideas: How to Pose for Selfies
As always, I believe in putting into practice what you learn. You will improve more as you start taking your selfies and experimenting with different poses, creative selfie ideas, composition techniques, and in different light conditions.
While there are no real hard and fast rules you must follow, there are some selfie ideas that can make your cool selfies stand out.
1. Extend Your Neck Forward to Improve Your Selfies
You can learn a lot from classical portrait artists. Look closer at popular portrait photographers’ work, and you can tell the sitter often appears to extend his or her neck forward. It makes your face look slimmer, and at the same time, makes your features stand out.
Apply the same technique when you take a selfie and the final result will be much better. It will also help to make your eyes stand out more and reduce or eliminate a double chin.
2. Background Matters
You may not think that the background matters, but it does.
The background of any cute selfie like any other genre of photography can make or break the photograph.
A nice background is particularly important if you are promoting a product. Is there anything around which is likely to stand out and perhaps spoil your selfie?
Get rid of it.
Is there anything around that could be useful for telling a story and add some interest to your image? Make sure to include it in the shot.
The colors of the background are also important. They can help to make your outfit stand out. A white t-shirt against an orange/teal, sand/sea background is a perfect match like you see in the image.
To obtain this image, you can position a small tripod in front of you and use a mirrorless camera with 180-degree flip screens such as the Olympus Pen EP-L 9 and set it to a 10-sec timer.
Yes, you’re right, a small tripod like the Joby Gorillapod will be immensely helpful when it comes to taking your selfie game to the next level.
3. Smile Genuinely in Your Selfies
It seems obvious, I know, but you have no idea how many people forget to put a good smile when they take a cute selfie or posing for a portrait shoot.
Remember though, smile genuinely.
Check out some famous Instagrammers and their cool selfies. You can quickly tell when someone is smiling genuinely or not.
A portrait painter would tell the sitter to engage the eyes. You need to do the same thing. Look straight into the camera, and smile making sure it is not just your mouth which is smiling.
A good trick is to think about something funny, something or someone that makes you happy.
There is nothing like a pair of sparkling eyes to make a selfie stand out.
4. Creative Selfies: It’s all About Good Light
- Light does matter when it comes to taking creative selfies. Before you start snapping away, check out where the light is coming from and how much light you have.
- Too much light can make you look pale. Too little light will make the image look grainy since digital noise will be introduced by your phone. Read more about ISO and digital noise here.
- Don’t settle for the first image you take. Instead, take a couple of snaps standing in different places in the room or in the outside area that you are in. Play with the light, and see what looks best on this particular occasion.
- Also, remember to face the light instead of turning against it. For example, if you are indoor you will face a window. Put the source of light always in front of you.
5. Do Something Interesting
Doing something interesting and thinking outside the box is another skill you should learn. That does not mean you should stand on one leg or poke your tongue out.
For instance, if you are promoting a book, it would be a good idea to take a cute selfie of you reading the book.
If it is a wildlife scene, step slightly to one side and point to the scene or a particular animal which is part of the image.
Always try to be spontaneous and have fun with it. Let your creativity run wild. Put your camera on a tripod with a timer and start playing with an object around you. Use a mirror and create something different with it.
6. Take a Classic Black and White Selfie
Black and white portraits are stunning to look at but are seldom used when it comes to taking a selfie. If you are going out for the evening and are all dressed up in a beautiful dress, take a black and white selfie instead of the usual color one. You will look like an iconic film star, and the image appear smoother.
Our lives are packed with color, and breaking them up with some black and white photography can make a difference. Shooting black and white is also helpful to hide imperfections on one of those rough days!
Black and white selfies give you great opportunities to stand out so give it a go.
7. Cute Selfies: Highlight the Place Your In
If you are a travel blogger, you want to try and highlight the place that you are in when the selfie is taken. This is where the background might come into play again.
Find an interesting spot to stand in. If you are standing near a restaurant in Cinque Terre, look out for the sign which points out the name of the restaurant itself. Stand underneath it and take your picture.
Promoting a special service is easily achieved in the same way. So, before you jump on the Orient Express in Venice, make you take a photo of yourself standing in front of one of the carriages with Venice Simplon Orient Express written on it.
Selfies taken in beautiful and iconic locations around the World have the change to go viral on social media, but you need to make sure the actually tell the story of the moment and spot you’re in.
8. Creative Selfies: Apply the Rule of Thirds
All trained artists are familiar with the rule of thirds. It is a basic rule of composition that helps elevate a photo to a professional level.
Try to imagine a blank piece of paper broken up into a grid with two vertical and two horizontal lines. This creates nine equally proportioned boxes. That blank piece of paper is your camera frame and you will have to put yourself or your eyes as close as possible to one of the intersections of those lines.
Often used in painting, but can be applied to all kinds of types of photography including selfies.
9. The Secret of a Good Selfie: Know Your Good Side
Even famous models have a good side and a bad side. But, how do you find yours?
Studying yourself in a mirror or better watching photos of yourself in different contexts and light conditions will help.
Otherwise, you can start snapping away and take countless images of yourself. When you have some time, sit down and study your new selfies to find your good side.
The next time you take a selfie, make sure you show off your good side. This is important if you are promoting beauty or skincare products, and fashion.
10. Selfie Ideas: Try Different Angles
Playing around with different angles can make you and a background stand out more.
The light is also very important when it comes to working with angles, and you should make sure you plan a little bit and that you are aware of the light direction before you start experimenting with angles.
Bonus Selfie Idea: Double Exposure
Have you ever heard of double exposure photography? It’s a technique that allows you to combine two photos together and obtain creative effects. You can use this technique to add something special and different to your self-portrait images. There are different ways to create a double exposure image and some easy-to-use apps that will make the trick for you. You can read more here.
Selfie Ideas from Instagram
Let’s start with some examples first. These Instagram profile have mastered the art of selfie. There’s no better method for learning than looking at how professionals do it.
Selfie Ideas From Pinterest
Here’s a series of creative selfie ideas from Pinterest for your inspiration. Remember, in photography and when taking a selfie, getting inspired by professionals is fundamental to learn the different techniques. So let’s take a look at these self-portraits ideas.
You can find more selfie ideas here.
Bonus Video
Take a look at how Sorelle Amore a professional Instagrammer and YouTuber has perfected the art of self-portraiture in this video.
Conclusion
Knowing how to post for creative selfies is a bit of an art form. There are many selfie ideas that can make different types of selfie poses more interesting.
Make sure you also check Pinterest and Instagram for more creative selfie ideas and don’t forget to check the complete guide on how to take a good selfie!
Practice with different ideas and poses, experiment with different light conditions and backgrounds, but most importantly don’t forget to have fun with it!
Stefano Caioni is a photographer from Sydney, Australia. Founder and editor of Pixinfocus, his passion for photography helps him explore new places and live new adventures. Thanks to photography he reconnected with the outdoors and was able to travel the world and take photos of some of the most beautiful places on Earth.