How to Take Perfect Selfies with your iPhone
Keep Away from the Bland
The vital point to remember while taking selfies is that at its most basic level a selfie is an unconventional photo of your own self. Therefore, a touch of innovation is required even in your facial expressions to make it work. While sending a selfie to someone or uploading it to the Internet, you need to lend it some character, some personality. Reaction shots make up some of the best received selfies out there as they give a certain context to the shot instead of a formulaic straight smile. Moreover, selfies associated with a context also carry more emotional input making the image go viral as it shows a human moment instead of a fake posed shot.
Size up a Square Shot
Most of the selfies are taken to be shared online on Instagram and other such social sharing sites with your friends and the world at large. This being the case, it makes sense to have a properly sized shot to avoid the unnecessary cropping process before putting it online.
Use the Volume Button or a Remote Shutter
With the generous size of iPhone 6, you can now grip it in a convenient manner to take a clear selfie. The size is big enough to enable you to hold your iPhone properly so that the thumb of your left hand or the index finger of your right hand should get positioned aptly on the up volume button when you extend your hands for a shot. Once positioned this way, you can capture the photo by pressing the top volume button rather than attempting to tentatively hold the phone’s bottom and tap the on-screen virtual button. Such a technique also lets you drop your worries about putting down the phone.
A Shot from the Right Angle can be Magical
Like with general photography, the sense of angles plays a very important role in taking amazing selfies. Shooting a picture from a very low angle below your face can leave you with an undesirable profile of your face with non-existent double chins and possibly weary looking eyelids. Going for an angle too high can also leave you looking weird and in a pose way out of style.
A reasonable angle, perhaps a magic selfie angle, to practice maybe by holding phone in your arm directly in from of your chest resulting in a 90 degree angle between your arm and your upper body. Then, shift it around 15 degrees to the side leaving your arm come in line with your shoulder and then up about 10 degrees. Doing this gives a nice added dimension to your selfies by giving a little glimpse of the background behind the top of your head. Any hand can be used depending on your preference. If multiple people need to be captured in a selfie, using a selfie stick makes sense.
Freeze Moving things with Burst Mode
The Burst mode is becoming exceedingly popular these days as a great way to capture moving action. iPhone 6 gives you the burst mode option for your front-facing camera, thus enabling you to capture a selfie with a mobile object in your background. The iPhone 6 camera can grab 10 images in a row using the burst mode with the click of just one button. There is also an additional extra mode within this option that lets you choose between different versions of the photo to pick the best one. The burst mode makes selfie-graphy exciting, opening a plethora of possible experiments to try out for enthusiasts.
Make Use of the Filters
It is an understood fact that the front cameras are low in resolution and hence it is obvious that the selfies you take come out with grains. Especially, if the condition is low light, then all you get is a pathetic picture of you. This is where the filters come in handy. The filters and photo extensions in iOS 8 significantly enhance your selfies which are clicked in lowlight or other distorting conditions. After all, none of you is going to print your selfie, so you need not fear or have the worry of damaging the originality of the photo. For instance, the Afterlight’s photo extension is one such amazing filter.
Mirror on the Wall
Naturally we all like to take a selfie and share whenever we experiment with a new hairdo or make-up for opinions. So, why not take a snap of the mirror with the back camera of your iPhone? By this way you can inspect the framing of the selfie clearly. Also, the clicked photo is of high quality as a result of using back camera. You don’t get these advantages while using your front camera for clicking selfies.
Lighting is Important for Selfies
Lighting plays a key role in the outcome of a perfect photo and selfies are no exception. Irrespective of your camera’s resolution if the lighting is poor, then nothing can save the photo from being imperfect. Make sure you have turned off your iPhone’s flash, particularly when you are taking selfies outdoors. If you are taking selfies indoors, make sure that you are facing the light and not with your back towards the light. Avoid using light that is too dark or too bright; instead depend on natural light most of the times.
Use iPhone Self Timer App
If you wish to take selfies with self-timer technique, there are plenty of external self-timer apps that get your work done. All you have to do is position your iPhone on a table with a solid support, go & stand on the focused area and pose, the app does the rest of the magic. Some of the popular self timer apps include Camera Timer, TimerCam and GorillaCam.
