What is the Perfect Selfie?

Had a friend ask me about writing a blog for the perfect selfie.  Thought that was an interesting idea, so here goes mine.

Current State of the Selfie

Let's face it, most selfies I see are nothing special really, from a photography standpoint.  People have been shooting photos of themselves for decades or longer.  They put their camera on a tripod, set a timer or grab a remote shutter, go get in place, and shoot.  To me, the term "seflie" is just a new fad name.  Although, I guess they do tend to be facial closeups.

Why Shoot a Selfie?

A selfie is just another photo, no more, no less.  Just like any photo, the first question is: "What do you want to accomplish?"

• Do you simply want to put your face on social media, such as Instagram, Facebook, Google+?
• Do you want a nice portrait?
• Do you just want family and friends to see a recent photo of you.
• Do you want to be funny?
• Do you want to capture a moment?
• Do you want some sort of response and reaction and what?
• Do you want something outside the norm, special effects, be different?

The Approach

To me the approach to taking a selfie is no different than shooting any other photo.  Want a nice selfie, think it through a little.  You don't need to use a professional type approach, unless you want to.  In fact, I recently posted an article: Three Easy Casual Photography Tips that apply to selfies as well as any other photo, so go check that out.

Also, try to be creative, so the response is more than, well there's another selfie.

Different Spins on Selfies

Self Portrait

To me, this isn't really a quick selfie like those you commonly see.  Get a nice clean scene or backdrop.  Set your camera on a tripod.  Use a camera timer or remote shutter release.

Casual Snapshot

Hey, just fire away, but try to make the photo somewhat interesting.  Maybe add something cool or different.  Nothing fancy here.

Funny Photo

Remember, funny is subjective and in the eye of the beholder.  So, don't be offended if you don't get the response your were looking for.  MAYBE, one way to be humorous is to do a composite, pasting two photos together.  Again, everything is subjective.  This one is VERY subjective. LOL

Special Effects

The above photo definitely fits into this category.  But here's a few more ideas.

Reflections

Long Exposure

 

Props

Of course, the main idea is to have fun. :-)

Quick Tips for Anyone with a Camera - Where did I Put that Photo?

OK, so you've taken a bunch of photos, maybe hundreds or even thousands.  Then one day you want to find one of them, or you want to post them online so someone else can find them.  Odds are the folder, directory or file name aren't going to have all the combinations one would ever search for.

This is where keywords come in, and you can put them into any photo you want. For Windows folks, you can even right-click a photo and add them, but any photo software probably has an easier way.

Take, the following photo.

There could be any of a number of reasons one would want to see this photo:

• For a contest: rest, relaxation, beach, ocean, Atlantic Ocean, people, etc.
• Mom remembers a photo of a beach with a lifeguard stand that she wants
• I want to put it on a sales site and set up for anyone to search for it anyway I can think of

Try covering all that in a folder or file name.

How would anyone find it, especially months or years down the road.  Sure, you could scan through a folder of hundreds or thousands of photos.  That will likely be a lesson in futility, at best, assuming one finds it at all.

I use Adobe Lightroom CC, so, just for the sake of example, I'll demonstrate with it.

I set up a grouped set of keywords in categories.  This makes it very easy to QUICKLY scan through the keywords, and click off the ones I want (no typing, guessing, or remembering).  Each group contains sub-groups and keywords.





The entire list is attached in the link below and can be imported into Lightroom, and maybe other programs.

My Lightroom Keywords File

Here's the keywords I applied to the above in less than a minute:

Atlantic Ocean, Beach, Blue, Brown, Colorful, Flagler Beach, Florida, Gray, Grey, Lifeguard, Lifeguard Stand, Outdoors, Nature, People, Playful, Playing, Recreation, Red, Skin Tone, Swim, Swimming, Water, White, Yellow