Selfies Photography

(with the smart phone)

Are you tired of dirty mirrors in all your selfies?



Do you have a beautiful, huge, clean mirror but tired of having a phone in all your outfit pics?



Tired of the words on your shirt, or your tattoo always coming out backwards because you used the mirror as an easy way to snap a photo?

So am I, so here's what you can do:

  • If you have a mirror available, point the camera at yourself instead of the mirror. You will see your image on your phone screen in the mirror.
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  • Adjust the composition by zooming in or out.
  • A voice command is usually available in your camera settings, which replaces finding the shutter button while aiming at yourself, but it's not impossible to click it while using the mirror.
  • Timer mode can also be useful.
  • The first step to quality photos, is ensuring your lens is clean. If your photos are always 'fuzzy' or 'hazy', you very likely need to wipe your lens. Can't go wrong with a lens/ glasses cloth.
  • Hold the phone upside down if you want more angle options (like full body with the shoes). I personally like the 45° angle.
  • You might notice that I'm using the Samsung Flip 5, and yes, I no longer need to use the mirror to compose selfies thanks to the preview screen. Samsung advertises the (fullscreen) selfie screen camera mode, but when you use the selfie camera in this mode, the color quality is noticeably lower despite the convenience.
  • This front screen selfie mode is lower quality color, needs more edits in post to perfect the original colors (vs using the normal non-selfie camera). Full screen preview still unpredictable composition since it's the non-selfie camera.
  • The composition is unpredictable in full screen preview mode, when using the normal camera. I utilize the full composition preview with the normal camera, because it's very straightforward.
  • Normal selfie with mini full-screen preview
  • Blind selfie (old technique) The reflection on the blank preview screen isn't a shortcut as it would seem.
  • The last 2 photos are some old photos from when I did mirror selfies with the phone aimed at the mirror, and another selfie in a cool mirror, shot from a distance. The zoom feature is the key to getting a proper composition in a decorative mirror.
  • Off-mirror mirror selfie (I've also noticed how some people shoot the mirror up close and from below, and crop the phone out.
  • A shot of the mirror always has a different quality compared to a direct-aimed camera.)
  • Mirror selfie shot from 3 yds away