How to look good in photos, selfie ideas to try!

A selfie is a really fun way to present ourselves to the world and rediscover our features. A statement of who we want to be, we can curate and style it however we like. Like a painting, we have control over the mood, feel and setting of our piece, we can create a whole new version or impression of ourselves that exists within a digital frame. There is so much freedom to emphasise your favourite features, find new ways to love them and feel confident in yourself. Even if you are trapped being snapped in an impromtu situation, here is how to take power back and feel confident and in control in front of the camera! Here is what I have learned… love, your friendly neighbourhood selfie taker!

1. Make a space to parade your photos – this will help you to find your photo personality! Decking out your instagram with adorable bits like highlight buttons, decking out your online space – or your photo album or even how your camera roll looks will help you take on a persona and get you excited for taking photos and give you a place to get started. Instagram is a great place to experiment with your most powerful persona – glitz it up, decorate it, turn it in to a massive festivity of everything that you love!

2. Try out different effects and angles – experiment with flash, snap a photo upside down, a reflection in a mirror, a shadow on a sunlit wall, get really creative with your angles and honing in on different focal points in your photos. I’m loving experimenting with flash at the moment.

I love how you can simply apply highlighter and the flash will bounce off and reflect on your face and make it glowy 101. It gives an artsy, moody, movie star like feel to your photos and highlights all the gorgeous textures within them. You craft and create how you want to appear, find a good lighting that sculpts your face how you like it and throws shadow where you want it to across your face.

how to look good in photos

3. In photos draw attention to… the side of your face with the more upturned features, said to be your good side in photos, commonly thought to be your left side. For me, lifting my chin in photos emphasises the jawline, helping to slim down my moonface haha. Also, drawing attention to the decollete – or is it decolletage? Somebody save me from my bad french words haha! – area will elongate the neck, helping to lift the face. An easy trick is to dust a little highlight on your collarbones and turn your head slightly, so the natural grooves and crevices of the neck will naturally stand out and create a beautiful shape, making the neck look longer and more defined.

cute selfies ideas

4. Apply highlight anywhere, except the lower triangle – Pop highlighter on any area of the face, except the lower triangle! Going a bit crazy on highlight, like I’ve always done hmm can in fact hmm invadventantly create more of a sweaty upper lip than beachy glow. The lower triangle of the face is often where we gather sweat and is an area that can easily appear oily with added highlight, as it is an area that naturally gets oily/glowy.

5. Zoom in on a different area of your face – another great lil tip I learnt to use is cutting features out of my photos, or zooming in to focus on a specific area of the face. I don’t have to display my whole face in a photo of me! Only snapping a little corner of my face enables me to put greater emphasis on other little subtle elements of my photo, like little quirks of my outfit and how the material behaves and reflects light on the skin. You can also choose which of your features you wish to display, or play up or down and it also allows my smaller, less standout features to take centre stage.

I also love how snapping from the nose down creates this sense of mystery and anonimity, like a disguise, which looks really cool. I think it would also look really cool to have focus on just one side of the face and let the eyebrow and jaw totally take over, sculpt and tell the story. But when I am less confident I like to define myself by my neck and chin and let my outfit take over!

6. Have fun with the textures of your clothing when creating a selfie. Think of a selfie like making a collage, have fun with any textures you have in your wardrobe – or even include pretty props you have nearby. I love to experiment with how different materials respond to light, in the photo. Tulle or mesh skirts, velvet, silky or satiny pieces, sequins and glitter, or even a pillow in the background! Any kind of fabric will do, a throw, a blanket, a cushion. Wear what you feel most comfortable in, or your favourite standout pieces, things you feel good in. I love contrasting fabrics, like a delicate material like tulle paired with a bold statement piece like faux leather.

how to take good selfies

7. When someone is snapping you/you are part of a group photo… it helps me to have a little practise beforehand in a full length mirror, to figure out which angle looks best from a distance. One to try is to stand from the side to show a more dimensional view of your figure, another is to turn your body almost completely the other way, while looking back round at the camera.

I also think having some movement in my body while the picture is being taken helps me to look more 3D and is more flattering than me standing stationary haha, so I try to dance weirdly in my outfit photos, wear an outfit with movement, like a floaty skirt or poofy sleeves, and look animated in a group photo by pulling a silly pose and extending my body movements, like placing one foot behind the other, helps me to just look a little more dimensional. For me, having a round face, I am someone that is quick to enter potato mode whenever someone flicks to camera mode on their phone.

how to take cute selfies

8. Don’t fight the elements, use them to your advantage! Go with the flow, whether you’re taking photos outside and it’s suddenly windy, embrace the elements, go with the flow and wear your flowiest dress or accessorizes and your hair down – sometimes the craziest unintentional thing about a photo is the thing that carries it or that you love about it, like getting swallowed by a bush haha or that crazy hairstyle you did by accident. Nature can be good crazy and amazing and there are so many good photos to be found out there.

selfies hacks and ideas

9. Take a ton of photos! Find the ones you feel confident about and that look good to you. Then favourite them and recreate the poses – they are going to be your favourites!

cute selfies ideas for 2021

10. For a natural pose – place your hands somewhere as if you feel pain there, this sounds weird but it really works! Then relax your whole body and you’re good to go. Hands up if you just tried that out now haha! Another idea is to place the hands on a wall/railings/anything around you.

11. Look away from the camera – to look ‘caught in the act’ or unaware that you’re being photographed! It helps you relax your face so your expression doesn’t look forced and will make the picture seem more candid. I also love to just grab a prop and pretend to be talking about it or something haha, sometimes you end up with the funniest looking snaps but it yields the most natural results for me haha, when smiling directly to the camera in a photo I go happy potato mode haha!

pretty photo selfie ideas

12. A grungey-blurred feel – can look super glamorous, so we don’t need to worry if our selfie goes blurry; it can look intentional! Creating a ‘drunken’, blurry feel emulates the glamorous aesthetic photos of the internet; it makes them appear like they are snapped backstage at a glamorous event, complete with glittering dresses and champagne.

Sometimes you just got to go with happy potato – because photos of your happiest memories are often the best ones and in the happiest ones you have three chins because of laughing and grinning so much your face hurts while trying your best to stick your jaw out and sometimes that’s just the nicest thing and I think that’s the best selfie tip of all, to have tons of fun! ♡

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19 Comments

  1. Adriana Robles
    August 8, 2019 / 10:33 pm

    Thank you for these glorious tips!
    I'll be putting them into practice since I don't take enough selfies anymore 🙁

    ❀ ADI IN PINK ❀ INSTAGRAM ❀

    • elizabeth
      August 15, 2019 / 10:43 pm

      Thanks so much Adi! I am sorry I am late to reply, haha ah the world of selfies! I love that for some, I don't even have to show much of my face 😀 ♡

  2. Lisa's Notebook
    August 9, 2019 / 2:23 pm

    These tips are fantastic, I've never heard of any of them before, and tip no. 10 is just brilliant. Yes, I did try it, busted! I'm bookmarking this post to refer to for future photos as I never take selfies. Your ideas will hopefully help me to start being more confident so thank you! X

    Lisa | lisasnotebook.com

    • elizabeth
      August 15, 2019 / 10:52 pm

      Thanks so much Lisa, ahhh I'm so happy you liked it! Haha that was me too when I first read about it xD a really good way to start taking selfies and gain confidence is to snap parts of your face you like the most, for example, use a hand mirror as a prop as if you were looking in to it, then you can control how much of your face is showing 😀 and gradually get more confident in showing more of the face as you go – that's what I tried to do anywho haha! Aw no worries! ♡

  3. UpYourVlog
    August 9, 2019 / 3:01 pm

    Love a good selfie!

    upyourvlog.com

    • elizabeth
      August 15, 2019 / 10:52 pm

      Haha yes the world of selfies, thanks so much Natalie! ♡

  4. Natalya Amour
    August 9, 2019 / 5:36 pm

    Thanks so much for sharing these great tips

    Candice x

    natalyaammour.com

    • elizabeth
      August 15, 2019 / 10:53 pm

      Aw thank you Natalya! 😀 ♡

  5. Only Yesterday Blog
    August 10, 2019 / 7:51 am

    Thank you for these tips! I'm definitely so bad at taking my own selfie lol!

    sarahrizaga.blogspot.com/

    • elizabeth
      August 15, 2019 / 10:54 pm

      Thanks so much Sarah! Haha sometimes my selfie experiments go totally wrong and I pull many muscles trying to turn my body opposite way to my head xD ♡

  6. Leland West
    August 11, 2019 / 7:27 am

    It is nice to be able to discreetly take a self-portrait that looks professionally done.

    lelandwest.com/

    • elizabeth
      August 15, 2019 / 10:58 pm

      Haha I can only hope! And with practise too. Using the flash kind of gives it an artsy, moody, almost magazine shoot feel, I feel like it's very in style at the moment 😀 thanks so much! ♡

  7. High Quality Adult Toys
    August 12, 2019 / 9:17 am

    Selfies are for YOU – an adult! Don't feel guilty about wanting to take pictures of your inner and outer beauty.
    The Mens Store

    • elizabeth
      August 17, 2019 / 11:29 am

      Haha thank you! ♡

  8. Jules on the moon
    August 15, 2019 / 8:58 pm

    Beautiful post darling!!

    julesonthemoon.com/

    • elizabeth
      August 17, 2019 / 11:30 am

      Thanks so much Jules! 😀 ♡

  9. Helene Goldnadel
    August 24, 2019 / 1:06 pm

    Looking good and feeling great! Selfies can be a great avenue for self-expression at any age.

    Helene Goldnadel

  10. Megan Elizabeth
    August 30, 2019 / 8:13 pm

    I find it so hard to get the 'perfect' selfie! Thanks for the tips, will definitely be trying them out xox

    Megan Elizabeth

  11. Unknown
    January 5, 2020 / 8:44 pm

    These tips are really good <3 and your selfies are soooooo beautiful, I can't stop staring at them and now I'm like : AWWWWWW I WANT TO LOOK LIKE THAT ON EVERY SINGLE SELFIE

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