Last month we did a post on the Selfie Obsession around the globe and thought it would be appropriate to follow up with a post on taking the perfect selfie. Taking the perfect selfie requires a bit of dexterity and Matthias Lüfkens graciously shares tips to taking the perfect selfie below –
1. Look into the camera, not the screen: Selfie newbies tend to look at the screen instead of looking into the smartphone camera. It’s not a mirror!
2. Watch your fingers: The rear camera is very close to the edge of the phone and it takes some dexterity to point & shoot without getting your thumb into the picture.
3. The more the merrier: Don’t be selfish. Get as many people into the picture as possible. To do so, hold the camera above your head but don’t cut yourself out of the picture. The more people are in the picture, the higher the chances of the selfie to be retweeted and shared on social networks.
4. Clean the lens and hold it steady: Make sure your camera lens is clean and you hold the phone steady to avoid fuzzy pictures. And avoid shooting from the bottom up.
5. Promote other body parts: Once you have shared your first selfie head shot, share other parts of your body. FYI a selfie of your behind is called a #belfie.
6.Share the selfie with your community: If you don’t share the selfie publicly it’s just another auto portrait. The most annoying thing about the infamous funeral selfie of Barack Obama, David Cameron and Helle Thorning-Schmidt is that it was never published and it is still in the Danish Prime Minister’s iPhone.
7. You are no longer the star: Nowadays spectators will look at an event through their smartphone rather than looking directly at you, even while you shake their hands. Expect more people to turn their back on you to capture the moment on their smartphones. Look into the camera.
8. Beware the photobomb: Selfies attract a lot of attention by the people around you. Make sure you control who pops into your picture.
9. Take two: It is best to take several selfies and chose the best to be posted.
10. Use a mirror: Taking a ‘mirror selfie’ helps focus and frame your self portrait. It has been done for decades.
11. Never post a selfie you might regret one day: Even if you “try not to take yourself too seriously”, avoid publishing a selfie that might come back one day to haunt you.
Matthias Lüfkens, leads the Digital Practice of Burson-Marsteller across Europe, Middle-East and Africa (EMEA). Before joining Burson-Marsteller Lüfkens was Head of Digital media at the World Economic Forum (WEF) where he designed and implemented the digital strategy. In 1991 he founded the In Your Pocket city guide series in Lithuania, now Central Europe’s premier publisher and provider of city information. Follow him @luefkens.He is the author of the Twiplomacy study and maintains the @Twiplomacy Twitter feed, looking specifically at the use of Twitter and social networks by world leaders.
