How to Take
a Great Selfie Photo - Ten Body Language Tips for Creating Great Selfie Photos
Make sure you look at tips one and eight as they are key!
Tips to Take a Great Selfie
From Body Language Expert
Patti Wood
Make sure you look at tips one and eight as they are key!
1.
Tip One - Don’t hold your
breath, instead take deep breaths filling up your stomach, not your upper
chest with air. Breathe again relaxing your shoulders and then let the
breath fill you up and lift up your body. Don’t worry you will be moving as the
photo is taken. Just keep snapping letting your deep full breaths lift you to
create wonderful "up" body language.
2.
Tip Two - If you are standing and
want to look “extra” skinny across the waist and hips stand like female celebs
do on the red carpet. Place one foot pivoted out to the right and the other
foot in front of it with toes pointed slightly to the left.
3.
Tip Three - To look skinny you can
turn so one shoulder is towards the camera and the other is away from it. This
works for women and for men. You have heard that TV adds ten pounds to anyone
filmed. When a photo of you is taken head on, it makes you look heavier than
you are. It’s because the plane of the body in the photo matches the plane of
the camera’s eye not because you ate too much chocolate. Remember when one
shoulder is closer to the camera then the other it makes you look slimmer.
4.
Tip Four - For women only. If you’re
standing and you want to take attention away from your hips and look slimmer, stand
with only one side of your body towards the camera with your feet and the rest
of your body turned away. Then turn and look at the camera over your shoulder.
5.
Tip Five- To look slimmer and
powerful.
For women: To give yourself an
hourglass figure do the Mae West, “Come up to my place.” Hand on your hip
stance. Stand catty corner from the camera so your right foot is towards
the camera at 12:00 on a clock and your left foot is to the side at nine o’clock
slightly behind the right. Shift your weight over your back left leg. Stretch
your body up to elongate your torso and place your hand just above your hip.
This pose doesn't work for everyone so check yourself out in the
mirror first.
For men: Expand your body by
lifting up your chest and holding your shoulders back. Practice in a mirror
first so you can make sure you look natural and relaxed and don't forget the
breathing in tip #one to make it natural.
6.
Tip Six- Stretch your neck up and point
your chin just a little bit up. This gets rid of a double chin. Careful not to
point it too high up or you will look like a stuck up snob.
7.
Tip Seven – A variation from the
above. Turn your head so that only ¾’s of your face is towards the camera and
then lift up and elongate your neck then slightly tilt your head to the side.
This keeps any sagging skin at the neck, chin and face smoothed out. Think of
it as a temporary face-lift. Now if you could only stay that way all the time and
not look like a goose!
8.
Tip Eight – Smile naturally. Talk
while you are being photographed. Don’t freeze. Freezing into cheese pose makes
the muscles in your face tighten rather than relax. Keep snapping. Talk about
things that make you happy, your kids, or your sweetie. The magic words that
will help your face go into a full big smile are words that end with your mouth
open such as ee and aa sounds so you can say a string of words like money,
cherry, cheese, hay, day, lay, say.
9.
Tip Nine -Another trick for smiling
is to place the tip of your tongue behind your upper front teeth and smile. Or
turn on a comedy show and start laughing. Everybody looks beautiful when
laughing.
10. Tip Ten - Show the best side of your face. This is different
for each individual. The right side of your face is controlled by the left
hemisphere and is less emotional. That may mean it has less wrinkles or it may make
you look more severe. Your left side of your face is controlled by the
right emotional hemisphere which tends to make that side of your face more
animated and expressive. Check out your face in the mirror to find your “best
side.”
11. Tip Eleven – Sometimes you can break all the rules, lean in,
look down and say “hello”
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.
