Improve your selfie skills

Lights – Environment – Pose – Angle – Orientation

Yes we know, everybody enjoys taking photos, ether nature or selfies but do you know how to improve your photo’s quality?

I’m Dan N, web designer at CGC and in my line of work I have to edit hundreds of photos per month, its true, the number is not high but I’ve noticed how bad a photo shift the balance from “wow” to “yeah” when it comes to selfies.

First rule. Lights. Natural light is your friend.

Yes, avoid as much as possible taken selfies indoors with only room light and no windows. Natural daylight is awesome, take advantage of it as much as possible, no matter if it is a selfie or 2 individuals job, natural light definitely can improve photo quality.

As much as possible, avoid rooms with no windows like bathrooms, hallways with poor light source; if by any chance you can invest in studio lights (even for micro studio) do that.

In online environment and especially adult industry (where image is everything) poor quality photos can have a huge impact on sales and overall your online activity as a webcam performer.

I can create an astonishing virtual profile/bio page where I will upload and use only high quality images and no other online activity (no live streaming, no videos for sell/download) and build a brand around this profile with successful sales.

I don’t say  steaming is not important or other activities for that matter (making/selling videos) but the image is webcam performer’s calling card.

Why do you think logo is an image of a brand? Logos are the hardest brand identity to design because ONE image must have the greatest impact, one image must “speak and tell the story”, one image must render the entire history, prezent and feature of that particular brand.

There’s an entire psychology behind a brand’s logo so why not taking advantage of your image to tell the story, tikkle the feeling, empower your image, build your brand, drive more sales?! — ultimate purpose of a webcam performer is to make money right?!

I have an saying “pay attention or pay the price”… so pay attention.

Second rule. Environment. Taking photos indoors is great, viewers connect faster when they see your room. Believe me, even if for you doesn’t matter, viewers are  paying attention to details so make sure:

• your room is fairly clean (at least)
• avoid visible pictures with your family members laying around in your “naughty selfies”, especially if married and you’ve told your audience that you’re single
• avoid showing dirty underwear to be seen on floor next to bed
• know your body and check in a mirror what pose is in your advantage
• don’t struggle with unnatural poses  like the ones from comic books
• think about you but pose for them, for your audience, for your target; this implies that you have a rough idea what is your target

Third rule. Pose.

If you decide to go professional with your activity, make sure you know where to start.

Good hardware makes your job easier but if all your financial efforts are not backed up by basic skills how to pose — doom to fail and definitely you’re going to be disappointed.

Invest in lights, camera, learn how to pose and what poses are empowering your image.

Crazy suggestion or not, there are a bunch of inspirational materials on DeviantArt community, Pinterest or search for poses on your favorite search engine, take a look, don’t be afraid to sharpen your skills (as a photographer) the difference will be visible right away.

Don’t disregard a good makeup to put into value your facial features and of course, if it is the case some “improvements”  to aesthetically enhance your body features.

Well, this was the intro so you can skip it… let’s dive into this subject more.

How to setup indoor light?

Let natural light do the work. Straight from front selfie or front photoshoot  is the most usual/common one but you may want to “hide” a bit of skin from a side or hip right? Don’t do a direct perpendicular selfie, turn your body right or left (depending from which side the natural light is visible) basically turn your hips a few degrees left or right to softly hide a bit. For more “softness” cross your feet as in catwalk (model’s walk on stage/podium)

Keep and expose your best body features in front view more light and “hide” as much as possible but in a natural way other body areas.

Shooting Low/High. The impact is different especially when it comes to adult industry and of course a fetish range which use the base of domination and submission.

A few key point regarding image format and size.

A misconception among many users is related to resolution, image resolution doesn’t mean a huge image in width and height but more related to DPI (dots per inch) so make sure that your camera or mobile device is set to mid to highest (max) DPI when saving taking/photos.

High Resolution. For Tailored service I ask for high quality images with good resolution, its true, our collaborators send images (photos) with 3000/1200px w/h but 72dpi is not the best resolution. Width and Height of the image is not good quality if dots per inch are set to 72… we usually prefer 300dpi .

Photo orientation. Avoid taking photos only in Portrait mode (taller orientation) especially when the objective is to use images for online environment. Landscape mode (wider orientation) is much more usable when it comes to Tailored service and custom designs.

Photo filters. There are a lot of apps which offer the option to add multiple photo filters enhancing your image. Don’t abuse those options because sometimes a good photo can become a really bad one. For tailored service we do not work with ready-edited photos because in our efforts to have the best outcome, some filters decrease image quality and there’s nothing we can do about that.

There’s a lot of info to be discussed but this post covers only basic suggestions which can improve your shots and maybe, just maybe adds a bit of knowledge to your tap-to-take photo skills. Closing this post with obvious suggestion to contact us if you have questions, suggestions or feedback. Support forum is one click away.

Reminder, you don’t have to have a degree in Photography / Photographic art to take a good photo. Test, try, think, see, do it yourself.