Taking the perfect selfie isn’t luck. It’s talent. It may be the only talent the Kardashians have (just kidding, Kim, I love ya).
Your selfie game is weak: For some reason, all your selfies end up making you look older, heavier, and more washed out than you already are. Well, the good news is that if the Kardashians can master the skill of taking spot-on selfies, so can you, especially if you use these handy tricks to fool your smartphone’s front-facing camera into making you look fabulous.
The head tilt
There’s a reason they tell you to find your “angle.” Unless you have perfectly symmetrical features, tilting your head will almost always look better than taking a straight-on photo of your face. Plus, as a bonus, tilting your head will make you more attractive to the opposite sex.
Finding your light
Because the forward-facing camera you use to take selfies doesn’t have a flash (and smartphone flashes are iffy, anyway), lighting can make or break your selfie. Look for soft, diffused lighting and face toward it, or grab a selfie-light phone case like the Lumee. Avoid harsh light from above (no more high-noon hiking selfies) or from behind your face.
The right angle
Don’t just tilt your head—tilt your phone, too. Taking a selfie from above will emphasize your eyes and make your face look slimmer, while taking a selfie from below will make you look like a blob fish.
Posing like a champ
Models may look ridiculous vogue-ing all over a photo shoot, but they’re doing it for a reason: Artificial-looking poses usually capture well on camera. The more ridiculous—er…interesting—poses you can capture in a selfie shoot, the higher chance you’ll have of nabbing the perfect selfie.
Remembering the background
Kim Kardashian Nothing kills a perfectly-shot selfie faster than a terrible background. So stop taking selfies in your messy bedroom.
Crop it
Kylie Jenner If your background is less than perfect, no worries. Take a leaf out of Kylie’s book and crop it for an extreme close-up.
The selfie stick
Taking a selfie from too close can distort your face and make it look wider than it actually is (unless, of course, you’re a pro at those angles). And your arms are probably pretty short, so you’ll need a selfie stick to get the distance you need.
Take tons of photos
Real photographers take hundreds of photos and only use one. Are you an amateur selfie-taker or a real photographer?
The toned-down duckface
An over-the-top duckface isn’t cute, but elongating your neck, drawing your cheeks in slightly, and pouting just a little will give you those model-perfect cheekbones.
Editing with apps
The great thing about a selfie is that it’s candid—no professional photography, no Photoshop, no tricks, right? Uh, wrong. Check out these selfie apps if you truly want to take your selfie game to the next level.
