10 creative selfie ideas

Challenge yourself with some new creative selfie ideas and contribute to the conversation. I posted a few first. You can post yours on the Facebook Creative Selfie Page.

A recently survey by the PEW Research Center found that 91% of teens have recently posted a selfie on line. Is it just a teen phenomenon? I don't think so.  Just look at Facebook now. It was the domain of the high school and college population, but not anymore.

Quite a few other folks have joined in.  There are plenty of basic, run-of-the-mill selfie photos out there, but what about some creative ones?

Selfie Idea #1

Instead of the standard mirror selfie that so many teenage girls are known for, try bringing in another interesting visual element into the photo, rather than it just being ALL about you.

With the camera being hidden behind the DVD you don't really get the idea that this is a mirror selfie.

selfie portrait idea #2

If don't want to reveal your true identity, you can always do the selfies that don't clearly reveal who you are. I do this to avoid being too narcissistic. The use of strong backlighting can be a method to use to help hide your identity.

Silhouettes give you a way to experiment with different shapes by changing the position of your head, body, legs, and hands. Start by looking for interesting shadows.

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Try finding another reflective surface instead of a mirror to photograph yourself. Windows work well too. In the selfie photo below, I just set up my tripod in front of a big TV screen.

Pay attention to the lighting. If you can adjust it, try to get most of the light on you and less on the background.

That will put the emphasis on you and not your background as the main subject.

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Idea #3

Stalk someone famous. If you want to feel important, you can always try to get a selfie with someone who is really important or well known, ah.......,  perhaps with the president of the United States of America. This can be a great challenge, depending on how famous the celebrity is.

Idea #4 for a Selfie

Shoot yourself a shadow selfie. Your shadow will be larger when it's early or late in the day and the sun is lower to the horizon. The best part is that you can see your changes as you make them, so it's easy to do many variations to get the effect you want.

#5 Creative Selfie Idea

How about a double selfie? Some cameras have a double exposure mode or you may have to take two photos and blend them with software. This photos was taken by setting my camera on a tripod and using the self-timer.

I took one photo of me reading the Outdoor Photographer magazine. I took the second photo of me napping with camera in hand and then used LAYERS in Photoshop and combined the tow images into the final photograph.

There's no doubt that shooting selfies has become as commonplace as using your phone for texting.  Does anyone actually use their phone much for calling anymore? 

revealing facts about selfie portraits

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your creative selfie ideas

If you're feeling shy about taking one of your own selfies, realize that celebrities are already taking 10 times more self portraits than you are. They're doing it for self promotion, of course, but you can do it to practice your creativity and to simply just have fun.

You can make your self portraits more interesting by adding creative selfie captions to your photo.

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6. holiday selfie

Try taking your selfie with a holiday theme. I first became fascinated with the odd distorted reflections on Christmas bulbs when I was a young boy. It was only natural to revisit this as a potential subject for a selfie.

This is an easy creative selfie idea for you to try.  You only need to find a round reflective object, such as a stainless steel spoon, the chrome on an old automobile, a silver tea set...you get the idea.  .A tripod makes the process a lot easier to set up. Just make sure you get your face up close and personal and you'll get quite a lot of distortion.

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7. REFLECTION SELFIE

Another idea for a selfie photo is to photograph reflections of yourself. Look for any area with water. Calm days work best when there is no window to ripple the water. Dawn and dusk are usually safe bets to get the best conditions for your reflective selfie portrait.

Don't forget windows, chrome, sunglasses, mirrors or other shiny metal surfaces.

This parking lot had a few small puddles close to each other, so I saw it as an opportunity to attempt an interesting photograph.

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selfie portraits are good for marketing

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8. BODY-LESS SHADOW SELFIE

I did not come up with this idea for a shadow selfie myself. I've seen variations of this idea online on several occasions, so I figured I'd have a little fun and try it myself.

You need a tripod and a salf place where your tripod won't get run over by a car. You're going to shoot toward the sun, so that your shadow falls toward the camera.

I used a simple 5-step process to create this image.

1. Find an empty parking lot early, late in the day when the sun is closer to the horizon.
2. Set up your tripod and camera on self-timer mode.
3. Take your first selfie photo with your shadow falling back toward your camera.
4. Carefull step out of your shoes without them moving at all, walk back to your tripod and take a second photo.
5. Combine the two photos (two layers) in software. I used Photoshop and stacked them together, then "erased" my body so that only my shoes and shadow remained. Then I "flattened" the two layers into one photo.

9. Creepy distorted selfie

The possibilities for getting creative with your selfie photos are limitless once you introduce software into the equation.

The creepy distorted selfie above was created with some advanced techniques in Photoshop. I selected the area surrounding my eyes and enlarged it to get the bug-eyed look. Then I used the liquify filter to shrink down my mouth.

10. multi-exposure framed selfie

This is another technique that has been used a lot, but there are so many variations you can do that it's a great technique to use to create a selfie that's unique to your interests. The specific software technique is discussed in selfie idea #8.

Using a tripod, you take two different photos of the same exact location, one with you holding a frame and one photo without you or the frame in it. In software, you stack the photos and erase or block out the area inside the frame  and you reveal the area of the photo that did not have you in it.

Have a blast.  Keep it fun.  Don't do anything dangerous.  You only need a cell phone, although a selfie monopod is a good tool to help you expand your selfie creativity.

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Creative Selfies on Facebook

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