Most of us have taken a selfie, sometimes many – many – in a single sitting, and often times, we either aren’t happy with how they look or they don’t represent who we really are.

Here are two self portraits that I took this week, one of me and one that represents me, and the notes behind them in hopes that they help you compose your perfect self portrait.

Photo #1- For this first shot of yourself, you will need a camera (yourr smartphone works just fine), a mirror, and of course yourself! Simply find a clean place with a solid color background with not many things behind you (but that’s okay if there is some stuff). Take the mirror and carefully place it on the ground, then set your camera/phone up. You will want to have a timer set so that you can lay down on the mirror, look up at the camera and get the shot. You don’t have to put your hand up to the lens like mine, I just did that to add depth to my photo. Also, if you have a camera, you can also use the app called ImagingEdgeMobile. This app allows you to connect to your camera and take pictures from your phone. Just make sure you can hide your phone away out of the frame so nobody knows. Take your time and try different angles and take more than one shot: this one took me a lot of tries to get it the way I wanted it. 

Photo #2- For this shot, I composed a photo that symbolized the importance of music in my life. You can do this with practically any instrument, or even just of the sheet music itself. I set out a guitar, then set out a layer of sheet music and set my trumpet on top of the sheet music. I suggest spreading out the sheet music and showing that they’re all separate, because if you have them all together where you can’t see any of the floor, then it looks odd. Then, to get the view, I set up a stepping ladder, went up as high as I could, and shot top down directly over the set-up I made. 

Share your self-portraits with us on insta at portage.northern.light!