[6-29] "Look Away"

The lighting in Napa was ideal. A sun soon departing left an envelope of soft light from many directions.

A caterer in a white apron smiled at me walking back to his car, and I pulled away to take pictures of the vineyard and trees.

The selfie has become synonymous with modern life.

It is surprising how many will resort to it. We feel some control over our image, the comfort of not being seen when photography, the comfort of deleting the bad ones, and relinquishing such duties from others.

Going through images before a shoot, a client said, "This is a good shot, I like the framing, and this one is a selfie."

We are not encouraged to see a person using a selfie, because for a variety of reasons, rightly or not, they do not feel appropriate.

And yet professional images are rarely better. Retouching, too, can be so adverse as to worsen an image that was tinkered. I keep a growing collection of recent photographs where the editor believed a fake plastic sheen over the skin would improve it.

In creating a guide on iPhone portraits last year, I learned how to make selfies less like selfies.

Two tips:

(1) Position the shoulders evenly, and avoid the ungainly elevation and forward hunch that gives away an arm extended forward.

(2) Do not look under the camera. This is tempting, and a mistake, gravely. A person taking a selfie would do better to trust their expression, avoid the preview, and look at the lens with a slightly cautious gaze.