You and Your Selfie: Tips for the Ultimate Vacation Photo
Selfie is now officially in the Oxford English Dictionary, and it is undeniably a part of modern culture. There is no better time to take a selfie, or a photo of yourself, then when you’re on vacation in an exciting or scenic location.
In fact, some hotels cater to selfie takers by offering free wifi in lobbies or offering guests a list of the best selfie spots on the property and throughout the surrounding area.
Whether you want to get that perfect shot or you’re eager to upload plenty of amazing photos to social media once you’re home, use this guide to improve your selfie taking on your next getaway.
Skip the Filters
With the array of filters available on most smartphones, it might be tempting to use a filter when you take the photo to give it a black and white feel or have sepia tones.
However, that really limits what you can do with the photo in the future. Instead, skip the filters altogether and snap the shot au naturel. Later on, you can add in filters to change up the look if you want to. Or, leave it as is and hashtag it with #nofilter to get the likes to start rolling in.
Snap Away in Natural Light
While there’s nothing wrong with taking a selfie with the city’s illuminated skyline as your background or snapping a selfie while you’re in a bustling nightclub, the best shots are typically going to be in natural light.
Unless you have a high-quality digital camera, darkness or low light might cause your photo to be blurry. Smartphones can take excellent selfies, but they will look much better when you’re outside or in a room that gets natural sunlight during the day.
Vary Your Background
You’re on vacation, so don’t take selfies in the same spot every day! Use a variety of different locations as your backgrounds to keep each photo unique and make your selfies more interesting.
Great scenery is always a winner, but huge attractions or monuments like the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty are also worthy of making their way into your selfie.
You can even play around with depth and scale to make it look like you’re holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa or touching the Burj Khalifa.
Try Out a Selfie Stick
One of the best ways to take truly phenomenal photos while you’re on vacation, particularly if you’ll be traveling solo, is with a selfie stick. This device is an expandable rod that lets you fit in your smartphone to take photos a few feet away from your face.
Gone are the days when you had to ask someone to take your photo for you, and you can easily snap pictures with several friends or family members with amazing landmarks in the background.
The selfie stick lets you choose your angle, get a wider background than a typical selfie taken at arm’s length and can even be a fun addition to your vacation experience.
Whether you’re snapping selfies in front of the Pyramids at Giza or from a hotel’s rooftop pool in Miami, these tips ensure you get the best photos possible.