Selfies for P.net members? A bold step forward?

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<blockquote>

<p>it was noted that a lot of us (meaning the dedicated P.net gallery) don't post many "selfies".</p>

<p>I suggest that since some of us are older, there are many possible explanations including:</p>

<ul>

<li>we actually can't recognize who the old guy in the picture actually is</li>

<li>we don't much care for the way we look these days</li>

<li>we are bashful</li>

<li>get off my lawn!</li>

</ul>

</blockquote>

<p>Then I guess it's correct about why quite a few folks here say the majority of the PN gallery is really made up of a bunch of camera gear enthusiasts instead of photographers wanting to improve upon their skills for making better looking images starting with their own self portrait. Facebook former classmates of mine don't seem bothered by how they look in their FB cellphone snaps and avatars after 35 years without post processing, but PN "photographers" do. Something about that doesn't make sense.</p>

<p>I'ld go so far as to suggest that a decent looking self portrait should be a prerequisite for anyone to be taken seriously as an authority on anything relating to photography be it gear or methods used.</p>

<p>You're a striking fellow, JDM, if only in the right lighting, just like me, just like Tom Hanks. Lighting is what photography's about. Photographers aren't suppose to seek out subjects that look crappy and boring including their self portrait. Lighting is the tool to fix that.</p>

<p>I look like crap in the mirror but I managed to make myself look pretty interesting just fooling around with available light around my apartment and fixing the results in post. I have seasonal reddish skin blotches around my nose and massive German forehead I use ACR's HSL panel to fix quite successfully. All the self portraits experiments I've taken (and I've taken a lot) and have been quite satisfied with are probably the most I've ever learned about the power of photography and post processing and how it can communicate and alter perception and yet I see very few PN photographers venturing in this great form of photographic expression.</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[mike dixon]

I tried to take a selfie that didn't make my nose look really big, but my arm isn't nearly long enough.

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Mike, 45-55mm/APS-C crop sensor DSLR and crop your forehead out of the frame, especially if you're of German descent. Cropping, focal length and lighting is the key to making yourself look good no matter how big the nose or forehead.</p>

<p>I had to figure all that out on my own (no tutorials) so I can't understand why anyone else who's been a learning photographer for many years as a PN member can't.</p>

[mike dixon]

My usual method is to use a wide angle and have a really pretty girl nearby to distract people from looking at me..<div></div>

[JDMvW]

<blockquote>

<p>crop your forehead out of the frame, especially if you're of German descent</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Or possibly just crop out most of the head altogether. Couldn't hurt!</p>

<p>PS - another T-Shirt</p><div></div>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Well, I guess folks here just don't want to try, so I guess it's for the better we don't need to know how they seem them self as a photographer.</p>

[mike dixon]

There's a difference between not taking a (lighthearted from the start) self portrait thread too seriously and not putting

any effort into your photography. I actually do know how to take flattering portraits and self portraits. My first response was just a bit of self-deprecating humor.

[MichaelChang]

<p>Somehow I kept expecting fish-lipped selfies as if one just had an affair with a Maserati tailpipe, and maybe that's the distinction between a selfie and a self portrait. </p>

<p>Selfies are made with phones or P/S only by girls under 21 and guys under 18, from above or below eye level, always with a camera tilt, and never straight on.</p>

<p>Everything else is a self portrait. </p>

<p>Trying to mimic teenage selfies or even calling it selfies is like a 50 year old putting on his 70s Disco suit and gold medallion standing inline to a club; not exactly a pretty sight. :-) </p>

 

[lex_jenkins]

<p>Unless you're a hipster wearing a double knit leisure suit <em>ironically</em>. As long as you attach the magic <em>I</em>-word, everything uncool becomes cool. Unless you're over 30. In which case you'll never be cool again until you live to be 100.</p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Oh! I didn't realize this was intended as a humorous thread.</p>

<p>Well, in that case your selfies make you look ridiculously hilarious.</p>

[movingfinger]

<p>Actually, I'm so vein I have a "selfie" gallery on my photography web site. Wow, I could be a new verse in Carly Simon's well known song, vanity on top of vanity! Did someone say "all is vanity"?</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexanderphotography/">Alex DeForest</a> does some of the coolest selfies I've seen, using the painting with light technique. I've dabbled in nighttime painting with light, but never on myself. Mostly with kids, pets, and my neighbor's pinatas, using handheld flash and ordinary flashlights. Alex really takes it to a whole nuther level.</p>

[MichaelChang]

<p>Paraphrasing what is apparently attributed to Abraham Lincoln: <br>

"There are no bad selfies; it's just how your face looks sometimes." </p>

<p>Unless, of course, you never have a bad hair day, then you can proclaim yourself to be a Selfie Queen as Rihanna does:<br>

<a href="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/10/23/article-0-18EBB92100000578-552_634x421.jpg">http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/10/23/article-0-18EBB92100000578-552_634x421.jpg</a></p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Hey, I'm back from my trip.<br>

Here I am, in front of the "earthlodge" at the Ocmulgee Mounds site (ca. 1250 CE).</p><div></div>