Talking Tech: The art of the selfie — some tips
ANAHEIM, Calif. — You've seen folks doing it all summer long: taking those silly pictures of themselves directly into the smartphone.
They're called "selfies," which Evan Spiegel, the co-founder of photo messaging app Snapchat describes thusly: "a picture taken with the front-facing camera of your cellphone of your face."
Snapchat generates 200 million photos daily, many of them "selfies."
The practice of taking one's photo and sharing it with the world is also huge on Instagram, the world's most popular photo app. A simple Instagram search on Friday for "selfies" produced 150 million mentions.
But it's not easy framing yourself into the camera, especially when others join the shot. What are the best techniques for selfie-dom? We asked consumers at the recent VidCon convention here, a gathering of YouTube fans and stars.
"Take your phone, tilt it and lean," says Emily Faulkner, who lives in the United Kingdom.
In other words, get the phone at a good angle to fit both yourself and your friends. You don't have to always shoot straight on.
Tom Milsom, a British musician who makes videos that run on YouTube, likes the control of selfie shots. "I prefer to hold the camera myself and be able to position it appropriately, so I'm looking at a screen with a real-time view of what the photo will look like," he says, "so I get the best photo possible."
Katt Wade, a friend of Faulkner's from the U.K., says she enjoys watching folks making Snapchat selfies on the streets. "You can see those people in public, when they'll be doing something on the phone," make a funny face and then "carry on."
Adds Faulkner: "In university, I'm like sitting in class, and you know who's not doing anything. They're on Snapchat" making funny faces into their phone quickly and then returning to pay attention.
Katerina Guillermo, from Miami, says she generates at least two selfies a day.
"People are very conceited," she says. "They always want someone to notice how pretty they are, even when they're not even doing anything."
What's behind the rise of the selfie? Chalk it up to smartphones with their ever-present camera, which takes photos that can be uploaded in seconds via popular visual communication apps.
Brian Solis, an analyst with the Altimeter Group, says teens and young adults look to the selfie as an "evolution" of visual chat. "They communicate not through text, but imagery of themselves. The visuals capture and communicate their state of mind."
It's not just young teens who are doing it. Professional photographers who need to reach out to their client base can't resist it either. "They're becoming more brand aware," says RC Concepcion, host of the Photography Tips and Tricks series that runs on YouTube and Kelby Media. "It's a way to connect with people and share what they're doing. And people find a real connection to it."
Where does the selfie go from here? "It's just going to become more pervasive," says Solis.
His reasoning: The selfie and the feedback it generates turn the ordinary Web surfer into a mini-celebrity.
"Once you put yourself out there with the live emoticon, to show your expression, and you get rewarded with likes and comments, you start to need more of that type of reaction, and therefore you share more often."
Follow Jefferson Graham on Twitter: @jeffersongraham[1].
References
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