WELL HELLO, FELLOW SELFIE SHOOTERS!

You didn’t think i forgot about you, did you? I just needed to adjust to my newly pregnant state but I am back. This week is the last week of official tutorials on how to shoot selfies and after this we will continue following weekly themes. Once in a while I’ll have a tutorial or two if something new comes up that i can show you, guys. And as usual, I accept any questions you might have!

Welcome to Week 18 of Selfie Saturday.

If you’re new here, read what this is all about.
If you missed last 16 weeks of challenges and tutorials, here is what we learned:

Week 2: Basic Full Body Shot
Week 3: Couple’s Selfies
Week 4: Arm’s Length Selfie
Week 5: Conceptual Selfies
Week 6: Me Myself and I: Multiplicity
Week 7: Portrait Selfie + Squinty Model Eyes
Week 8: Self-Love
Week 9: Focus
Week 10: My friend, the FAN
Week 11: Magic Tricks
Week 12: Jump Shots
Week 13: Family Portrait
Week 14: Collaborations
Week 15: Stop Motion Photography
Week 16: Me then, me now
Week 17: Anonymous

This week’s topic is PERFECTION

We all struggle to accept our bodies and our features and none of us feels perfect. We put pressure on ourselves to be beautiful, fueled by the society, but at the same time that very society tells us to love ourselves the way we are. It can be very confusing , especially in the world of self-portraiture where beauty, even if unconventional, is the goal and imperfection is easily seen. Photo editing software makes it easy to erase all the imperfections, but the question is where do we stop.

We’ve all seen photos with subjects that have overly smoothed faces, teeth that are too white, eyes that look like alien features and waists that can’t be human. When you’re the subject AND the editor, it’s extremely hard to see where to draw the line, because we’re our own worst critics.

Here’s my philosophy:

If it’s distracting, unattractive and doesn’t add to the picture, erase it.
If it’s what makes you YOU, keep it.

A zit doesn’t add to the photo and doesn’t identify you, even if it’s constantly there. There’s no need to keep bad skin in the view if there are tools to make it better on the photo. That’s still staying true to life, the photographic life. We like photography because of the beauty we are able to create through it. Acne doesn’t add to that beauty- CLEAN IT UP. ( the animation below is a poor example of cloning out a zit. Poor because you can barely see the difference. But if you look closely, above my brow, there’s a red spot that get cleaned up)

A mole can be charming or can be distracting. If a mole doesn’t take away from your face, doesn’t draw unnecessary attention to it, then keep it. However, if it’s a big one that draws your eyes to it and distracts the viewer from what we’re really trying to show- it has to go.

Freckles – almost always have to stay. Freckles MAKE a person! However, if one freckle is significantly darker than another or they make up a spot of freckles that stands out, it can definitely go.

The question we have to ask ourselves is DOES IT add anything to the photo? If the answer is no, then it doesn’t have to be there

I’m a big proponent of making sure your eye whites are white and your teeth are a shade of white. It makes sense. You don’t have to have a 6 shade change, but i think it’s necessary to make it attractive.

Fat rolls – MY FAVORITE- get rid of those! Ok, so we’re ALL of different sizes and different shapes, but NOONE, and I mean NOONE, needs to see an actual ROLL. It’s ok if you’re heavy and not a size 0, but even if you’re skinny as a stick, the wrong angle or a wrong bend can create an unsightly fat or skin roll. Those can be easily removed/reduced by using a liquefy tool and skins moothing techniques. Again, if it doesn’t add to the picture, do away with it.

Speaking of angles, when we’re shooting a self-portrait most of the time we don’t really have an idea of what we look like through that lens. That means we’re more than likely to end up with a thigh a size of Texas or a waist fatter than a log. Does it make it true? Does it make it YOU? No, your thighs aren’t that big and your waist is just a little bit smaller. Make it so.
Again I’m talking onlyabout  making the photo look more like reality here. Before, I was talking about unsightly things that don’t need to ruin a picture. But now you can totally justify it by using the “bad angle” excuse and fix it in Photoshop.

So that’s how I feel. Does that mean that is how you should all feel? Heck no! Feel free to have your own opinion. But as far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing wrong with striving for perfection in real world as well as the photographic world.

So we all know how to whiten teeth and brighten eyes. If you don’t, see links below for all tutorials
We all know how to use clone tool to get rid of a pesky zit or a mole.

But I don’t think a lot of people use or know how to use the wonderful liquify tool. That’s a supermodel’s best friend (just kidding)

To go from this to this:

{personally I think the example above is extreme for real life photography. That’s not displaying reality, that’s totally augmenting reality}

All you have to do is use the liquify tool ( Filter-> Liquify)

Obviously, it’s not fair to use it to make yourself way skinnier than you really are, but  using it  to “tuck in” unsightly fat rolls or reduce a thigh due to a poor angle, or adjust saddlebags that seem to steal the show is perfectly fine with me.

Look at the image below. I have these ribs that have a tendency to stick out further than my boobies It’s especially obvious when I’m lying down. Is it attractive? No! Does it need to be there on the pictures? Ummm, no!
So you use a liquify tool and push it down. Voila!

I think the picture below is a decent example of what Photoshop can be used for.  Aside from the fact that they made her way skinnier than she really is, which I don’t approve of, the rest of the editing is perfect: get rid of the fat rolls and tuck the stomach a bit. It doesn’t make her a different person, but simply makes the photo less distracting. So this photo below have be perfect editing, if they left her “width” alone, and simply focused on the distracting factors such as bulging stomach and rolls.

{Techniques that might have been used here:
For fat rolls: use the surface blur and masking to smooth out the folds, then liquify tool to push them in to make for a more natural waist.
For stomach: Liquify Tool}

So I think you know what I’m trying to say: don’t change yourself from who you are, but don’t feel bad about making a photo less distracting and more beautiful while staying true to yourself. However, if there is a reason for you to make yourself way better looking than in real life, like to make an ex-boyfriend jealous or to show off your photo to your past nemesis, I say go for it- I won’t judge

Since this is a pretty sensitive topic, I won’t expect you all to go ahead editing your own photos to perfection. BUT… if there is a photo that you really like, but you’re unhappy with how a part of your body turned out ( bad angle?), feel free to edit it and present to us the final version ( or both if you’re brave enough)

Also, starting today I will be accepting suggestions for the next selfie themes. It can be ANYTHING! Email me at contact {at} selfiemagic {dot} com if you have a suggestion.

PHOTOSHOP TUTORIAL LINKS:
Spot Healing tutorial
Liquify tool tutorial
White teeth tutorial
Eyes tutorial
Smooth skin tutorial

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