Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Photographing My Self

I take photos of myself nearly every time I present as a woman. I do it for two reasons:

  1. To feed this blog. (The blog is hungry for photos and it must be fed.)
  2. To see if the outfit I am wearing is good, bad, or ugly. Photos are more revealing than a mirror. What I see in the mirror often looks different in a photograph. Photographing my fashion faux pas allows me to make adjustments, for example, put on a girdle so I don’t look so fat.

Self photography is an art. I probably discard 4 out of 5 of the self-photos I take because there is something technically wrong with them (usually related to focus, framing, lighting, or worse, because I look fat).

I use my iPhone 14 Pro for most of my self-photography. The quality of the iPhone photos is very good in my opinion and it is hard to beat the convenience.

I use the self-timer function in the iPhone’s Camera app for a lot of my self-photography. Set the timer for 10 seconds, click the Cameras shutter button, walk into the Cameras field of vision, pose, smile, watch the birdie and wait for the Camera to snap a shot.

In a pinch, I lean the iPhone against something to take a self-timed photo. But most of the time, I use a small tripod designed to hold the iPhone. The tripod has bendable legs, so I can use it in diverse settings.

That covers the hardware, but what about the software, that is, the model in my selfies?

I learned that my best photos are ones in which I smile.

Over the years, I have seen thousands of photos of transgirls and I can never understand why some girls look so unhappy in their photos. They are living their dream, although sometimes only momentarily and they should be very happy about it, yet some of them look like they just downed a spoonful of castor oil!

So, smile and smile naturally, not in a forced manner. I used to have a forced smile in my photos, but I worked on it and now my smiles look natural and the results are much better!

I am also becoming more adept at posing for my photos.

  1. I tilt my chin up slightly and extend my neck forward to avoid the double chin.
  2. Instead of a straight-on shot, I turn my shoulders slightly to the left or right. And pose with one leg in front of the other, for example, by crossing my legs at the ankle.
  3. With legs crossed, sometimes I will put one hand on my hip. This elbow-jut pose results in a ladylike ballerina effect.
  4. To accentuate my legs, I thrust one hip to the side, stretch out my opposing leg as far as it will go and point my toes.

Taking selfies as you pose in a mirror is tricky.

  1. For starters, shut off the flash, otherwise your selfie will be nothing but flash reflected in the mirror and that is not the result you want unless you are Barry Allen.
  2. Take mirror selfies while looking at your reflection in the mirror rather than looking at the trigger button on your smart phone. This is simple with the iPhone because you can shoot a photo by clicking one of the iPhone’s volume buttons, which is a lot easier than trying to click the virtual trigger button on the iPhone’s screen.
  3. Before showing off your mirror selfies, use photo-editing software to flip the image horizontally so that you look natural and not the opposite, which is what a mirror displays.

I am a work-in-progress and so is my self-photography, but practice, practice, practice and someday my photos will do justice to a complete woman.

(This post is an update of a post that originally appeared in June 2015.)


Source: Moda Operandi
Wearing Posse


Before and After
Before and After

7 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 03, 2023

    Taking a few photographs from different angles means you can see exactly what is showing
    Lucy

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 03, 2023

    Before and after not civilians LOL

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMay 03, 2023


    How can you tell who the cross dresser is at a family reunion they are the only person who knows how to work the self timer on the camera

    Photography is very important in our community great article Stana, looks like I did one also Wayback when put the link here for others to enjoy. Paula G

    http://www.femulate.org/2014/08/smile-pretty.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. My Dad used to say, "You never know just how you look until you get your picture took".

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMay 03, 2023

    I will agree the reflection is a mirror is what the mind wants to see. I have not taken pictures of myself en femme for literally four decades; back when I had a film disk camera with a timer. I took pictures of myself in my neighbor's backyard. I got the courage to have the film developed. I was so confident whoever developed the film would see a blond in a blue dress. I was terrified to pick up the pictures but all went well. I thought I looked pretty good; pretty and passable. Now it is so easy with smart phones and computers. Eventually I destroyed the pictures as I was deep in the closet and did not want the pictures to be found. I have to chuckle a little when things do not go as intended when supposedly private pictures end up being emailed or seen by others. So it goes with modern technology.

    ReplyDelete
  6. "Over the years, I have seen thousands of photos of transgirls and I can never understand why some girls look so unhappy in their photos. "

    I am glad you said it. I feel the same way when I see those photos. When they are not smiling I feel like they present an unhappy conflicted look. The hope is they embrace their femininity without shame and are happy about it.
    -Christina

    ReplyDelete
  7. When I take a photo of myself, I also use a timer, 10 sec, but I don't like to see the phone itself on the picture, so I try to have it on a tripod (large or small) or just leave the phone somewhere, which holds it securely for a short period of time.

    ReplyDelete