Six tips that will have you taking Postcard Perfect Selfies

This was LoveFromIreland.ie’s first summer, and so many of you have been creating personalised postcard images just as I imagined—sending photos of yourselves enjoying your holidays in beautiful spots all around Ireland. It’s brilliant. We’ve also been busy sending postcards between friends within Ireland and there was even a hilarious minitrend of people sending each other photos while holding up the postcards they’d received. Too funny! I’d love to share some of these moments, but I won’t, of course—your photos are your own and we have a strict privacy policy that we will always follow. We’re just here to print and post them for you, and that’s it!

So this post is for those of you who kind of like the idea of creating your own photo postcard but can’t take a decent photo to save your life. I’m in that camp too but there happens to be a couple of tricks you can use to make sure you’re capturing your best side (and not accidentally capturing the lazy eye or the three chins you never knew you had). Read on and by the end of this post, you’ll be snapping postcard perfect photos.

1. Let There Be Light (But Not Too Much)

The first rule of selfie-taking: lighting is your best friend. Natural light is ideal, so position yourself near a window if you aren’t outside. But—and this is a big but—don’t stand directly under bright sun which will create unflattering shadows and make you squint. Soft, even lighting is what you’re after. The sweet spot is where the light hits your face evenly, making you glow like an angel!

2. Angle It Right (Avoid the Double-Chin Disaster)

Who hasn't done this—you snap what you think is going to be a great selfie only to find that you’ve somehow developed a second chin. The fix? Hold your phone slightly above eye level and tilt your head up just a bit (this will stretch your neck and define your jawline). Experiment with tilting your phone to the side for a jaunty angle. The key is to try out different things and figure out what works best for your face shape. Also, most phones have a setting that lets you take a burst of photos so switch this on and take multiple shots—no one needs to know it took 20 tries to get that one perfectly natural-looking shot.

3. Composition (use Symmetry or the Rule of Thirds)

Don’t be afraid to fill the frame and centre yourself in the middle of the picture. Or experiment with the “rule of thirds” by imagining your screen is divided into a grid (most phones even have a setting that will overlay this grid for you). So if you are capturing a fabulous view as your background, place your focal point (you!) where the gridlines intersect for a more interesting composition. And if you aren’t looking directly at the camera, ensuring you are ‘looking’ into the centre of the image rather than away from it will draw the eye of the beholder into the photo too.

4. Get Up Close and Personal

If your phone camera has a portrait mode, try it out! The camera needs to be about 1.5m away for an optimal photo. Any further and the background will be too blurred and it won't look natural. Make sure you are in focus and hold the camera at arm’s length. Even better if you can ask someone else to take your photo while you pose in front of an incredible view.

5. Editing: Your Secret Weapon

Before you upload that selfie as a postcard image, a little editing can go a long way. Start by cropping the photo to eliminate any unwanted background and to focus the attention on you. Then, experiment with your phone’s basic filters. A slight tweak can enhance colours, softening harsh lighting or adding a warm glow. Or you might test a few of the filters and then return to the original non-filtered photo, realising you look pretty awesome without any need for colour enhancements. Just be careful not to overdo it—subtlety is key! We’re aiming for spontaneity rather than “I just walked out of a magazine shoot after five hours of retouching”.

6. Tips for Looking Your Best

• Avoid the double chin: it’s worth repeating—chin slightly up, camera angled down.
• Show your best side: We all have a “good side” (even if we don’t want to admit it). If one side of your face photographs better than the other, own it.
• Hide what you don’t love: Not a fan of your forehead or is there a pesky zit on your chin? Crop it out. Or try using a gentle blur or soft filter if you want to draw attention away from a spot or a wrinkle. The beauty of selfies is that you control what people get to see.
• Look into the camera and smile: You will look radiant. A smile is the one thing that will have you naturally looking your best.

Taking great selfies gets easier with practice. And the more you play around with different angles, lighting, and simple editing like cropping, the more confident you’ll become. And hey, if it takes a couple of shots to get it right, who cares?

Grab your phone, find some good light, and start snapping. You’ve got this!

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