Nash: There's an art to taking good selfie portraits

Back in the days when cameras used film, I used to enjoy picking up an unattended camera, holding it at arm's length, and taking a self-portrait. Both of my children and my mother-in-law were frequent victims of my stealthy self portraiture.

They would drop off a roll of film at the drugstore to be processed and when they got their developed photos back, about halfway through the stack, they would find a photo of me, smiling at the camera. The shot was never flattering. It usually featured my nostrils prominently. Then again, a flattering self-portrait wasn't the point of the exercise. Smartphones and social media have changed that.

At sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, you are encouraged to post a photo of yourself. In fact, that portrait is what gave Facebook its name. Increasingly, thanks in large part to the advances in digital photography, particularly in smartphones, these portraits are now self portraits, or "selfies."

The first generation of selfies were usually taken using a digital camera or cellphone and a mirror. In addition to the slightly weird reverse image, you could also see the camera and its flash in the captured picture. More enterprising people would adopt my former technique and hold their camera or cellphone at arm's length, pointing back toward themselves. With the advantages of digital photography, they could check their images and simply delete the photos that showed too much nostril and keep trying until they got the shot they wanted.

Recent generations of smartphones now come with two cameras, one facing to the front, and one to the rear. This allows someone to see themselves in the screen and perfectly compose their selfie. Even more than that, it has created a new art form.

At the photography website Flickr, there is a page titled "The Art of Selfies" and some of the portraits are truly amazing. Most selfies are not. Fortunately, there's hope for the rest of us. A woman named "Fenn" writes a blog called Short Girl Blogs. Her explanation on the site is, "I'm short. I write stuff." One of her blogs was, "How to Take Better Selfies Part 1."

She had a number of suggestions, some better than others. For example, "Get Outside!" I know she means it because she included an exclamation point. She says the light is usually better outside and she's probably correct. Then she advised, "Find A Simple Backdrop!" (again with the exclamation point). She said, "distracting background elements are just hard to enjoy." And again, I suspect she's correct.

But then came, "Show Us Your Face!" It's probably because she's a college girl and I'm, well, not, but this seems kind of obvious for a self-portrait. Apparently some people take selfies to show off their new outfits or hairstyles, but if their face isn't visible I don't think they should be allowed to call it a selfie. And besides, it seems weird to take a photograph of just your shoes while you're wearing them. If you want to show everyone your shoes, why not take them off and get a good photo of them?

Shoes are one thing, getting a good portrait is another. Mark Twain was famously opposed to them. He wrote, "No photograph ever was good, yet, of anybody … The sun never looks through the photographic instrument that it does not print a lie." Then again, he never had a smartphone. He just might have liked a good selfie.