The other day I shared three hacks for managing your age in pictures.
Here are three more, this time for selfies or content creation:
- Light yourself on all sides This makes a huge difference. Light either creates or removes shadows, creating or diminishing wrinkles. If you want fewer wrinkles, surround yourself with light, especially from below—but be careful. Too much from below looks unnatural, like you're at a campfire. Keep it subtle.
- Use a bigger light source The bigger the light is compared to you, the less texture will show on your face. Less texture, fewer wrinkles.
- Know your retouching/filtering goal You can’t let Photoshop, AI, or the youth-obsessed media set your standards. Mine is “If you can look that way IRL, fair game.” I remove temporary blemishes like zits and restore actual skin color. I only diminish wrinkles by lightening shadows.
These are the same principles I use every day as an East Bay headshot photographer, and they work just as well on your phone as they do in my studio. I hope these techniques help put some light on the dark art of photography.