The Head Tilt

There’s a reason they tell you to find your angle. Unless you have perfectly symmetrical features. Tilting your head will almost always look better than taking a straight-on photo of your face. Thus, as a bonus, tilting your head will make you more attractive to the opposite sex.

Finding Your Light

Because the forward-facing camera you use to take selfies doesn’t have a flash. Smartphone flashes are iffy; lighting can make or break your selfie. Look for soft, diffused lighting, and face toward it, or grab a selfie-light phone case like the Lumee. Avoid harsh light from above, and no more high-noon hiking selfies or from behind your face.

The Right Angle

Don’t just tilt your head; tilt your phone, too. A selfie from above will emphasize your eyes and make your face look slimmer, while a selfie from below will make you look like a blobfish.

Posing like A Champ

Models may look ridiculous vogue-ing all over a photo shoot. Still, they’re doing it for a reason. Artificial looking poses usually capture well on camera. The more ridiculous—er…interesting—poses you can capture in a selfie shoot. The higher chance you’ll have of nabbing the perfect selfie.

Remembering The Background

Nothing kills a perfectly shot selfie faster than a terrible background. So stop taking selfies in your messy bedroom.

Crop It

If your background is less than perfect, no worries. Take a leaf out of Kylie’s book, and crop it for an extreme close-up.

The Selfie Stick

Taking a selfie from too close can distort your face and make it look more expansive than it actually is. Unless you’re a pro at those angles. And your arms are probably pretty short, so you’ll need a selfie stick to get the distance you need.

Take Tons of Photos

Real photographers take hundreds of photos and only use one. Are you an amateur selfie taker or a real photographer?

The Toned Down Duckface

An over-the-top duckface isn’t cute, but elongating your neck, drawing your cheeks in slightly. And pouting just a little will give you those perfect cheekbones.

Editing With Apps

The great thing about a selfie is that it’s lucid, with no professional photography, Photoshop, or tricks, right? Uh, wrong. Check out these selfie apps to take your selfie game to the next level.