Tips for Taking Selfies In Your Bathroom!

I know…its another one of those things that people criticize ‘selfies’ for…that they are taken by folks in their bathrooms with bad lighting!

Here’s the truth: Some of my first self-portraits were taken in the bathroom and some of my favourite ones are still.

It really was a wonderful way to start getting playful with self-portraits! Here are some of my early bathroom mirror adventures (many of which are tricks & prompts that I still use and that I’ll be sharing in this post).

In these grey, rainy winter months here on the West Coast it can be really challenging to take self-portraits outside and my home doesn’t have much natural light let alone when the days get short.  So what are we do to do to finish a 365 Self-Portrait Project or just check in with ourselves in a self-portrait?

We work with what we’ve got!

Yes, to keep inspired during these winter months. What do I do?  I take selfies in the bathroom (and I’m not embarrased to confess it)!  Often when I’m running a session Be Your Own Beloved, many of the self-portraits I take end up being ‘bathroom selfies’ as sometimes when we’re trying to take a photo every day for a month…some of them need to be indoors or we need to do them at the end of a busy day, and the bathroom makes a fabulous spot to make that happen!

If you’ve ever felt silly taking self-portraits in your bathroom…this is for you!  It doesn’t mean you are vain! In fact I think its one of the best ways for us to keep our self-portrait practice going and take photos we feel empowered by to keep us going until the sun comes out more regularly again!

So, here are 6 reasons why you might want to take self-portraits in your bathroom:

1. There might actually be awesome light in your bathroom (and I’ll give you a few tips on how to that in todays post)!
2. There is often either white walls (that help reflect the light) or a neat coloured wall or fun wallpaper! All of which make great backgrounds for your self-portraits!
3. Its the one place you might actually be able to find some privacy in your home to take self-portraits!
4. There is usually a mirror in the bathroom (and I’ll give you some tricks on how to make that help you out)!
5. There are also usually props that you can use in your photos nearby!
6. You can use Apps or Filters to get experimental with your bathroom photos and help you shine in your photo!

Maybe the first thing I should tell you that if you’re thinking you need a big bathroom in order to take awesome self-portraits in there…you don’t!

My bathroom is as tiny as they get.  There are 2 tiny wall spaces I can use that are about the width of my body…thats it…and that is really all you need!

Light

So, something about most bathrooms in homes or apartments, is that bathrooms have good light! Often there is some sort of ‘vanity lighting’ around the mirror.  In terms of indoor lighting in our homes (and not natural light that might come into your home) this might be the best artificial light in your house because it is so bright!

Here’s the challenge.  We can easily do a few simple things that can make that not light not work to our advantage.

We block our own light!  Now, if we are taking self-portraits in our bathroom, the easiest way to do it is to an arms length self-portrait and when we put our arms up to do that, they can also be our biggest challenge!  We can easily put our arm up between ourselves and block our own light!

It doesn’t make it a bad photo, but there is SO much more potential for awesome light than by blocking our own.  To change this we simply need to notice where the light is coming from and notice when we put our arms or our phones in the way of that!

Other tips for getting the best light out of your bathroom:

• Get close to it! Experiment with where you are standing.  With any light source, the further we get away from it physically, the less light there will be.
• Notice where you are standing in relationship to the light source.  Are you facing it? Sideways towards it?  Try taking self-portraits at each of those angles and see what works best for you.
• Try turning off the flash! I know since you are indoors it might seem logical, but lets also explore what light you have in your bathroom and how to work with it without the flash!  Indeed there might be times where it is really useful, but I definitely encourage you to try exploring bathroom self-portraits without it!
• As you might notice with the examples above of my early bathroom self-portraits…many of them had this really yellowy light to them.  The colour temperature or white balance is something that is a wee little challenge with some bathroom self-portrait adventuring.  My favourite way to solve that….make the photo black & white! So if you take a bathroom selfie that you like but you don’t like the colour tone of the light…try experimenting with making it into black and white!

Walls

So, in a bathroom, I love taking self-portraits standing against the wall.  There are a few reasons for this…the most important is that if I stand in the middle of the room and take the photo there is a high risk of having my backdrop be either my tub (and the handwashing hanging from the railing), the sink or eek…the toilet!  I  don’t know about you…but I don’t really want any of those things in the photo!

When we take our photo against the wall (or standing a step or two away from it), it focuses the image on us and not the context of our bathroom!  It makes it as though it could be taken anywhere!

Privacy

Its true!  For many of us, the bathroom might be the one place where it is totally okay to close the door and be alone for a bit! When I started taking self-portraits, this was the place where it was easiest to take them.

So yes, claim space…take some time in your bathroom to give this a try!

To tell you the truth, the bathroom is also the place I go when I’m having a rough day and need to take a self-portrait to invite myself to feel seen in the truth of the emotions I’m experiencing.  Privacy can also be really important for that.  Sometimes when we are crying or having a rough day, it can be really powerful to take a self-portrait and send ourselves compassion.

So yes, the privacy of taking self-portraits in our bathroom can be useful for getting dressed up and feeling sassy but also for just sharing the truth of our experience with ourselves, through our camera.

Props

The other great thing about taking photos in our bathroom is that there is often a whole lot accessible nearby to use as props. Perhaps you might put on your favourite necklace you have hanging on a jewelry rack in your bathroom? Or that scarf you have nearby?  Or play around with makeup (I’m such a late bloomer to make-up…sometimes it really does feel like when I put it on I’m accessing my inner 16 year old ‘playing with makeup’ and that kinda makes me happy)!

So yes, access the props, jewelry, things you can adorn yourself with, maybe your closet nearby?  You can even explore dressing up like an alter ego of yourself & get into ‘costume’! Invite play & props into your self-portrait experimentation!

The Mirror

As you can see from my early mirror self-portraits above, I started by holding up the camera and shooting into the mirror.  After experimenting with some of the tips I’m going to share with you, I found that I loved the photos even more if the camera wasn’t in it and there are a few great ways to do that!

Now, this was a few years ago so there weren’t front facing cameras on iPhones!  The mirror helped me to learn how to frame a photo.

Here’s how:

By standing as though I was looking in the mirror and holding up my phone as though I as going to take a self-portrait….I could look in the mirror and see the back of my camera.

This also works when I use my DSLR.  I can hold it with the lens aimed at me but I can look behind it at the mirror and see how the photo was framed.

Of course if you have a front-facing camera or a DSLR with a viewfinder that you can flip around you may not need it…but it was a great way to get a sense of whether or not where I was holding my camera would work without having to check the photo each time.

Here are a few other ways of using the mirror to take our self-portrait:

• The mirror can also come in handy as we can aim our camera into it by holding it in our hands facing the mirror.  This is often one of the first self-portraits people take.  Its an awesome one to try!
• Get close to the mirror (as in close enough for there to be two of you…you and your reflection) and have fun with that!
• Hold the camera at about chest height and try shooting into the mirror but not getting the camera in the photo…its a great way to learn about angles we can shoot at!
• Mirror photos are so fun to take in bathrooms that aren’t your own (like the ones above) and can be a way to take a quick and inconspicuous self-portrait during your day!

Apps & Filters

As you might notice, a lot of these example photos are taken with the same filters!   The final tip I have for you is to explore what different Apps & Filters work best for you and the light in your bathroom!

My favourite for this purpose is Hipstamatic.  There is something about a number of their film/lens combinations that seems to work well with bathroom photos!  The challenge with Hipstamatic is that it actually doesn’t work with your front facing camera!  So you have to go old-school and shoot your self-portraits without looking into the screen.  Be sure to try that trick I mentioned about using the mirror to see what is in the viewfinder!

So if you have tried taking a self-portrait in your bathroom with that filter you love for outdoor photos and it made things look too dark or just didn’t inspire you…well the fun is about to begin because you get to explore finding a new favourite app or filter for you bathroom photos!

You might also try using the basic camera in your phone (or perhaps you are using a DSLR) and experiment with processing the photos afterwards.  I often find that the photos that we might not feel to inspired by are often the perfect ones to get really experimental with and turn into a work of art via an App or by playing around in Picmonkey!

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Do you have any questions? Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment and ask!

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As well…if taking self-portraits indoors is right for you right now, give these a try! If you do experiment with taking a bathroom selfie today, please do tag it with #beyourownbeloved so I can cheer you on!

If these tips have you craving to experiment even more with turning the camera on yourself, come join me for the upcoming session of Be Your Own Beloved and explore seeing yourself with compassion through self-portraiture!