7 mirror selfie poses that don't look stiff

Why mirror selfies look stiff

A mirror makes you do two unnatural things at once. You hold still so the photo is sharp, and you watch yourself while you do it. The result is a body that is square to the glass, weight evenly on both feet, and one arm hanging with nothing to do.

Every pose below breaks at least one of those three things: square shoulders, even weight, or an idle hand.

The seven poses

1. Weight on the back foot

Put most of your weight on the foot furthest from the mirror and let the front knee soften. Your hips tilt, your shoulders follow, and the straight-up-and-down line disappears. This one change does more than any hand position.

2. The quarter turn

Turn your body about 45 degrees away from the mirror, then look back at the glass. You get a narrower torso and a visible jawline instead of a flat front-on shape.

3. Free hand in the hair

Not gripping — resting. Fingers go into the hair at the side of your head, elbow out and down. It gives the idle arm a job and opens a triangle of space beside your face, which stops the photo looking solid.

4. Hand in the pocket, thumb out

Half the hand in, thumb hooked over the edge. A whole hand buried in a pocket looks like the arm ends at the wrist; the thumb keeps the line going.

5. Phone low, chin level

Hold the phone at chest height instead of in front of your face. You keep your whole face in the shot, and you avoid the downward tilt that shortens the neck.

6. Lean on the door frame

Shoulder against the frame, outside foot crossed over. The lean does the posture work for you and the crossed foot narrows your base, which reads as relaxed.

7. Caught mid-step

Take a small step towards the mirror as the timer goes. Movement blurs the stiffness out of your arms, and the photo looks like you walked past rather than set up.

If you only remember one: shift your weight to the back foot. Everything above is a variation on not standing square.

Where to stand

Face the light rather than letting it come from behind you. A window to your side gives shape; a window behind you gives a silhouette. If the only light is the ceiling, step forward so it falls in front of your face instead of straight down onto your forehead.

Keep the mirror clean and check the background before the shot, not after. A full laundry basket has ruined more mirror selfies than any pose.

The mistakes to skip

• Phone covering your face. Move it off-centre and lower.
• Both arms doing the same thing. Give one of them something to do.
• Looking at your own eyes in the mirror. Look at the phone's lens instead, or just past it.
• Shooting from the hip. It makes legs look short and heads look big.
• Taking one photo. Take ten in the same pose with small changes and keep one.