Style Symmetry

Whether you take 500, 50 or 15 photos you are going to have to narrow it down to a select few or even just one to place on your blog or online community.  How do you choose which picture is the best?  When I take outfit photos I use a self timer set to take 10 photos, so I can take anywhere from 10 on a good day to 120 on a really really bad day.  After the photos are taken the first thing I do is delete all the obvious fails right off the camera.  Then I upload whats left on the computer and use the bigger view to scrutinize and then am usually left with 3 to 5 full length shots.  At this point I break the photo down into three sections; face, top half of outfit and bottom half of outfit. With me so far?

I go over my face in each photo, like in this photo below I really like that I’m smiling but the middle section of the photo isn’t the most flattering, not horrible but lets see if I have a better photo.

In this photo I think the middle looks alright, good posture and bottom half deceptively great but that scowl on my face is not going to cut it!

Half smile here is definitely not as good at the first photo but there’s a better look at my headband and the outfit looks good enough so this photo would be my choice.

For the close ups I take anywhere from 10 to 50 photos on self timer, usually only 10 to 20.  My goal here is to capture a few smaller details.  It can be a bit nerve racking for me to be that close to the camera so I often do a little shake or make funny faces beforehand to loosen up and then pretend my husband is behind the camera while it’s rolling.

When I come across a photo that makes me giggle, I choose it for an outtake shot.

I’ve been really enjoying the outtakes (I hope you are too) as sometimes blogging feels too serious like it may come across that I’m trying to look pretty and perfect all the time or even that I am vain.  Maybe that’s a topic for another day.  Obviously that is so far from the truth, at first I was too shy to even show my face or tell people in real life about the blog.  What are your thoughts on this? What is your process for taking photos? How MANY photos do you take?

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Thrifted Striped Tee Shirt, cloned Santana Jeans and Jazz Shoes. Red Cardigan, from Anabela (wearing red most days for Go Canada Go!). Zipper Headband $5 (Beck will get the same one from the Wardrobe Remix Challenge).