My friends are talented. They take these cool pictures of themselves in their cars and they look beautiful. And then I discovered that the photos they are taking are considered an art form in the social media photography world. And they are called selfies.

And so I wondered, what makes a good selfie? I scoured the internet for fun ideas and tried them on my own.

1. Keep the focus on you. Obvious since it’s called a selfie. We don’t need the backseat and all that other stuff. Better yet, you could crop it so we really can’t tell where you are.

2. Keep practicing. My children and my students work on their selfie look all the time. I do not. But I need to keep practicing.

3. Use photo editing software. Lighting and color enhancements give you a professional look to your selfie. I use PicMonkey and it also also me to embed text on my photo if I want to. And it’s free.

4. Take the selfie using natural sunlight. The flash could cause extra glare and make you blink. Blinking in a selfie is not cool.

5. Remember to share. Put it on instagram, facebook, and twitter. You’re too pretty for others not to see it in their newsfeeds!

What do you think? Can you tell me your selfie photo tricks?