# How to Take Beautiful Self Portraits for Blogging & Instagram: Self Portraiture Photography - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/how-to-take-beautiful-self-portraits-for-blogging-and-instagram-self-portraiture-photography/ [← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Photography · Quick win · Rated 5 /10 # How to Take Beautiful Self Portraits for Blogging & Instagram: Self Portraiture Photography Updated September 2026 Claire Petersen · Fashion & Influencer Photographer Beginner · 29 min A quick, practical primer on self-portrait logistics that skips real camera and editing instruction almost entirely. [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fhow-to-take-beautiful-self-portraits-for-blogging-and-instagram-self-portraiture-photography%2F2025348149) New to Skillshare? Your first month is free, enough to take this course at no cost. This course promises to teach self-portrait photography for blogging and Instagram, and it delivers exactly what its 29-minute runtime suggests: a light conceptual primer, not a technical education. Claire Petersen structures it as a chronological pipeline, purpose, styling, props, setup, shooting, ideas, editing, which is a genuinely sound way to think about a solo shoot. The problem is that most steps get a paragraph of general advice rather than a demonstrated technique. The strongest stretch is the setup and focusing lesson. Petersen walks through two real solutions to the hardest problem in self-portraiture: how to focus on yourself when you are not behind the camera. The first uses a friend as a stand-in, focusing with autofocus, then switching to manual focus once they leave the frame. The second replaces the friend with an object, a chair or pillow placed where the subject will sit, focused on and then removed. It is a small trick, but it is the kind of specific, reusable workaround that justifies watching a beginner course. The four-idea experiment lesson is the other genuinely useful section. Holding flowers, petals, or a piece of glass close to the lens for a soft foreground blur is a concrete, testable technique with a stated aperture range (around f/2.2 to f/2.8). Faceless portraits, movement shots using fast versus slow shutter speeds, and collaborative portraits with a friend round out the list. These are simple ideas, but each comes with enough detail that a beginner could try one immediately. Where the course thins out is exactly where a photography class should be strongest: camera operation and editing. Aperture and shutter speed are mentioned only in service of the four experiment ideas, with no broader lesson on exposure, ISO, or composition. The editing lesson is the most disappointing part. Petersen walks through a Visco edit and a Lightroom-to-Photoshop workflow, but repeatedly stops short of explaining her choices, noting that a full breakdown is "too advanced for this class" and belongs in a future one. Viewers see sliders move without understanding why, which turns the one lesson billed as showing "the edit" into a loose demonstration rather than instruction. The styling and props lessons are competent but generic. Matching outfit and mood to platform, using a prop to solve hand-placement anxiety, these are useful mental checklists for a total beginner, but they are common sense dressed up as curriculum rather than technique. As a whole, the course functions best as a confidence-building checklist for someone who has never attempted a self-portrait: what gear helps, how to think about purpose and styling, and two dependable focusing methods. It does not function as photography instruction in any technical sense, and it explicitly punts on editing depth. For a blogger or Instagram user intimidated by working alone, it is a reasonable half hour. For anyone hoping to leave with camera skills or a repeatable editing process, it will feel like an extended outline of a course rather than the course itself. The standout The chair-swap focusing trick, pre-focusing on a stand-in object then switching to manual focus before taking its place, is the one concrete workaround that solves the hardest technical problem of solo shooting alone. ## What you will learn - · How to define a shoot's purpose first and build a shot list around it - · How to style an outfit and mood to match the platform, from LinkedIn to Instagram - · How to use props like flowers or books to solve the 'what do I do with my hands' problem - · Two ways to nail focus without a remote: pre-focus on a friend or on a stand-in object like a chair - · Four specific self-portrait techniques: lens-obstruction blur, faceless composition, motion blur with shutter speed, and collaborative portraits - · A basic walkthrough of adjusting warmth, HSL sliders, and sharpening in Visco and Lightroom Best for: Bloggers and Instagram users with no photography background who want a fast, low-pressure way to start shooting themselves without hiring anyone. Skip it if: Anyone hoping to learn camera settings, manual exposure, or a real editing workflow, since both topics are only gestured at and explicitly deferred to other classes. Helpful Examples Actionable Steps Organization of Lessons Engaging Teacher [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fhow-to-take-beautiful-self-portraits-for-blogging-and-instagram-self-portraiture-photography%2F2025348149)