Believing in Yourselfie: Why Selfies are Key for Memory Keeping

Carrying a smartphone often means we have the digital equivalent of a photo album on our device. Amongst these albums, the average Brit takes 884 photos each year, 468 of which are selfies – data by Honor revealed. Once seen as a form of vanity, the medium of selfies are now are simply part of everyday life, and are now increasingly gaining recognition and respect as a valuable form of both memory keeping and art – a testament to this is Kim Kardashian’s infamous book of selfies, which added to the permanent display in London’s V&A Museum.

The phenomenon of selfies is entering a new era is a trend that photo book service PastBook is has witnessed firsthand, with more people than ever before including selfies within their photo books. With this in mind, the leading photo book company has complied a few simple ways to step up your selfie game when capturing memories.

Never forget the selfie

Why not leave capturing famous landmarks to the professionals? Selfies can capture memorable landmarks with you included within the photo. By capturing a selfie, you have a tangible way to look back at experiences, moments and memories, whilst also having evidence that they were actually there.

Make the most of portrait mode

When capturing a selfie, portrait mode is a must. Creating a depth-of-field effect – which lets you capture photos with a sharp focus on the subject with a blurred background – portrait mode is a failsafe way to capture professional-looking images effortlessly.

Make the most of golden hour

Lighting will always be the most important element in photography. Without good lighting, a great photograph can be ruined. To guarantee great lighting when shooting outdoors, always use the sun as a light source. My favourite time to shoot is always during golden hour – which is during the last hour of sunlight – as it always creates a beautifully lit photograph.

How to prevent having crooked shots

Composition is the way elements in a scene are arranged within the frame. On your camera phone, you can activate the compositional grid which will give you an onscreen guide to centre photos, create symmetry and balance your selfie.

Use self-timer

One way to create a more engaging selfie is by using a self-timer – which will allow you to capture yourself and a wider background in your image when travelling. Luckily enough, we already have one built into our phones. This great tool can be used on both the front and back camera of your smartphone.

Wouter Staatsen, CEO of PastBook discusses the new trend:

“Today, with so many of us documenting every aspect of our lives – from engagements and gender reveals, to what we had for dinner – we now all have a digital photo album of our most important life memories, one which we can look back on in years to come.

As such, it is no surprise that we have noticed the phenomenon of selfies is entering a new era – as Brits self-reflect on their memories and experiences. At PastBook, we create well-curated, stylistic logs of our most memorable selfies and turn them into image-based memoirs – preserved forever. As such, we can now have a tangible way to relive our past.”

PastBook has just announced the launch of its iOS app. The industry-first technology allows consumers to create a photo book in less than 60 seconds by simply selecting a time range or location, the artificial intelligence does the rest. Since its inception, the firm has grown exponentially, tripling its revenue year on year from 2019 to 2020. The iPhone app launch aims to save its users hundreds of hours in photo organisation and is now available in the Apple App Store.