Guides · Photos of yourself

How to take pictures of yourself alone (no tripod, no friend)

Updated 12 November 2026 · 6 min read

You want a photo of you, here, now. Nobody is around, or nobody you would trust with your phone. The selfie gives you a big face, a stretched arm and none of the place. Here is what actually works.

Why your selfies never look like someone took them

A selfie is taken from about 50 cm away with a wide front lens. At that distance the lens enlarges whatever is closest, which is your nose and forehead, and the frame has room for your face and very little else. The arm is in the shot, or obviously just out of it. The place, which is usually the reason you wanted the photo, ends up as a smear behind your ear.

The photos you like of yourself were almost all taken from further away, at about your eye or chest height, with you not quite looking at the lens. Every method below is a way of getting that distance without another person.

1. Prop the phone and use the timer

Free, and it works anywhere there is a ledge.

• Find a surface at the right height. A wall, a bench back, a bag on a table, a stack of books. Waist height for full body, chest height for half body. Lower than that and you are photographed from below; higher and you shrink.
• Use the back camera. It is sharper and less distorting than the front one.
• Lock focus and exposure on the spot where you will stand (on iPhone, press and hold on the screen), so the picture does not change brightness when you walk in.
• Use the 10-second timer with burst. You get a run of frames instead of one, and one of them will catch you mid-movement, which is the one that looks natural.
• Move during the burst. Take a slow step, look away, adjust a sleeve. Freezing is what makes timer photos stiff.

Where it falls down: anywhere with no ledge, wind, a crowd you would not leave your phone in front of, and every time you have to walk back to check the result.

2. Add a remote shutter

A small Bluetooth button, or the camera remote on a smartwatch, lets you take as many frames as you want without running back and forth. With a watch you can also see the frame from where you stand, which fixes the biggest problem with the timer: you cannot see what you are getting.

It still needs the phone propped up somewhere, and the button has a way of ending up in your hand in every shot.

3. Carry a mini tripod

A bendable tripod that wraps round a railing or a post gives you a stable phone almost anywhere. Combined with a remote it is the most reliable way to take a real photo of yourself. The cost is carrying it, setting it up each time, and the moment of standing in front of a phone on a stick while people walk past.

4. Ask someone

Still the most common answer, and sometimes the best one. It works far better if you set the shot up first: frame it, lock focus, and hand over a phone that only needs a tap. We wrote a whole guide on how to ask a stranger to take your photo and get something you will keep.

5. Use an AI photographer

This is what we built BackPix for. You save a selfie once. Then, wherever you are, you point your phone at the place and tap. About a minute later you get three photos of you in that view, in the same light, as if someone had stepped back and taken them. No ledge, no timer, no asking, and the phone never leaves your hand.

It is honest to say what it is: the result is an AI image, and BackPix marks it as one in the file. What it is not is a made-up backdrop. The place is the one you are standing in, so it is still your café, your street, your view.

Which one to use when

Five mistakes that ruin solo photos

1. Shooting from too low. A phone on the ground makes everyone look short. Raise it to at least waist height.
2. Using 0.5×. The ultra-wide lens stretches whatever is near the edges, including you. Stay on 1×.
3. Standing with the sun behind you. Unless you want a silhouette, face the light or turn side-on to it.
4. Holding one pose. Move through the burst; the in-between frames look the least posed.
5. Centring yourself in front of the view. Stand a third of the way in, so the place gets room too.