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What's up, beautiful people?
It is your homegirl, Ms. Shameless,
all up in your building.
And this video is sponsored by Google Pixel 2.
I am going to break it down and show you
how to take professional photos,
whether it's of yourself, whether it's of
your friends and your family.
We have this beautiful location,
and I'm gonna show you how to work it.
We're gonna tackle the selfie photo first.
I like to incorporate three steps,
which is, first, find your light.
Now, I love me some natural light.
If I can find natural light, I'mma go ahead and do that.
I love light that fills my face front-on versus sideways.
When I'm sideways, I feel like yes, it's cute and artistic,
but sometimes it highlights my imperfections,
which I'm not trying to go for, especially in a selfie mode.
Step number two is finding your angles.
We got your high-low, we got your low-high,
or you can just keep it 100 and take your selfie straight on.
Less lies, more truth. Let's be real.
No, let's not.
If you have you a Pixel 2, boo, guess what it does?
Portrait mode. Portrait mode is lit.
Basically, it takes the photo and blurs out the background.
It gives you depth of field, which is very pro of them.
Bonus with that is, it does it both
on the front-facing and the back-facing camera.
That portrait mode will help make you pop.
Next is, find your background.
This background happens to be poppin'.
Look at that. It's textured.
It's grays and some browns, which is perfect Instagram
when you're trying to go for that theme
where it's like, oh, everything's gray. Ahh.
There's also just your basic white backdrop.
She basic. I guess that's cute.
But let's go walk around and see some good locations
for a backdrop.
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Next is taking portraits of friends or strangers,
because we are all gonna be behind that camera or that phone
taking photos.
Again, finding good light.
Make sure the light fills them up versus washes them out
or back-lights them.
As well as angles. Look for the angle
that's gonna be most flattering to them.
If you are tall, just bring it down if you're photographing me,
because I'm short.
Or another short person.
Because when it's super high, my legs disappear, and
I look like a little toddler, and that's not cute, okay?
I'm a grown woman.
Also, where is this photo gonna end up? Give them options.
I like to do a rectangular photo,
and they can fill the frame.
I also like to think, they might post this on Instagram,
and they might post it as a square.
So I like to leave some negative space
on the top and the bottom if it's portrait mode,
or if it's in landscape mode I like to leave negative space
on either side so they can crop that out.
But if this is gonna end up on Facebook,
I like to fill the frame with all the people,
so I won't have all these negative spaces
when I'm photographing my family.
Don't be that person that takes that one photo
and gives the phone back and like -- here. No.
Give me at least five, okay?
Also, working with your friends, your family
or even strangers, they might not feel comfortable.
So I like to just rapid-fire, just bam bam bam bam.
The more photos you take, the more of a chance you'll get
of a really good photo.
I also like to do the good ol' not looking at the camera trick,
and I'm just photographing them,
so I can get candid moments of them,
and I'm still going -- I'm like, look at me, look at me.
And they're going like, Maya.
I'm like, I'm taking photos. I'm taking lots of photos.
Why? Because I got your back. Yes.
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Natural light -- winning.
How about when there's low light, i.e.,
you're in a restaurant, a place where it's just,
all you've got is candlelight and your phone?
Let's put this Pixel 2 to the test.
I have the camera on the selfie mode,
and I also put the face retouching on,
and there's no flash, and I'm gonna take a photo.
Cute! Look. That's total ambience, night-time, romantic,
by her damn lonesome with a candle, okay? That's cute.
I ain't mad. Self-life.
And then if you want, you can also edit it.
But I think I like it just the way it is.
I'm gonna leave it.
She cute.
I hope you guys found this video helpful.
If you did, make sure you go ahead and thumbs up.
And major shoutouts and thanks to Google
for making this video possible.
If you want to find out more on the Pixel 2,
as well as see amazing videos from other creators,
click the link in the info box below.
And until next time, remember to do you,
be you and stay true, boo. Be shameless.
Get your Pixel 2. Get your portrait poppin'.
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