You put your phone somewhere, turn on the timer, walk into position and try to do whatever people seem to do naturally in photographs.
Then the countdown starts, and suddenly you are thinking about your face, your hands, your posture, your smile and whether you look like you're trying too hard.
Which is a slightly ridiculous situation when you think about it. You are trying to look natural while actively waiting for a camera to take your picture.
That's the awkward part of taking photos by yourself. You are both people in the process: the person being photographed and the person controlling the camera.
And that second role can make it surprisingly difficult to forget that there is a camera there.
The timer isn't really the problem
A timer is useful. A remote shutter can be useful too. But neither one solves the main problem.
The difficult part is knowing exactly when the photograph is going to happen.
You press the button, hurry into position and wait for the picture. Your attention naturally goes toward the camera. You start wondering what your face is doing. Then you notice your hands. Then your shoulders.
Now you're no longer simply standing there. You're monitoring yourself standing there.
That's also why advice like “just act natural” is so unhelpful. You can't relax very easily while checking whether you're relaxing correctly.
Give yourself something else to think about
One of the easiest ways to make this process feel better is to stop making the photograph the main event.
Instead of walking into position and waiting for the camera, give yourself something small to do.
Make coffee. Walk across the room. Look through a bookshelf. Water a plant. Pick something up. Adjust your bag before you leave the house.
None of these activities need to look impressive. In fact, they probably shouldn't. The point is simply to give your attention somewhere to go.
Something interesting happens when you do this. You stop trying to create a natural expression and start doing something that naturally creates one.
Your hands have a reason to move. Your body has somewhere to go. Your face has something to react to.
The photograph becomes a record of what you were doing instead of becoming the thing you were doing.
Don't try to perform the candid moment
This is where a lot of people accidentally make things harder.
They know they want a natural-looking photo, so they try to imitate what a natural-looking person would do.
Suddenly they're walking very deliberately, holding a cup in a very deliberate way, or staring into the distance as if they've just remembered something extremely important.
The problem isn't that the activity is fake. It's that the camera has become the reason for doing it.
A better question is much simpler:
What would I actually be doing if the camera wasn't here?
Start there.
You don't need to manufacture a lifestyle moment. You just need to give yourself a reason to stop thinking about the photograph for a few seconds.
Video can make this even easier
Sometimes even an activity isn't enough because a still photograph puts too much pressure on one exact moment.
You have ten seconds to get into position, then one frame decides whether the whole attempt worked.
If you don't like it, you try again.
And again.
After a while, you're not really walking, drinking coffee or looking out the window anymore. You're doing different versions of those things for the camera.
Video changes the equation because you don't have to know which moment will matter.
You can start moving, let several seconds happen and choose the frame afterward.
Walk toward the camera. Turn around. Sit down. Pick up your coffee. Look out the window. Do whatever would make sense in that situation.
The camera records all of it. You can worry about the photograph later.
That small difference takes some of the pressure away from the moment itself.
If someone else is around, make their job easier too
You can also ask another person to take the photo. But you don't necessarily need to turn them into a photographer.
That's where things can get awkward surprisingly quickly.
“Stand there.”
“Look at me.”
“Smile.”
“Wait, take another one.”
Five minutes later, your friend is running a small photo studio and you're wondering why you suddenly forgot how to stand like a normal human being.
It can be much easier to give them something to capture instead.
Ask them to take a few while you're walking over somewhere. Take some while you're talking. Have them photograph you while you're looking around a shop or getting into the car.
Now they don't have to create a natural photograph from nothing. They simply have to notice one while something is happening.
Take several photos without stopping the moment
One photograph puts a lot of pressure on a single second. Several photographs give that second somewhere to move.
The first frame might be awkward. The next one might be better. Then you turn your head, your expression changes, your posture relaxes and suddenly you have something that actually looks like you.
That's why it helps to take a small group of photos while continuing the same activity rather than stopping after every frame to inspect yourself.
You don't need twenty different poses. You just need a little variation inside one real moment.
Some frames will be useless. That's completely fine.
You're not trying to make every photograph good. You're giving yourself a better chance of finding one good moment.
Don't check the photos after every shot
This small habit can quietly ruin the whole process.
You take one photograph, look at it and notice something you don't like. So you change it.
Then you take another and notice something else. So you change that too.
Pretty soon, you're directing yourself more than anyone behind the camera ever could.
Your smile becomes deliberate. Your hands become deliberate. Your posture becomes deliberate. The original activity disappears.
If you can, keep going for a little while before looking at the results.
The first photo doesn't have to be good. It doesn't even have to be close.
Sometimes the better photograph is the one taken a couple of seconds later, after you've stopped thinking quite so much about what the camera is seeing.
Tell yourself what to do, not how to look
This is a useful distinction whether you're taking the photos yourself or someone else is holding the phone.
“Look natural” isn't really an instruction. It's a result you're hoping to get.
“Walk over there and pick up your coffee” is an actual thing you can do.
That's why simple actions usually work better than trying to control the final expression.
You don't need to tell yourself where your hands should go. Give them something to do.
You don't need to decide what your face should look like. Give your attention something to react to.
You don't need to pose naturally.Do something naturally.
You don't need to become comfortable with cameras
There is also no requirement to become the kind of person who loves having their photo taken.
You can still feel slightly awkward when the camera is out and end up with photographs that look relaxed.
The goal isn't to completely forget that you're being photographed.
The goal is simply to stop giving the camera your full attention.
Give some of that attention to the coffee, the walk, the conversation, the window, the book, or whatever else is actually happening.
That is usually enough to make the photograph feel less constructed.
The best natural photo may be the one you didn't try to make
Taking photos of yourself can make you feel as though you have to create the perfect moment from scratch.
You don't.
Create a small situation that feels normal. Give yourself something to do. Let the camera record more than one moment. Then look back and see what happened.
You might find a photograph where you're not smiling perfectly. Maybe you're looking away. Maybe your hair moved. Maybe you weren't even thinking about the camera.
And that's often the photograph you end up liking.
Not because it is magically more authentic, but because it feels like something that actually happened.
A natural photo is often easier to recognize after it happens than to manufacture before it.
So instead of asking yourself, “How do I look natural in this picture?”, try a different question:
“What would I actually be doing right now?”
Then do that.