Lighting

Lighting is a way to directly change the mood of a photograph. Controlling the the type of lighting (natural or artificial), intensity, and if outdoors-time of day, will give your images a new intent. Understanding how various types of lighting affect a subject is by far one of the highest priorities for a professional photographer. You can ensure flattering photos of yourself and your loved ones by taking a moment to look around at lighting options available in your area at the time. I have included examples of various lighting options available around my home to demonstrate (in traditional selfie fashion):

 Indoor backlit by natural light: I am indoors with my back to an indirectly illuminated window. You can see my form well, and some details on my face but mostly the eye travels around my silhouette rather than on my face.

 Indoor frontlit by natural light: I am indoors now facing the indirectly illuminated window. My facial features are illuminated quite well, with no harsh shadows or piercing highlights. However, my hair and form are mostly lost to the dark background.

 Indoor sidelit by natural light: I am indoors standing perpendicular to the indirectly illuminated window. Details in my hair and face are well defined and the shadows are present but not distracting. If anything, the shadowing creates more form on my features.

 Outdoors, frontlit by direct, natural light: This is the least flattering scenario you can ever take a portrait. I am looking directly into the sun, so I am squinting. Harsh shadows are always the focus on these types of photos. Under my nose, under my eyes and under my chin are the only focus of this image and distort the true shape of my face. My cellphone's shadow is also visible. Try to avoid taking photos in direct sunlight.

Outdoors, backlit by natural light: If an outdoor direct lit photo is inevitable, this is the best case scenario. The sun is behind me so I am no longer squinting and most of my facial features and form are present. However, any lens pointed directly into the sun will capture flare (the lines streaming across my face from the top right corner of the photo. This adds distracting elements to the photo and also greatly reduced the clarity.

In the car: most selfies happen in the car because of the natural, indirect lighting available. My form is mostly visible except for some hot spots on my left shoulder due to extreme highlights from direct lighting. My facial features are detailed, but there is not much hair detail.

Indoors, incandescent bulb: Most of my facial features are recognizable, but lacking detail due to the lack of brightness in the room. The bulb is overhead as you can tell by the shadows under my nose and chin. Also, my skin tone is a bit more yellow than it should be. 

Take a moment to look through your cell phone's camera settings. White balance is a term used to define the temperature (color) of a light source. White balance temperature ranges from the cool blue of a natural sky to the warm yellow/orange of candlelight. Fluorescent lighting tends to add a blue tint, tungsten (incandescent) lighting tends to be more yellow. Natural sunlight is considered normal temperature. The auto setting on most cameras will do but venturing into manual settings may give you more control (and faster shooting since auto is choosing settings on a shot-by-shot basis).

In this final image I have changed my camera's white balance setting to incandescent. There is not too much of a difference, but the temperature is slightly cooler than the before example.