Selfie and self-portrait

Selfie and Self-portrait
People do not comprehend the major difference between a selfie and self-portrait because they like to misuse the term selfie to mean self-portrait. A selfie is taken with a one hand holding a camera phone or a digital camera. In most case, people take selfies in order to upload and share them on social network site such as twitter or Facbook. In addition, they are made to look casual. Additionally, people take selfies with a camera pointed or held at a mirror instead of using a self-timer. Selfie is different from self-portrait because the photographer usually has control over their images (Jim, 10).
On the other hand, a self-portrait is a representation of a photographed or drawn picture. Self-portraits have been in existence since the medieval times when renaissance artists and painters started showing themselves as significant characters in their artistic work. In some cases, when artist draw a self-portrait, the photographer might utilize larger lens, which can disorient the image. They can also fail to present the person facing down with no focus, which can distort the image. Self-portraits include reason and thought during composition of the image or photo (McHugh n. p).
It is significant to note that self- portrait is another way of looking at me and reflecting on my personal life while a selfie is not looking at me because in most cases people gaze empty. When a person takes a selfie, the eyes look bigger and shinny because of the closeness to the camera but self-portrait the artist produce every part of the image in accordance with the way it appears. While taking a selfie, the gestures imply that look at me I am taking a selfie or a photo of me or I am here. It tries to capture the attention of other people. On contrary, Self-portrait tries to reveal certain messages or information about the image. For instance, the artist draws the image with an intention to pass a message to the people (Jim 17).
The common similarity between a selfie and a self-portrait is that people analyze and assess themselves. In addition, in selfie people retouch and change themselves or transform their images to represent the current emotional state while artists or painters do their self-portrait because there is no one around to practice human anatomy and once their work is complete, they do not have a chance to retouch and change it. The painters also have a chance to choose their lighting surface and type of color to use in creating a self-portrait.
Bibliography
Jim Krause, Photo Idea Index. New York: Kindle Books, 2005.
McHugh, Jillian. Selfies’ just as much for the insecure as show-offs, Bunbury Mail, 3rd April, 2013.