Put yourself in the frame: join our self-portrait mini challenge

We want to celebrate the upcoming National Selfie Day with a mini-photo challenge. Instead of taking selfies, though, we're going to focus on the more traditional and well-established genre of self-portraiture.

The objective is also not to take a self-portrait with a phone's front-facing camera, as that is just too easy. We challenge you to come up with a unique and interesting pose, use props and other materials around you, and even dress up if you're up for going the extra mile.

Here's how to participate:

• Take a new photo anytime from now to 11:59 pm PDT on June 18, 2026, to be included in our honorary slideshow.
  • Feel free to post afterward as an ongoing discussion! We just may not be able to include yours on June 21's spotlight article.
• Post your photo to this forum thread. Tell us something about it (at least 25 words), along with what camera you used.

That's it! We'll pick our favorites and publish them in a slideshow on the DPReview homepage on June 21.

Bring on the self-portraits!

Photo: Abby Ferguson

Sorry, I look better behind the camera ;-)

When I once shared a selfie with my daughter's cat, my family reacted, "what a scary animal!"
I know they were not referring to the cat.

I’ve been dreaming to see your lovely face.

As I am both looks-challenged and skills-challenged, I doubt I will be participating in this challenge.

Hello

I think life as a smoker is far too short to take seriously:

I used my Godox LUX ELF as a hair light here, cable connected to my K1.
My mobile phone, even though it is visible here, was not involved in the recording process.

best regards KPM2

I'm neither a portrait photographer, nor a regular selfie-taker... but I do take self portraits regularly in order to test the unusual lenses I've got. I often describe myself as an old lens enthusiast and use everything from enlarging, industrial and interesting taking lenses, to cine- and projection lenses.

This quick self-portrait was taken with a Benoist Berthiot Super-Cinestar 65 mm f/1.8, a small and lightweight cine projection lens, made in France, probably somewhere around 50-60 years ago. I tried to capture the moment of me checking out the rendering of subtle highlights with that lens, which were created by holding a caliper in front of me - one of the tools, I'm using a lot while analyzing old lenses in order to document them.

Eventually you get old enough to just not care anymore, so here I am sitting at my electronic bench contemplating an audio amplifier circuit board. Z6iii with 14-30 f/4, on a little Manfrotto table tripod. Light from the desk lamp.

Hello nobru1958

What a beautiful portrait. The lighting setup for the face and the hair light, the way the lines of the glasses lead to the eyes... really well done.
Well, mobile phone selfies do have an advantage: you can see yourself and control your facial expressions, and so on.
So, may I ask if you transmitted your camera's Live View image to an external monitor and looked at that to compose your selfie so beautifully?
I hardly ever take selfies myself, but I gave it a try once.

best regards KPM2-1963

Thank you so much KMP2!

No, I didn't use an external monitor to check my pose.

However, I did several "blind" tests

I took this photo today with my latest camera, the Fujifilm X-T5, and the Fujifilm XF 56mm f/1.2 R WR lens.
I have always loved photographing my camera collection, and occasionally including myself, for a touch of humanity.

But you have to admit that we’re at a disadvantage face to the self-portrait of the lovely Abby Ferguson.