How To Take A .5 Selfie On An iPhone

There’s a new trend making its way onto your feed. Introducing: The .5 selfie. You might have spotted them lurking at the end of a swipe-heavy photo dump, or posted candidly on Close Friends coverage of a night out. At first encounter, you might have thought that the poster had borrowed Francis Bourgeois’s iconic forehead camera or that they just so happed to have a super tall photographer. With often distorted dimensions, and a larger than life scope, a .5 selfie can look like the work of editing magic at first glance. But, what if I told you that .5 selfies aren’t that complicated – and you might even be able to take one yourself?

Whether you’re eager to jump in on the trend, or are just trying to figure out how your friend could take a 2014 Oscars-esque selfie with such ease, here’s everything you need to know about the .5 selfie.

What Is A .5 Selfie?

Once you have seen your first .5 selfie, they’re pretty easy to spot. The photo typically looks like an ultra zoomed out photo of its subjects. If it’s a true selfie, then the photographer’s arm will appear in the frame, looking extra spaghetti-like as its dimensions are stretched out.

This trippy effect is actually just the result of an ultra-wide camera lens – which, beginning with the iPhone 12 Pro, is now included in every new iPhone model. The name “.5 selfie” actually comes from the fact that, to access the ultra-wide lens camera, iPhone users must click “.5” to change their camera lens.

Although new iPhone purchasers may have had the power in their hands to debut a .5 selfie since 2020, it wasn’t until 2022 that the trend officially caught momentum.

Now, the .5 selfie seems to be infiltrating everywhere – and it makes a lot of sense. Much like the candid appeal of photo dumps and apps like BeReal, .5 selfies, in essence, are super candid. Since you can only take them on your back camera, users can’t see what they look like until after the photo is taken. Plus, there’s something very coy about saying, “Look at this photo that makes my forehead look 12 times its actual size.” Naturally, posing pros on TikTok have shared their advice for capturing unique photos with the .5 lens that focus on details like the subject’s nails, shoes, or makeup depending on the angle with which it’s taken.

How Do I Take A .5 Selfie?

To take a .5 selfie, you’ll need access to an iPhone 12 or newer with an ultra-wide camera lens. Open the camera app, and, at the bottom of your screen above “PHOTO,” tap the button that says “0.5.” You can also pinch your fingers on the screen in the same way you’d zoom out of a photo to access the ultra-wide camera setting.

Once you’ve turns on your ultra-wide lens setting, hover your pointer finger over the white circle at the bottom of your screen, and turn your camera around. Hold your phone above you, and tap the camera button. (You can also press on your volume buttons to snap the photo instead.)

Now, all you need to do is review the results of your .5 selfie and decide whether you need to snap another. But, in the true spirit of .5 selfies, I say post whatever your first result is.