Not a Model….

Hello everyone! Sorry if this post is not allowed but I don’t know the best place to ask. I am wondering how a person would learn how to look better in pictures? I have always felt extremely awkward when someone asked to take a picture of/with me and it shows. I don’t know that I have ever had a decent picture taken of me. My smile alway looks weird and forced and I’m always the odd man out. I figured I would ask the professionals for some tips?

  • qcinc@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    The Lindsey Adler posing book is good as a photographer and I suspect you could take a lot from it when being photographed as well.

    As a different suggestion, the portrait photographer David Suh has an really good TikTok channel, or at least did a couple years ago, where he both demonstrates poses and poses random people in public, often with great results. He was a great manner about him so you might find those videos helpful and entertaining.

  • erinmoonstone@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Try to think about something that makes you happy when you get your picture taken. Don’t look directly at the camera - somewhere in the general area will suffice and keep you from feeling as overwhelmed. Don’t square up to the camera. Instead, turn your body on a slight angle and turn your head in the general direction of the camera. You don’t need to break out into a full-blown smile - try for a grin with your lips barely parted. Keep your elbows out away from your body, but not so much that you look like a chicken. If you have pockets in your pants, put about half your hand in the pocket facing the camera. Finally, take a deep breath and relax to avoid looking stiff.

    Hope this helps!

  • tampawn@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I find certain words help…it will get your eyes to shine. Pickle, Mommy, Pickle for my Mommy, Sexxay, and a little trick I use is say a word that has ‘s’ in it and change it to ‘th’, so Tho Thexthy, Why Tho Therious?

    Find a word that makes you smile. and say it out loud or to yourself. Repeat it.

    Look straight at the camera lens nowhere else. Look into the back of that lens.

    As a photographer there are plenty of photos I’ve taken where someone is looking away or looking different, and I know they just didn’t feel good about themselves being photographed. And if I do catch them before I take the photo, I ask them to look at me and fart. Often gets a smile.

    What I’m trying to say is distract yourself anyway you can, look right at the camera like a dare and say that word that makes you happy.