How To Make Faces More Photogenic
Why Some Faces Always Look Good in Photographs and Others Need Help
Oct 29, 2008
Being photogenic is primarily a result of the differences between seeing through your eyes and seeing through a camera lens. On some faces the camera view is more flattering. It is all a matter of how light hits your features and how the camera interprets it.
Why Some Faces Always Look Good in Photographs
Camera lenses bend light in different ways depending on their design. Wide angle lenses spread images out so they can fit more into the frame. Telephoto lenses compress different focal lengths making things at different distances seem like they are right on top of each other. Taking a photograph of a face with a wide angle lens spreads it out and makes it look fat. Longer lenses used from further away make faces appear slimmer and more photogenic.
Why Are Some People Photogenic?
There is a significant difference between how people see faces with their eyes and how they see photographs. Each of your eyes sees a slightly different image since they are in slightly different places. This is what allows you to see in three dimensions and judge depth. A camera captures a two dimensional image. A photograph is flat. There is no depth, only the illusion of depth. Your brain takes the information it sees on the two dimensional photograph and imagines a three dimensional face. What the brain processes often does not reflect the reality of the face. This is why photographers do everything they can to create the illusion of depth in their pictures.
How to Be Photogenic
Many photogenic fashion models appear quite ordinary in person. In fact, many have exaggerated features such as huge eyes, big lips, protruding jaws or sharp cheek bones. Angular faces are photogenic since they appear more three-dimensional in photographs. There is no formula to determine whether a face is photogenic. In general, the more symmetrical and defined a person's face is, the more potential it has to be photogenic. These qualities can be mimicked with light, posing and makeup.
How To Make Faces More Photogenic
Many photogenic effects can be produced with light. Soft or warm light with long wavelengths is very flattering. This is produced naturally by the sun during the "golden hour." This is one hour after sunrise or one hour before sunset. Golden hour light makes skin appear soft and even. There are no harsh shadows emphasizing disproportionate features. A prominent brow, a large nose or an overbite can be exaggerated in harsh light. Professional photographers often use golden hour light or replicate it with bounced or filtered artificial light.
How to Look Better in Pictures
Posing and makeup can make a face considerably more photogenic. Avoid looking straight into the camera. Most people have one eye larger and one eye higher than the other. Holding your head at an angle to the camera with your smaller eye closer and your eyes level makes you more photogenic. Craning your chin forward slightly defines the jawline and minimizes neck fat.
How to Take Better Pictures
Make up is useful for evening out skin tone, reducing glare and emphasizing high points of the face like the nose, cheeks and lips. Eye make up minimizes eye lids and makes the eyes appear larger. The eyes are always the first thing people see in a photograph. All these things give the illusion of depth.
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