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What do you do to look better in photos? Apart from turning your back.

Wonderful tips! How to Be Photogenic

[wikihow.com]

For me, the best idea is to bend my joints. Otherwise, I look like a pencil.

Here's an unflattering photo with arms straight at my side at Lake Colchuck, July, 2014.

Consider this selfie I took yesterday with my camera on a timer, balanced precariously on a stack of books.

Just got back from hiking. I showered and changed. Hat hair from hiking two days in a row. But I'm glowing from outdoor exercise.

Another thing I learned from this article: body angles.

#hiking
LiterateHiker 9 Oct 20
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31 comments

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1

Level 8

i do absolutely nothing to look better in photos taken by other people. if i am taking a selfie with my computer and thus can see what i'm getting, i do move my face around to try to reduce the glare off my specs. i don't take the specs off, though.

g

5

Level 8

Hold up a picture of Cary Grant over my face?

@Condor5

Hilarious! I love your sense of humor.

4

Level 8

No, turning my back is the only thing that works! I am my own worst critic and honestly, I would rather have a root canal than have a picture taken of me! 😕

Ditto.....and my biggest pet peeve is when friends and/or relatives take pictures of me (sometimes I don't know I'm even in them) and they are lousy shots but they post them on FB, etc etc. How hard is it to say - wow that shot is not very flattering- maybe I should delete it instead of posting it? hahahaaha grrrrrrr

@Lavergne IKR? I feel your pain. How hard is it to respect someone else's wishes, is what I want to know! 😀

@PalacinkyPDX Yes, I have to agree! 😀
4

Level 8

Selfies drive me nuts. My arms aren’t long enough and fingers dexterous enough to get the right angle. And I get so busy trying to see that I am centered, I rarely have a decent smile, even though I am a fairly smiley person. I would much rather take pictures of my dog!

@Barnie2years

I have never taken a selfie with my smartphone. Instead, I use the timer on my Sony camera.

  1. Set the camera atop a pile of hardback books on the back of the couch. I look best with the camera slightly higher than my face.

  2. Focus just above the chair back. Set the timer for 10 seconds.

  3. Press the shutter gently, run and jump into the chair. Try to settle before the shutter clicks. Sometimes I set off a landslide of books and camera.

  4. At first, all I get is blurred motion. I start laughing. The last photo is usually the best.

These are selfies I took with my Sony camera.

@LiterateHiker great tips!

@LiterateHiker kind of hard to do holding the dog! ?

@LiterateHiker you look mahvelus! Simply mahvelus my dear! ?

@Barnie2years

Thank you, Barnie!

Most of the time, I think I'm ridiculous with my silly sense of humor and high energy.

Tigger bounces away....

@LiterateHiker, sounds like a great sense of humor and a joie de vivre to me!
4

Level 6

I was a portrait photographer for over 20 years. There is a reason I was behind the camera and not in front of it. LOL Angle and lighting has a lot to do with a good photo. Camera tilt can also make a photo more attractive. If you want to get more technical, one can read up about the basic composition 'rule of thirds'. Most good portrait poses begin at the bottom starting with the feet/legs.

4

Level 7

I try to imagine what a human being might look like

3

Level 8

There are many factors that determine a great portrait.

Lighting makes all the difference (many books on studio lighting) When I shot portraits; senior, (weddings etc.) I would have a/an assistant/s with a/several reflective panels (aluminum looking car screens) to direct lighting onto the subject.

Then composition, face your body roughly 30 degrees off axis to the camera and turn your head towards the camera.

The law of thirds and magic corners are often well worth observing.

3

Level 8

I make myself invisible... or step out of the picture. Does wonders for my complexion.

2

Level 8

I stay well out of view of the camera.

But seriously folks, you've been a great audience... please tip your server...

2

Level 8

Hat and sun glasses help....

2

Level 9

It adds energy to a photo to turn your back to the camera, swing around and grin. I did that with these photos.

Unfortunately, my sunglass swung around, too. Ha!

2

Level 8

It is rare that any come out good so I don't know.

Ha, that’s a laugh! Your profile picture looks perfect! ❤️

@Barnie2years well thank you! But those are pics that turned out ok so that's why I used it! 🙂
2

Level 7

I avoid taking pics like the plague. I'm horribly unphotogenic. But you look great!

@Tutankamun

Thank you!

@LiterateHiker You are most welcome!

@Donotbelieve you are too kind. Thank you ?
2

Level 7

You look really good in both. Unless your photos are heavily photoshopped, you look very young for your age.

@Eazyduzzit

None of my photos are photoshopped or edited. I just crop photos.

Thanks for the compliment. I appreciate it.

My little sister got skin cancer at age 22. That was my wakeup call. Since age 27, I have protected my skin with sunscreen daily, year-round. And wear a wide-brimmed, Solumbra hat when hiking and gardening.

2

Level 8

Don't get them taken.

1

Level 8

I always like the position of your shades. ?

1

Level 8

In reading the posts I find that you protest about yourself image too much. Your a beautiful woman, settle down and stop worrying. I have yet to see a picture that is not great.

@dalefvictor

Merci infiniment (thank you a million)!

Growing up, I was ridiculed constantly for being too skinny. I beat them to the punch with skinny jokes:

"When I turn sideways and stick out my tongue, I look like a zipper."

When you are constantly derided for your appearance, you take it to heart.

@LiterateHiker Most of the time I find that when people are being critical towards you they are telling you something about themselves they relate to you. It is necessarily false. Same works for trump, when ever he says something about another he is actually refering to himself. "That is fake news" means "it is true but I don't want you to know it, I want you to see this not in me but in another."
1

Level 5

Fish much? I avoid getting photographed , everybody is better off that way.

@Eric_in_bham

Do you cut people down often? Of course you will say you were kidding.
1

Level 8

I try to look natural in photos. Fake smiles don't do it for me, so I'll think of something funny or sweet that makes me smile or laugh so it doesn't look forced... I also kind of like a "Mona Lisa" smile.

1

Level 7

I try to keep the shades on. 🙂

1

Level 6

Your cute as h e double hockey sticks

@Gman510

Thanks Gman!

You're a sweetheart and funny, two things I love in a man.

@LiterateHiker you also do not look 65!!!

@Gman510

I feel about 12 years old most of the time.

Thanks! A healthy lifestyle gets results.

@LiterateHiker im actually a sweeheart.....ed pig
1

Level 6

I have never looked good in photos. Fair skinned, light hair red faced. Yuk. I used to get 'ooo he's hot' in person sometimes. Pic advice? Black and white???

1

Level 7

you look great!

@benhmiller

Thank you! I appreciate your kind words.
1

Level 7

I don't look good no matter what I do. Just not photogenic

1

Level 7

Nothing can make me look good in photos.

@memorylikeasieve

You look beautiful in your photo.

@LiterateHiker Awrh, thanks. ☺️. It's the one good pic out of almost twenty that I took before I got tired of fighting with my selfie camera.
1

Level 8

Not show myself smile with my teeth visible. I look pretty creepy and sometimes downright scary.

I doubt that.

@Sticks48 Seriously, I can look like a maniacal serial murderer crossed with a banshee succubus.

@graceylou I would like to see that. Please send me one. Pretty please.🙂

@Sticks48 No. You’d never talk to me again and then you’d have me exorcized.

@graceylou I don't believe you. You are way to pretty for that to be true.

@Sticks48 There is good reason I don’t post pics with my teeth showing.

@graceylou Send it to me directly. It will be our secret.

@Sticks48 Hah. No.

@graceylou OK he said with much disappointment. 😟
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