How to Look Better in Photographs

Fix a terrible photograph

Everyone wants to look good in pictures because they last for years. While each person has their own beauty and appearance-based goals, here is a simple way to instantly looking better in photographs.

Things You'll Need

• Camera

Instructions

1. 

   Don't use the flash. It makes everyone look like they are greasy and oddly colored. Turn off the flash in daylight (compensate by moving closer to your light source) and at night use "candle" modes (also available manually by changing the f-stop to the lowest possible).

2. 

   Smile. It seems obvious, but even if you don't show your teeth, smiling adds physical definition to your face by showing the cheekbones and highlighting the apples of your cheeks. It also conveys an innate sense of warmth and interest. A smiling face is a face you want to know more about.

3. 

   Resist the urge to raise your chin. In life, we are taught to stand straight, chin up, shoulders back, but in a photograph, you definitely want to avoid this. It creates a lack of definition from your chin to your neck to your collarbone in addition to distorting your face.

4. 

   Put your chin down, slightly. Whereas with a raised chin you almost lose eye contact with the camera completely, putting your chin down creates definition and increases eye contact, which enhances the viewer's connection with the picture.

5. 

   Turn. Either by angling the camera to one side or angling your face, you create a more dynamic surface for light to hit, making the picture better and more attractive.

6. 

   Combine all of the above for the end result.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't worry about hair up/hair down so much as how the light is hitting your face.

• Remember, with a digital camera, when in doubt, delete and try again.

• Emotion comes through in pictures--if you are self confident and delighted, the picture will make that obvious.