OK, I know this is a weird question, because it seems weird to answer questions like this about yourself, but if you only knew! This is a blog, so I get to toss out the bad pictures, haha. I swear, it takes 20 pics like the one above to get a single decent shot, and the only reason I can look semi-OK in pictures now is because I’ve been doing it every day for 10 years!
Hoh! I’ve taken some really, really awful pics… JUST HORRIBLE. But I’ve figured out a trick or two, like turning my body a certain way (when I have my right shoulder facing the camera, I like that better) and tilting my head at certain angles (chin slightly tucked, and I imagine that there’s a string pulling me up from the top of my head to elongate my neck). If I do all of that stuff, I look much less cray-cray than I otherwise would if left to my natural devices.
I mean…it only took a decade and a million pics, LOL! Now after all of that, I think I’m moderately photogenic.
How about you? Are you photogenic? Do you like the way you look in pics? Also, do you have any surefire how-to-take-a-good-picture tips?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. Happy hump day. 🙂
Happy Wednesday! OMG, I’m one of the least photogenic people in the world. It seems like every picture is bad. And the Hubs is also terrible. I think he’s even worse than me. It must be genetic because neither of the boys take good pictures either. I think some people just smile and look natural. Some don’t. My family is in the “don’t” pile. HAHA! Come to think of if, my mother always complains that she’s not photogenic either, and I’d have to agree. Our family pictures would be like a photographer’s nightmare. 🙂
Happy Wednesday to you, too, Kim! Our family pics are crazy because nobody can keep a straight face, LOL! There’s always someone doing something silly for the camera.
Are the boys excited about summer? It’s right around the corner!
I think those are the best family pics (when everyone looks naturally happy and not posed). 🙂 The boys haven’t thought about summer yet because this is the busiest test-taking time of the school year for them. They’re doing State tests and then Regents. I think it helps that it also hasn’t been very nice, weather wise. They should start getting itchy by Memorial Day. HAHA!
I think you look so good in this photo. Ok, your expression is a bit funny, but you still look beautiful. Pretty eyes, gorgeous skin.
I think photogenic-ness? has more to do with how warm, inviting, alive and happy the subject is than how perfect, posed and made up someone is.
When I was younger I thought I was photogenic. But I was happier more often. Now I think the photos that look the best are the ones where I am filled with joy or straight out laughing my head off.
My mother never smiled for the camera. Seriously, she could cut you in two with her steely-eyed expression in photos. Even in photos from when she and my father first got married, she had a serious expression. You can tell how pretty she was, but photogenic, no. My dad on the other hand was always smiling and cracking a joke and he looks great in all the photos I have of him.
I used to feel superior to people who had developed a specific “photo face” – they look the same in every photo because they learned one specific pose that they thought worked well for them in photos, so they always did exactly that when the camera came out.
“Not me,” I thought, “I am spontaneous and free! I look different in every photo because it reflects my true feelings in the moment!”
Apparently my true feelings in the moment were mainly: “About to sneeze” “Eyes rolled back in head” “Nose wrinkled up and eyes squinched in not-cute way” “About to sneeze with eyes rolled back in head and eyes squinched in not cute way.”
I’ve since been working on my photo face. I have actually practiced a few things I read in a mostly-trashy America’s Next Top Model book that discussed posing for the camera. It said that if the camera is above or below you, you should lean back a little (if above) or lean forward a little (if below) to counteract the bobblehead / pinhead perspective effect of the camera’s position relative to you. I had some success with that.
The other was that if you’re posing with something or someone that you’re supposed to be looking at, don’t actually look at them – look just a little to the side that’s closer to the camera. It still looks like you’re looking at them in the pic, but you don’t get the eyes-rolled-back look, neck tendons or the general strain on your face of looking all the way to one side. It also works for those “looking quizzically upper left with head-tilt” poses. Don’t look all the way up-left – look slightly below and inward to the max upper left your eyes can go.
I think like you say it takes a lot of practice to figure out what your body / face is going to look like in relation to the camera. You can extrapolate from the above tips, but ultimately learning what your body feels like when it’s going to produce a certain effect in the pic – and then being able to remember and hit that same pose again – is a skill, a difficult skill, maybe different from being inherently photogenic (some people are!) but it gives me hope that it’s partially something you can learn + apply.
And yeah editing is the real secret!
I have a nice smile so if the picture doesn’t turn out good at least I look happy!
LOL, this made me laugh, Karen!
I am SO NOT photogenic. I have a bad habit of always having my eyes closed in group photos, so they have to keep retaking photos *just for me* (shudder)
As it is, when I take photos for IG it takes me about 20-30 shots to get one I feel comfortable posting, even taking into account the various tricks for posing. 😀
I think everyone can be photogenic! It’s all about good angles, and a photographer who makes you feel comfortable and can get you to laugh (or if you can make yourself laugh). Some people seem to have a knack for posing, but it takes practice. Like you said, 10 years of practice!
I think that’s why it’s important to meet up and have a chat with any potential photographers, for family photos or whatever, so you can get to know them a bit. You will find one you click with, and they will be able to make you/family laugh and you’ll end up with good shots. And family pictures are so important, so mom gets in the photos too. When you’re grandkids and great grandkids look back at photos they will wonder if great-great-grandma even existed if you refuse to be in photos.
My mom thinks I’m super photogenic ?. Sometimes I think I am, but sometimes I’m really like… ARE YOU KIDDING ME?. What I learned so far though:
– Practice makes things better, if before I need 20 pics, now I need 17 :D.
– My mood and confidence really translates in the picture.
– If I’m worried I’d look good in the picture, then I’d look horrible.
I’m a huge fan of your pics though. I love how sometimes it looks so quirky! Like the one on this post :).
Nope. My face is both angular and flat, if you can understand that because the camera sure can’t.
My nose is too long so ruins every picture, my cats however, are gorgeous on camera.
lol I like how you described your nose as if it has a mischievous streak that wants to mess up photos. My cats, too (all cats, probably), have never known the embarrassment of a bad photo. Even their “bad” ones are adorable.
I have always had great driver’s license photos. Maybe that should be my super power.
😀
That is a superpower! Mere mortals such as myself don’t have it ?
😀 xo
I’m SO unphotogenic! I’m very, very pale, which makes it impossible to be in photos with most other people and in most lights, and I tend to make weird faces when I’m nervous, and I’m nervous whenever someone takes my picture. I don’t think I can think of a single picture someone else has taken of me that I like, except for two from my mom’s wedding in October.
I’m SO unphotogenic!! I tend to make faces instead of smiling!!! Also I tend to close my eyes because of the flash!! I look terrible!!!
I’ve been told I’m photogenic. I tend to not like pictures of me most of the time, but when I go back years later I’m like oh, this is cute! I definitely know my angles and I prefer selfies because of this.
Then problem with social media/online dating, I always think in the back of my head that people would be disappointed seeing me in person.
Woah, how is your hair so shiny in this pic? Has it always been this shiny and I just never noticed? Wow! 🙂
I’m very unphotogenic! I have my moments but I also have more of the other kind of moments… Luckily, I’ve given up on looking perfect as I can on social media or my blog so I take about 10 and choose the best.
I’m horribly un-photogenic. I’ve only learned in the last couple years how position myself to look passable in pictures.
I’m not really photogenic unless it’s with a professional photographer and its posed. I don’t like the way I look in most photos. This is a reason why I don’t post photos of myself in public and even on locked FB, I don’t post many.
Well, I think you’re super photogenic Karen!! I’ve been told I look better in person. I guess I’ll take that. LOL!!
I used to think I was not photogenic at all, but after starting to take numerous pictures for the blog realized that lighting and angles help a lot. But still I feel like nothing beats the expressions of a moving, living, talking face.
Omg Karen, you look great in all the photos! (Never commented until now, but I just needed to now) As for me, I’m not really photogenic, but sometimes I feel nice and I’ll take 10 photos until I’m happy with the result, apply 10 filters and that’s that.
Karen, you are one of the MOST photogenic people I have ever seen in pictures. And considering that you don’t have a whole “glam squad” fixing you up, that’s phenomenal. And I like that you do different face shots, with different poses and the occasional funny face. (unlike two bloggers that come to mind…Same old face shots gets old, girlfriends!)
I am very unphotogenic. I rarely take a good picture, but every once in a while a good one pops up.