I have my doubts. I have a lifelong inability to smile correctly on command. My daughter is a natural. My son is arguably worse than I am at it. This drives my wife completely bonkers, nearly to the point of anger sometimes, and I’m trying to figure out whether to emphasize to her that it won’t get better and there’s no point in being bothered by it, or else work with him to make it better.
Well, there’s a few methods:
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accurate simulation: you can fake a genuine smile, but you have to know what it looks like. Real smiles involve not just the mouth but also the muscles around the eyes. Takes some practice, probably too involved for a kid.
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genuine emotion method: either think of something happy or funny, or do something to elicit that emotion - what makes the person smile or laugh or get excited when not doing pictures? Incorporate that.
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most people can manage to genuinely smile for a brief time but that’s hard to capture. Set the camera to multiple shots in a row or just set it to record video, then isolate the best shot/frame. In lieu of that, use a countdown so the person can get the timing right.
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reverse psychology: have the person make the worst most unhappy face possible, which usually turns into laughter at which point, snap!
But yeah, tell the wife not to worry about it too much. This can be a hard thing to do, even for adults.
You can be taught to smile, but not everyone will look natural that way. I don’t know where the smiling thing came from, when you look at early family portraits people didn’t smile so much. I suppose it makes some people look better, but a forced smile may be no better than no smile at all.
Early family portraits had long exposure times so holding a smile would have been next to impossible.
One important talent any professional photographer needs is the ability to make people smile for the camera. The oldest method is “say cheese”, which gives a passable imitation; apparently used world wide, even in other languages.
Isn’t smiling something most younger girls practice in a mirror? It goes with practicing grooming. They want to fit into their peer group long before boys enter the picture.
Theres quite a few more sites out there. Even a few youtube vids.
Thing about this kid is, he presently seems to have only very minimal conscious control over the movements of his body. I was the same way as a kid so I’m not worried or anything. But it’s not just that he doesn’t know what he’s supposed to be doing when he smiles–it’s that when he knows what he’s supposed to be doing, he can’t put that knowledge into action.
Similarly: Can’t swing on a swing, can’t catch a ball, can’t keep his head still if I’m doing anything that requires keeping his head still, etc. Just seemingly almost no conscious motor control. Again: I was like that too, and I’m not anymore, so I think it’s just a late-development issue. But I never did figure out how to smile on demand, and so I suspect he won’t either. But I don’t want to doom him by presuming. So I’m being careful.
Still, I am leaning heavily towards the “Let’s just trick him into smiling for real instead of trying to make him do something he can’t do okay?”
(Really, I think he’s got an awesome “barely amused mostly serious face” but this does not seem to be acceptable to the audience for these photos.)
Another thing is that some people’s natural smile is not considered “a real smile” because it is not very photogenic or strong.
If I smiled in pictures like 99% of my real smiles are, then my mother was generally not happy.
I don’t see why not. The wife’s niece is big on music – singing, piano – and she was taught specifically how to smile while singing. Learning how for the camera should be doable if you put your mind to it.
You could try clicker training. For real! It’s useful for letting kids know exactly the position you want them in, e.g., gymnastic coaches use it to train kids to handstand - a click lets kids feel when their feet are pointing straight up.
Couple it with M&Ms for best results!
Some reading here and here. Some people call it Tag Teaching to avoid the connection with animal training.