I hate having my picture taken, and I think it may go back to all those school photos over the years. The photographers would always have us sitting at an angle, our heads turned to face the camera, cocked to one side or the other. Recently I’ve noticed on local commercials for lawyers and chiropractors, similar portrait photos are always shown.
WHO SITS LIKE THAT?!?!?
No, the real question is: Why? Why the hokey pre-packaged poses?
Ironically, sitting unnaturally makes you look more natural in a picture. Also, if you angle your body it makes you look more slim, and the focus of the picture goes to your face.
He suggested velvet curtains
Looped about a massy pillar;
And the corner of a table,
Of a rosewood dining-table.
He would hold a scroll of something,
Hold it firmly in his left hand;
He would keep his right hand buried
(Like Napoleon) in his waistcoat;
He would contemplate the distance
With a look of pensive meaning,
As of ducks that die in tempests.
–from Lewis Carroll, “Hiawatha’s Photographing”
Shibb, I’ll buy the slimming explanation, but I don’t think such photos look natural at all. I don’t know anyone who sits around with their head cocked, tho I have met some people who go off half-cocked, but that’s another story…
Ike, henceforth when I have to sit for a photo, I’ll be thinking of tempestuously dead ducks. Thanks…
[sub]say cheese[/sub]
I reckon it appears as though you just turned to face —and pay attention— to the viewer. People like it when you pay attention to them.
A three-quarter view of a face just looks better than a square-on direct portrait.
It’s no coincidence that your drivers licence photo looks crappy. A photo of a face aimed straight at the camera has no depth cues, especially if (as under normal circumstances) light is from the top or the front, eliminating most shadows. This makes the face look flat and unattractive.
However, if the face is turned 30-45 degrees to one side or the other, the resultant assymmetry, elongation of the nose and chin and shadow detail will allow the viewer to more easily distinguish its shape. This is much more asthetically pleasing to the viewer.
So remember: the next time you get your driver’s licence photo (or a mug shot) taken, turn your head slightly to one side just before the picture’s taken. It’ll result in a much more pleasing portrait.
Heh. Speaking of uncomfortable poses that look great on film…
I’ve taken more than a few photos of my wife at the beach. After being subjected to my bossy direction, she has nothing but respect for professional models. (I’m not a professional photographer, I just like to imitate one.) I’m looking at the photo on my desk right now and remember what I put her through:
“Chin up! Shoulders back! Chest out! Stomach in! Butt out and hip up! One knee in front of the other! Feet together! Turn your shoulders left and your hips to the right… a little more… too far! Chin up higher! Shoulders back farther! More hip! Tighten those abs! Great, great, now smile!”
In the resulting photo she looks gorgeous and totally at ease - as if she had just strolled onto the beach. But she was exhausted after only a few poses.
One of the best, most natural photos of me was taken just after I woke up - my husband called my name, I turned my head on the pillow, and he snapped it. No muss, no fuss, no silly posture. Unfortunately, that pic was in his wallet when he fell in the river - the water spots did nothing for my face…
I used to do a lot of amateur photography, and for a while carried a camera almost everywhere I went. I took a lot of candid shots of my friends, and it seemed like the best shots were the ones where I had caught them just turning to face me.
(I also once put together a slide show which consisted solely of shots of my friends making obscene gestures at me. I guess I did occasionally get a little carried away. 
)
FairyChatMom and LurkMeister:
I completely agree that some of the most aesthetically pleasing photos of people are when they’re not posing stiffly for the camera. But the person’s position has to be right (a perfectly natural photo of the subject blinking or picking his nose isn’t very satisfying), and the light, background and framing all have to be good. That’s difficult to capture on demand.
So pro photographers on a schedule (and amateurs who want to drive their spouses crazy) pose their subjects in natural-looking, casual-looking positions that are sometimes quite unnatural and difficult. It creates the illusion of a relaxed, carefree non-pose in a fixed position for the camera.
Also, some of these wierd poses are very effective at hiding minor flaws and imperfections that would otherwise distract from the subject’s overall beauty.
Also, getting back to the OP:
Those hokey poses for school and CEO photos are so cliche. Those photographers really need to use a little imagination, instead of following what they were taught at the Sears Portrait Studio.
Speaking as one who works as a school photographer, using a little imagination is the quickest way to the unemployment line.
Yearbook pictures are made that way because the yearbook editors and publishers want uniformity and symetry in the pages. Photographers shoot portraits so that all the heads are the same size; there’s very little imagination involved. In fact, the persons taking the picture are less photographers than they are groomers.
This was also discussed here
Well that’s depressing.
Incidentally, when I lived in Kansas I used to frequent Wichita’s small but beautiful botanical garden. Every spring weekend the place filled up with pro photographers shooting high school students. I assumed they were for yearbook photos (maybe the school allowed students to provide their own photos, I thought). But they could have had nothing to do with the yearbook, and just been for the families.
Last night, I saw one of the commercials which inspired this thread - for a chiropractor. His body was at 3/4 but his face was full to the camers. His smile is decidedly wooden and he’s got a strange expression on his face - I swear, he looks like a ventriloquist dummy.
I took a photo of myself with my computer cam - looking slightly to the side to keep the glare from the window off my glasses. And it was the perfect angle to make my dainty nose look HUGE!!
Lucky for me, I don’t have to look good or take good-looking photos for a living. I guess the poses beat the stiff, unsmiling portraits I have of my Polish ancestors, but they don’t look any more natural.
Well, if he’s a “chiropractic will cure all ills” type of chiropractor, his head’s probably made of wood.
:: rimshot ::
Thank you, folks! I’ll be here all week!
Heh. It’s likely that the lens in your web cam has a very wide-angle view. Wide-angle lenses tend to distort images such that far away objects look tiny (like the passenger-side mirror on your car “objects in mirror are closer than they appear”) and very close objects (like your nose as you sit in front of your computer) look really big. It can be a fun effect but also quite unflattering. Try again, sitting farther away from the camera.
Cite?
Kamandi is right on the money. Nothing to add here, except this: The WebCam portraits are doomed from the word go.
Those cameras use very wide angle lenses. A height adjustment of even a few inches will emphasize, or DEemphasize facial features to a grotesque degree. Much better to have a friend shoot a few with a digital camera, or even a basic 35mm camera, and scan your favorite one into .jpg format.
You’ll be happier, the Internet will be grateful.
Cartooniverse
Much as I want the Internet to be grateful, I don’t have any friends, much less a friend with a digital comera… Well, maybe I exaggerate a bit. I took that pic because my husband (who is living and working 800 miles away) wanted to see my new glasses. So the Internet doesn’t even have to look and my massive nasal protrusion.
Emphasize or de-emphasize?? I’m thinking back to the days when I used ICUII - some of the, er, camera views I was treated to. Gives one pause.
Anyway, I was rather close to the cam, because I wanted Steve to see the magnificent details on my new spectacles. I did notice that he hasn’t asked for any more photos. hmmmm…