Taking a great pic is a fine art—it’s a lot harder than it looks to make sure your in-the-flesh beauty translates on camera. With some knowledge of your body and understanding of what makes you look good, you can also look great in photos!
The most important things to consider before the photo shooting
Find the good side of your face
First of all, you need to know that the face of the majority of people in the world is asymmetric. Furthermore, it gets even more asymmetric during the process of aging. Thus, you need to find the side of your face that looks better on photos. It’s really easy to find one. Take a piece of paper and make a couple of photos by closing the right and the left sides of your face. Now compare photos and choose the best side of the face. You can make it even faster by simply taking pictures of the right and the left sides of the face. Kindly note, that the ‘good side’ of the face and the ‘favorite photo position’ terms are totally different. By choosing one pose and emotion for all the photos, you will make them look boring and unnatural.
Think about lighting
The natural daylight is the best option for the photoshoot. The best time of the day is the morning or the evening. These times are recommended by all the photographers. You can easily make astonishing photos during the sunset.
It’s not recommended to take photos with the bright sunlight because it’s too sharp and will make a lot of contrast shadows on you and your face. In addition, it’s not recommended to stand right under or right above the source of the light; otherwise, you will suffer from excessive shadows and dark circles under your eyes.
Think about your future photo
If you plan to take the photo yourself, think about all the objects in the frame and create a composition. Never forget about the rule of thirds: you need to divide the frame into nine equal parts and locate all the objects on the crossing lines of these parts.
It may sound too outdated, but you need to keep the horizon line straight. In addition, think about the white color balance. The idea is to keep white objects from the real-life white on the photo. If you are using the phone, you generally need to click on the lightest or the darkest area of the screen to find the best balance for your photo.
What to do during the photoshoot
Use your eyes to show emotions
The most important tip is to love the camera. Imagine that your beloved one is the camera. By doing so, you are able to show the strongest and warmest emotions and feelings.
Blink a lot
This tip is very useful for those, always having closed eyes on the photo. All you need to do is to blink a couple of times and open them with one sharp movement right before taking the photo. At the same time, you need to avoid goggle-eyed faces.
Find a natural and very comfortable pose
Try to avoid looking a tin soldier. Avoid putting legs together and holding your arms close to the body. If you want to look, fitter, just turn a bit and bend a leg that is located closer to the camera. Try to relax the lower jaw and lips; otherwise, you will look too rigid and unnatural.
Find the angle
It’s worth noting that the part of your body located right in front of the camera lens will look big and voluminous. Kindly note, that everything depends on your goals. You can use this feature to highlight specific features of your body, as well as to hide them. For example, you can ask the photographer to take photos from below if you want to look taller. However, it may distort the real proportions of your body, e.g. making your chin too massive.
Never stop moving
Change positions and locations, or ask the photographer to move around you. Steady photos are great for documents; otherwise, you need to move to bring some life to the pictures. The photographer also needs to move in order to try different angles and perspectives.
How to make a selfie
Clean the camera
Just a simple reminder: The selfie will look astonishing if you remove all the drops and fingerprints from the frontal camera glass.
Look around
Try to understand the nature of the background. If you need a great portrait, you don’t really have to do that right in front of sad or chewing people. In addition, they will be shy and confused. The only exception is the case when you want to take such a photo in order to show your personal approach or make a funny (we really hope so!) joke.
Choose the inclination and the rotation angle of the head
It’s not recommended to look directly at the camera without moving your head. Such photos are great for official documents. The best way is to turn your head by 45 degrees to make a selfie. Try to practice in front of the mirror before taking selfies.
Never use default Instagram camera
It allows taking only a single picture. It’s better to take a lot of them with your camera and choose the best one.
Be fast and sharp while taking a group photo
The key task is to make everything while people are still concentrated; otherwise, they will start blinking and distracting. In addition, try to make a series of shots, but don’t think that all of them will like your work.
After the shooting
You can leave photos as is, or process them a bit in order to highlight the details.
What to do
Crop the picture, while thinking about the rule of the thirdsRestore the correct horizon lineCorrect the white balanceAdjust brightness and contrast (it can be easily done in the most popular photo editing apps). Keep in mind, if you set these parameters too high, it will be obvious. In addition, it’s simply impossible to save a photo that is too dark or too light
What to avoid
Never correct specific colors. We are talking about the cases, when one object is colorful, while all other elements are monochrome Never blur the background with the artificial filtersNever whiten the teeth, eyes, remove folds and wrinkles, or even pimples. In addition, never try to make your waist look fitter because there’s a high risk of other objects distortion. Furthermore, never add such elements as eyelashes or beauty spots
The most useful apps
One can easily use the default tools of the smartphone to correct the horizon or crop the phone. These are the most popular and easy to understand photo editing apps: Facetune (iOS and Android), VSCO (iOS and Android), and FaceApp (iOS and Android).
In case if you want to hire a professional photographer, we are always happy to offer you a wide range of photo and video services:
Phone: 855-588-1010
Email: hello@laphotola.com
Web: laphotola.com
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