Question by lhn: Doubts over photographs taken?
My son who is 16 yrs old had taken his photographs, but he has big doubts why he is not looking like(say he compares the pictures of others). There is a big confusion about the way he looks in the mirror and the photographs taken. He says no body is able to take portrait of him in the best manner. I do not know how to solve his problem. He posses very good looks and also very smart when seen directly. Pls some body help me out of this problem – very urgent.
Best answer:
Answer by sean
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What do you think? Answer below!
Photos taken in nature light look alot more like you see yourself in the mirror.. profesional photos are always taken to try to enhance beauty.. I would say take some outside.. I always like photos of myself in bright sunlight.
This might help buy a digital camera and take photo after photo and delete the ones he does not like sooner or later he will get a picture he likes. Then go to photo shop on your computer and add any back ground he likes.
What type of camera took these photos?
What exactly looks different?
For example, if you take someone’s photo with a wide angle lens, it will distort the face and will not look flattering. It will make your nose look big, and sort of stretch out the face.
Try having someone take his photo, but stand far back and zoom in all the way. This will eliminate that distortion.
There are a number of things going on. First, the face is not symmetrical, so when you look in the mirror, you see it reversed. But in photographs, you see it the way others see it. Try flipping the photo horizontally in an image editing program and see if that helps.
The second thing is that when we see ourselves in the mirror or people see us in real life, we see with binocular vision. Not only that, but people are always moving and gesturing. So the result is that we see things in three dimensions, and with movement. Thus, our brains very quickly gain an understanding of “what someone really looks like”. However, a photograph is only one instant, and from one angle. This tends to flatten the features, and, you’ve probably heard: the “camera adds 10 pounds”. It is for this reason: you only see the person from one angle thus the perspective is flattened.
Next is the lighting. Our eyes are very good at compensating for existing lighting conditions. This is one reason it is difficult to learn photography for some people because they see what the brain interprets, rather than what is really there. For instance, when you are in your house at night with the lights on, your brain compensates for the fact that incandescent lighting is very red and has very little blue content. But to you, everything looks normal. If you were to take a flash picture inside, the objects that are close to the camera will be lit with the flash (blueish light) and the other things will be lit with the incandescent light, rending them very red. The camera sees what is actually there, but you don’t see it that way. Not only that, but flash pictures are not lit the way nature lights things. Flash pictures (on-camera flash) leave very dark shadows, but at the same time can “blow out” something close to the camera.
Portrait lighting and posing is an art, and the best portrait photographers can command very big $ $ for this reason. Not only that, but the results of fashion photography that we see on magazine covers is usually very heavily doctored using image editing programs.
To sum up: cameras don’t see the way we do. And images we see all around us have been posed by professionals, lit and photographed by professionals, and re-touched by professionals.
Hope this helps.
Maybe he’s got a face only his mother could love. How can anyone help except tell you to go to a pro photographer. instead of WallyMart