Beauty Photography – Part Two of Four
A Eye for Photogenic Beauty
I am not sure if having a eye for beauty can be learned, but I do think that by photographing enough people you can learn what traits are needed for someone to be considered photogenic.
Some of the most physically beautiful women I’ve met have also been some of the least photogenic models I have photographed. Beautiful in person but flat in front of a camera. It is incredibly frustrating to have someone in front of your camera who is so stunningly beautiful in person that she can literally stop traffic with her looks, but when you try and photograph her beauty, it becomes so bland that plain rice cake seems like a delicious taste sensation by comparison.
Being beautiful and being photogenic are not the same thing, you can be both beautiful and photogenic but they are not mutually exclusive to each other. In fact many of the best beauty faces I have photographed were imperfect in some way or another. Often it was the imperfections that made them beautiful and photogenic. Many of these imperfect models would not get a second look from many photographers because in person they are not that spectacular to look at and can be quite ordinary looking to the layman, it is only when they are in front of a camera does their true beauty start to shine.
You can be both beautiful and photogenic but they are not mutually exclusive to each other.
The Myth of Perfect Beauty
Which brings us to symmetrical and unsymmetrical faces. A perfectly symmetrical face is often thought of as ideal beauty trait. I don’t believe that to be true at all. Perhaps in the world of non-photographers this may hold true, but for me it is just another type of beauty. Also a symmetrical face does not mean it is a photogenic face. To many times I have had model agents and model scouts tell me that some new girl is going to be the next big star ( blah, blah, blah… ), but they don’t know this for sure, because they are not photographers. Generally they are judging beauty based off of symmetry, but it takes years of photographing all kinds of faces to develop the skill set to be able to tell if someone is photogenic without photographing them. These people can of course guess and some are better at guessing than others, but more often than not they are just wrong. It is simply a numbers game for them and this is why model agents always get the girls tested by photographers they trust first, before really becoming fully committed to a new model and putting out a ton energy selling the new model to clients.
I think the reason why most people are unable to understand what qualities makes a face photogenic, is because we live in a 3D world, and the photographs we make are of that world, but in 2D. This is what makes a photogenic face special, because it works in the 2D world. Learning to understand that as a photographer is like learning to see the world in tones ( shades of grey ) instead of colour when we look at a scene that we want to end up as a black and white photograph. You have to train you mind to see it and that takes a lot of practice and you have to be consciously aware of it as you are working, in order to learn to see the world as a photographer.
Photogenic Beauty, the Gift That Keeps Giving
For any photographer, photographing someone who is photogenic is like receiving a wonderful gift. There is no formula to tell who is photogenic and who is not, only that they are photogenic or they are not. You will know when someone is photogenic, when you are lighting them and when you are photographing them. You will see it and more importantly you will feel it. How do you feel when someone is photogenic? That is easy, everything will feel effortless to you, your light, your camera angles, everything will just fall in to place. It will feel like the light loves the model’s face and it will seem like a impossibility to make a bad photograph of the model as you are photographing her.
After you have experienced this feeling a few times and have photographed enough people who are not photogenic, you will start to get the feel of what makes someone photogenic and be able to spot people who are photogenic more easily.
Just so you know even the most seasoned photographers can still be surprised occasionally by someone who they thought was not a photogenic beauty upon meeting them. Leaving even the most grizzled veteran photographer with a big silly grin on their face at the end of the day, because their shoot turned out so beautifully thanks to their camera loving the face of the model.
In the upcoming part three of Beauty Photography. ” Ten Tips for Beauty Photography. “
Part One of Four – Beauty Photography – The Power of Beauty
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