The human body comes in many shapes and sizes but generally we are all wider full frontal than we are side-on. The ratio is about 3:2. So you might expect that being photographed side on will make you look a whole third slimmer - and if you have one of those straight up and down figures it probably will. But if like me you are a little over your ideal weight, you will know that those extra pounds are not evenly distributed and being caught side-on can show the odd bulge in the wrong place. It’s also quite uncomfortable to screw your head round through 90 degrees to look at the camera. 

So the answer is to stand at 45 degrees to the camera (i.e. half way between full frontal and side on). In this way you will reduce your body width by about a sixth without profiling those ever so slightly podgy bits! 

For those of you who feel you are a little on the slim side, then present your body full on to the camera. 

A Look Good on Camera photo-shoot will give you the opportunity to practice this along with many other tips on how to look your photogenic best in photos and pictures.

A group photo is really only as good as the least photogenic person in it! That makes taking group photos a deal more risky than taking one to one shots. If you want to look good in group photographs then take some time in making yourself more photogenic. Give the photographer some angles. Relate to the camera and make sure you are in a good position to be seen. If you’re worried about your height don’t stand next to a very tall or short person. If you think you’re a little skinny don’t stand next to a tubby, and if you’re overweight avoid being photographed with stick insects!

These are the Copycatz, a 4-piece covers band playing danceable, guitar-driven classic pop from The Stones to Green Day … and beyond! They needed some promotional shots for music agencies and their website which they are currently re-building. Good luck lads.

A friend has just shown me some 50 to 60 photographs that she took at a girlie night out. I hate to say it, but practically all her fellow revellers look like demons from hell. It’s the old red eye problem. It’s caused by reflected flash. As most point and shoot cameras will automatically use flash indoors, and even outdoors if the light is poor, it is a common problem. If you want to look good in photos and avoid having the centres of your eyes looking like the mouths of a volcano, don’t look straight at the camera lens when flash is being used.  Preferably look just over the top of the camera. This will make you appear to be looking at the camera without the hell fire effect.This “snap” was taken with flash although it was daylight outside. The ambient light therefore wasn’t too low - so not a red eye in sight.

Red eye is caused by light from the flash bouncing back off the retina, the light sensitive area at the back of the eye. In poor light, when flash is likely to be used, our pupils are relatively dilated (wide) to allow more light in so that we can see better. When the pupils are dilated the retina is more exposed and it reflects more light. If the eyes are looking directly at the camera then the light reflected from the retina will hit the lens full on and be recorded by the light sensor in the camera. As the retina is red in colour this makes the pupils appear bright red. These days the photographer can use the red eye reduction feature on the camera, or failing that edit the red eye out by means of digital editing software. However not everyone does this, and it is better to avoid looking directly at the lens, rather than risk appearing in subsequent photos as a half-crazed banshee ! (the dictitionary definition is a wailing female spirit of Irish folklore origin). Editing red eye out essentially replaces the red with black or dark grey. Personally I think that this results in a rather lifeless looking eye. So I believe that that is another reason for avoiding red eye in the first place. As I quite often use flash for photo-shoots, avoiding red eye is one of the first topics covered.

When I was a lad, cameras were expensive and difficult to use. (Black and white films only, you had to load and unload them in the dark, remember to wind on the film after each shot, take photos with no focusing aids………..). Small wonder then, that it took a camera competent photographer to produce anything approaching a decent photograph. No matter how photogenic you were, uncle Fred’s photos were going to be pretty naff anyway.

There was also no computers and no internet. There was therefore no danger of finding photographs of yourself posted on websites or publically accessible photo albums such as Photobox, Pixmania, Kodak etc etc.

Technology has changed all that. Relatively inexpensive point and shoot pocket digital cameras can produce technically good photographs without any know-how being necessary on the part of the photographer.

Once taken those photos will be uploaded onto computer and made available to a host of people via email, websites, blogs and commercial album sites.

So if you want to look good in all those photos that your friends and relatives are going to take (and then distribute to all and sundry), maybe you should take some positive action to make yourself more photogenic.

This is Lisa who comes from Leipzig and at the tender age of 18 is walking/camping from Lands End to John O’Groats accompanied only by her backpack weighing some 10 kilos. She hopes to complete her journey in about 60 days. She has a natural smile and is very easy to photograph as these 2 quick “snaps” illustrate. Given that her pack is probably over 20 percent of her body weight, and that she had been walking for 7 hours when this photograph was taken, she is remarkably photogenic.

Being “natural” with the camera is an important part of being photogenic. For some people it is relatively easy and for others a little more difficult, but practicing having your photograph taken by means of a photo-shoot gets you to treat the camera as a friend and we all find it much easier to be “natural” with our friends.

My mate Poth and I walked a mile or two with Lisa early/mid June when we were walking a bit more of the South West Coastal Path near Hayle in Cornwall. We hope it’s going well Lisa, you’ve had some pretty horrible weather the last week or so. If you get the chance email Bob@lookgoodoncamera.com and let us know how you are getting on. Here’s another photo of you. If you want some high resolution copies let me know and I’ll email them to you or send you a print. Good Luck. 

Are you one of those people who frequently appear in photographs with their eyes closed? 

Well even the most photogenic model gets caught out that way occasionally, but there is a reason why it happens more to some people than it does to others. It comes down to blink rate. 

Quite simply the more often you blink; the more likely you are to be caught on camera with your eyes shut. Blinking is something that we all need to do. It’s essential for cleaning and lubricating the outer surface of our eyes. 

A minority of individuals are unlucky enough to have neurological or nervous conditions that cause them to blink more often. However the majority of us can exercise a degree of control over how often we blink. Do you remember trying to stare other kids out when you were a child?

Just as the conscious mind has a degree of control over blinking, so the sub-conscious mind effects blink rate as well. Research has apparently shown that we blink more when we are not concentrating, when we are tired and when we are worried or embarrassed. 

Now I’m not suggesting that you consciously try to stop yourself blinking when you are having your photograph taken. That would be far too uncomfortable and having your photograph taken should never be uncomfortable. 

However if you are comfortable and well rested and you concentrate on providing the camera with interesting images, you will significantly reduce your blink rate and the chance of you being photographed with your eyes closed.

One of the things a photo-shoot will do is get you feeling comfortable in front of the camera and thereby significantly reduce the chance of you being photographed with your eyes shut in the future.

Being photogenic and looking good on camera have a lot to do with self-esteem. If you feel positive about yourself then you will present yourself in a positive way with naturally out-going body language and confident posture.

Psychiatrists and psychologists have recognised the importance of raising self-esteem in the treatment and prevention of many cases of mental ill-health. As a physician myself, I am surprised that techniques to raise self-esteem are not used more widely to help mentally well people perform better, feel better about themselves, and thereby derive greater pleasure out of life. 

Our Look Good on Camera photo-shoots are designed to enhance self esteem and give you tips on how you can feed your self esteem whenever you have self doubts. Come on, book yourself in and start feeling good, looking good and enjoying life more than you ever thought possible.

These fascinating primates are native only to Madagascar (and a few surrounding small islands where they were probably introduced by humans).  They are allegedly unique among primates in that their social structure is matriarchal i.e. the female is dominant to the male ( I know a few human families like that!).

They range in size from the diminutive mouse lemur (less than 50 grams) to the largest surviving lemur, the indri weighing about 10 kilograms.

I cannot claim to have helpled these guys look good on camera. They are naturals. I suppose wild animals don’t have as many “hang-ups” as we do. They are beautiful creatures and worth every step we had to take through what was at times some pretty inhospitable terrain. On one occasion we were lucky enough to be standing beneath a troop of indris when they went into their erie territory claiming call which can be heard from as far as a few kilometres away. Truly awesome.

For as long as I can remember I’ve always wanted to go to Madagascar. I must have learnt of its existence sometime in my long-forgotten childhood. I don’t know whether it was in a book, a story someone told me, or maybe a postage stamp from one of those packets of assorted foreign stamps that you used to be able to buy in Woolworths. Whatever the reason it was somewhere that I had to go.

Madagascar Trip September 2007

Here are a few of the photographs I took in Madagascar on what was primarily a wildlife holiday (‘wildlife’ as in birds and lemurs not clubbing!).

Needless to say I couldn’t resist photographing some of the delightful people we met along the way. As I don’t speak Malagasy I cannot claim to have coached any of my subjects. I did however need to get them to smile (not always successfully). Our guide told us that “smile please” in Malagasy was “Be cheeky” (I’m sure that’s not how you spell it).

It struck me immediately that “Be cheeky” is just what I should be telling my subjects in English when I want them to come alive for the camera. You never stop learning….

This highly individual lady was selling pineapples from a rural roadside stall.

Here is a classical example of a picture that had to be taken even though the light was appalling and I did not have my best camera with me. This cheerful chap was working in an aluminium foundry. He’s standing on the top of the mold while his colleagues are pouring molten metal into it within inches of his bare feet.

Wherever we stopped, youngsters would appear as if from nowhere. They weren’t begging, just curious. They were amazingly happy and always willing to be photographed.

This colourful party were walking to a wedding or christening at a neighbouring village. The people here think nothing of walking many miles to market, to family celebrations or just to fetch water.

On one of our early morning trips in search of waterfowl we came across these women collecting water from the river. They carry the water back in buckets with a layer of weed on the top to prevent it slopping out along the way.

Madagascar is a fantastic country with amazing scenery and unique flora and fauna. But for me the colourful happy people were the stars of the show. I only regret that I did not spend more time photographing them.