People pose for more pictures than ever these days, at their own and
others’ hands. And since we basically live our entire lives online,
those pictures are more important than ever–now, any old romantic
prospect or potential empoyer who knows your name can find a photo of
you to go with it.
With that in mind, we asked portrait photographer
Peter Hurley,
whose video on “squinching” (squinching: narrowing your eyes slightly
to create a confident look. No, not too much–that’s squinting.
Watch the video
for more), went viral recently, to share with us tricks for how to look
your very best when posing in front of the camera–even if you’re also
the photographer.
Consider the Whole Face
I’ve got a slew of tips, but squinching and emphasizing the jawline
are the first two I start with. The jawline is number one (see video
below). The squinching is cool, believe me–if people can get people to
squinch in front of their cameras, or if they’re doing selfies, they’re
going to look way more confident and cooler–but if their jawline’s not
out, then it doesn’t give them any definition around their face, so it
doesn’t really help them out anyway. So you have to get the jawline
first, then throw in the squinch.
You can only move your mouth, eyes, and eyebrows. Those are the three
things you can move on your face. I like to engage eyebrows. That’s
another thing that I’ll work on down the road. But you don’t necessarily
have to. I’ve had clients say, “I can move my nostrils.” I don’t think
it’s really going to help your picture-taking ability–you’re not going
to get any more photogenic by flaring your left nostril slightly. Other
than that it’s really subtleties. It’s really the subtle things that
make the difference.
Seriously Do Say “Cheese”
Another tip is always adding a slight smile. If you don’t have it–if
you don’t have a slight smile it doesn’t warm (the photo) up and you can
appear really standoffish and mean. It’s not appealing. If you add that
simple tiny little smile to it it really helps. I’m actually thinking
about doing some sort of selfie video tutorial that incorporates these
ideas.
It’s kind of like mental gymnastics. You’ve got to layer them all in.
You’ve got to get the eyes going, the little smile, the forehead out.
There’s a lot to think about. When I’m coaching people I stay on top of
them and it’s funny. You really have to be aware that you’re going for
this, or in a split second it’s gone. We don’t want to look blank.
People are way more engaging when they look like something’s going on.
When you squinch it makes (you) look more appealing and interested.
You Actually Do Have a “Good Side,” So Find It
People always talk about their side: Which side is their good side, so
I was going to do a video explaining how to find your good side and how
important it is to be on your good side and that sort of thing.
We’re all human. When we’re born things don’t necessarily come out
symmetrical. It’s amazing–I feel that the human face is the most
incredible thing to look at, let alone photograph. Each one’s so unique.
I have identical twins and they look completely different to me. To
other people, they can’t tell them apart. To me, it’s like they’re
totally different. When I walk the streets of New York and I have all
these different faces going by me, it’s just amazing, because that’s
what I do every day. I’m photographing people’s faces and the
intricacies of the human face are pretty amazing.
To find your good side, you either get in front of a photographer who
knows what they’re doing to suss it out with you, or you have to wait
till my video comes out where I go through all that. [laughs] It’s
subjective, really. I’ve had people in here who I like one side of their
face, and they’re like, “No, it’s definitely this side.” And I’m like, I
think they’re wrong. Sometimes it’s minor, but it can be major. When
it’s major, it’s just so intriguing to see. I don’t think being
symmetrical makes you more attractive. I think one side of the face
being more attractive than the other because it’s not symmetrical is a
little different. Most of these tests that are out there are all looking
at people straight-on, and I don’t agree with that because I shoot
people on every angle. You need to shoot the person on both sides of
their face to see it, not just straight-on. Straight-on is only giving
you one perspective.
Squinching = Confidence
I’ve been coaching photographers on squinching for almost three years
now. I was with one who is my associate who I work with all the time.
And we were talking about this and he said, “You just let the cat out of
the bag” and I said, “I know.” It’s my thing, and I’ve been working on
it for 10 years, so for me it’s a teaching process, but I’m also feeling
people out. I’m very intuitive in the way that I work and knowing how
far to push people, or who to push and who not to push. I’m working with
a prominent psychologist in the industry and we’ve teamed up to do
something that we’re calling “Headshot.” It’s a leadership therapy-type
move where I work with leaders in companies and kind of semi-profile
them for their self-image for personal branding and that kind of thing,
and it’s all based on this intuitive process that I have going on when
people are in front of camera. It’s pretty interesting stuff.
Peter Hurley
.
My job has always been to up people’s game. When I started, most of my
work–and I still continue to shoot a lot of actors for their
headshots–I became known as the kind of go-to guy in the industry. The
reason being, I made people squinch. So casting directors want a
confident actor in front of them. Most actors, if they’re good at their
craft, are confident, but some are trying to get their foot in the door
of this industry. Maybe they’re just not ready, but they walk in my door
and they look in the camera and they look scared out of their mind. It
just doesn’t fly for me. You can’t put that out there. Not only can you
not to put it out there, if I photograph you, my name’s on it, so I’m
not letting that go.
I’ve created a false sense of confidence for these people through the
squinch, through coaching them and building them up so the confidence is
there. Whether they carry that on into the audition is another thing,
but that’s not my job. My job is just to get them that audition, so I do
this with my clients and then let them go. But I know what I’m
creating. I just did it this morning. The guy walked in. I have people
in here every day, everybody’s got a different self-image, and when you
are in front of the camera it’s probably the most vulnerable place you
can be. And then all of a sudden it’s a career. I do it with CEOs. If
someone is a CEO of a company, I’m going to think that they know what
they’re doing. They’ve got their act together, they’re confident in
their job. It doesn’t equate to when they get in front of a camera. All
of a sudden you’re in front of a camera. It’s a totally different
element and they’ll lose that sense of themselves, or they just might be
self-conscious or self-aware, something like that, and their confidence
goes away. So it just doesn’t match their personality or what they
convey on a day-to-day basis, so I have to bring it back in and teach
them how to do that. Since confidence always come from the eyes it’s
always going to start with the squinch.
Taking a Selfie is a Special Opportunity
I think there’s a ton of things you can do to take better, more
interesting pictures, but they all boil down to one thing: What are you
doing with your face? And what’s your thought process? Most of the time,
we can’t see our face–but if you’re doing a selfie with the camera
turned toward you, you can look right at it and adjust, which makes it
really like looking in a mirror and adjusting. That’s pretty easy and
most people can do that, so definitely take advantage of that. But if
you’re taking a picture, and somebody’s taking a picture of you, you
have no idea what your face looks like. Nine times out of 10 what you
think it looks like is not what it looks like at all. You’re just
guessing. Think about your face right now. I’m thinking about my face. I
have no mirror. I have no idea what my face looks like. I hope I’m
okay. Your brain has it under control for you. You don’t walk around
thinking about your face all day long, until that moment the camera goes
up, and then you have to think about it. Then you have to take control
of something you never control, and when you’re not in control of it, it
looks fine and then you control it and it gets weird. That’s why a lot
of people–and I’m sure you’ve had this if you’ve taken a picture of
somebody–they look at it and they go, “That doesn’t look like me.” They
say that all the time. There’s a couple reasons for that. The answer to
that when people say it to me, is, “Well, there wasn’t anybody else in
there.” The camera doesn’t lie. I’m sorry. You were the one the photo
was taken of. But most of that is people have a mirror relationship with
themselves. We look in mirrors a lot more than we look into cameras.
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