Photogenicity

A photogenic subject (generally a person) is a subject that usually appears physically attractive or striking in photographs.


Sometimes I look terrible in pictures. I don't know why. I friend once said to me that a good thing about not being photogenic is that people will be pleasantly surprised when the meet me in real life (after just seeing pictures beforehand). I like to think I'm pretty normal looking, but then I take another bad picture and I start to wonder. Here is the latest. This photo was taken at a recent Royals game. Unfortunately for Melanie, I am not the only victim in this pic. It looks like she has a huge gap between buck teeth. (She normally has a beautiful smile.) Oh Sluggerrrrrr, you bring out the worst in us.


So yeah, I was looking at this picture this morning and I got to thinking, What is it about me and baseball games and terrible pictures. This picture was taken at a Cardinals game last August when I was 5 months pregnant. I freaked out when I saw it and spent the rest of the game, I am ashamed to admit, snapping random pictures of myself from different angles trying to see if my nose really had grown in the past hour.


Why am I not photogenic? What makes a person photogenic? Why does Lady Gaga look better in pictures than me?

So, naturally I turned to the source of all knowledge, Wikipedia. I am glad I did. Thank you Wikipedia for doing what Anthony has not been able to do for almost 5 years. You convinced me that just because I take an ugly picture or two, I'm not completely unfortunate looking.

Allow me to quote part of the entry:
*I have made bold the most important parts of the article.

The state of being photogenic may or may not necessarily be related to one's physical attractiveness in real life. Models are usually described as photogenic. The bone structure of their faces may represent something that is not generally pretty or may be even unattractive or frail looking, but when photographed, their features can turn into something that is physically attractive.

There are a few different possible causes for this. First, it is important to understand the difference between looking at someone with two eyes and through a single camera lens. With two eyes, the human brain is able to see the three dimensional aspects of someone's face, even when viewed directly from the front, and it gives much more information than most cameras. With a camera, the subject is viewed through a single lens, and thus much of the three dimensional qualities of the face are lost. . . .

Another explanation for the fact that attractive people are not always photogenic is that part of their attractiveness may be due to the charisma they bear in real life due to the way they move, express, and carry themselves. While this will positively influence the subjective appearance of that person in real life, a still photograph usually fails to reproduce these attributes, possibly rendering a picture of the person less attractive than the real-life perception and contributing to classify that person as less photogenic.

The lighting when the shot is taken can also have a large effect on a person's perceived attractiveness. Also a person's face may look different depending on the angle and intensity of the light being reflected off the face. This effect is magnified when a flash camera is used and may cause undesirable features, such as ridges or bumps to appear more pronounced then they otherwise would. Also lighter skin tones and features may appear washed out when taken from a flash camera.

So who knows. Maybe it's the bad lighting. Maybe I just have a lot of charisma. Maybe I have bad luck. But at least I don't have to let my lack of photogenicity get me down.


Here is a cute picture of Will, to comfort you, after viewing the pictures of me. He is adorable from every angle.