WE LIVE in an era where it’s no longer possible to squirrel away bad photos of yourself. Instead they’re uploaded and tagged across online social platforms for all the world to see.

Forever.

Models and actresses know how to give good photo, but us laypeople are prone to looking smug, drunk, slow or pudgier than we are in real life. Or a horrifying melange of all such things.

Here are our tips on how to take good photos, purloined from years of talking to and reading about photographers, models and magazine editors:

1. Learn Italian: Mainly learn the word Contrapposto, defined on Wikipedia as a stance with “most of the weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs”. Do it and look instantly slimmer.

2. Armed and dangerous: Press arms against against the body and they appear twice as large. Shoulders back and away from your ears, and create a sliver (or more) of air between your body and arms. The hand on hip is also seriously slimming to the arms.

3. Chinny chin chin: Tilt the chin slightly downwards (half an inch) but don’t retract it like a turtle into the neck. Tilt down and pull it forward and away from the body to avoid the double chin and make your face look slimmer.

4. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Unless you’re perfectly symmetrical Denzel Washington, you have a good and bad side. To find your Jekyll (good) and Hyde (bad) side, slightly turn your face both ways and smile in the mirror. If you can’t figure it out, take a picture of both sides and ask the opinion of someone you trust.

5. Right angles: The person snapping the photo should hold the camera at your eye level or eye level of the tallest one in the group. If it’s any lower, it’ll be double chins all around, and, generally speaking, an unflattering experience for everyone involved.

6. Lights, camera: Harsh light makes for harsh shadows, particularly overhead light. Soft, diffused light is best. Clearly, you can’t always control the lighting but if you have the choice, opt for the least harsh light available.

7. Eyes wide open: I remember once reading a tip from a model in a free book about style (may or may not have come with You Mag some years ago). She says to blink hard and open the eyes right before a photo for pretty, wide (but not scary wide) eyes. Better advice than trying not to blink.

8. Penny for your thoughts: This same model said that a penny gently held between the lips gives a natural pout. Most don’t want to pop a penny between the lips for a photo. So just imagine it instead. It actually works. However, avoid overkill and…

9. The dreaded DUCKFACE: The worst thing that’s happened to photographs. Ever. Countless Facebook profiles are chokka with females taking and posting hundreds of duckfaced self-portraits. It’s disturbing… and ugly. Don’t do it, because rather than appearing sexy, you look like a jerk.

10.Stepford smiles : I have many friends who pose with the same smile in Every. Single. Photograph. Particularly in America. They all have plastic, toothy smiles with dead eyes. How bleh. Be natural! Think about something that makes you laugh or genuinely happy.

11.Team work : In the age of botoxed, frozen celebs, eyes and brows seem to have become less important in pictures. Many women won’t smile or laugh or flirt with their eyes in photos. Stop giving the camera dead-eye and get the whole face working in unison.

12. Smile — or not — like you mean it: I disagree with many (again, American) experts that say you need to smile to take a good picture. Every single person doesn’t need to be smiling like an idiot. Smiles, when genuine, are lovely. Laughs too. But you can look just as good sans smile. Though avoid the smirk. I knew a woman who only smirked for photographs (believing she looked mysteriously sexy) and always looking like a mean-spirited spinster rather than sultry femme fatale.

13. The silent treatment: Stop talking to your mates, the photographer… whoever you feel you must dish to this very minute, the same minute you’re having a picture taken. Nobody looks good caught out mid-sentence. Zip it.

14. Don’t send in the clowns: Avoid makeup mishaps. Ban dewy makeup (equals oily skin in photographs). Powder gently under eyes, forehead, cheeks and chin, and if without powder, gently press a bit of loo roll to the shiny bits to mattify. Don’t overdo the skin highlighters (they show up lighter in photographs  and you’ll look like a Panda). Run your tongue over your teeth to make sure lips aren’t stuck to them, and gently bite your lips (or rub together) to bring blood to them and give them an instant bit of fullness. If your hair’s gone flat, flip it quickly for instant volume and movement.

15. Practice makes perfect: Don’t stare at yourself like a modern-day Narcissus. But do pull a few faces in the mirror occasionally so you can start to learn what it feels like to pose properly for a photo, learn how the head tilts, the hips turn, the weight shifts, etc.

xx Jess @ beautywoome.com

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