"kungfufrijters" wrote in message
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" howard" wrote in message
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"Thellers" wrote in message
om...
Hi,

First, let me apologise for the fact that this question is very
'amateur' in nature. I don't know an awful lot about photography, but
am willing to find out more. This problem does, however, relate to
photography, so I think this is the best place to ask.

I need some advice on photographing my girlfriend. She just returned
from a 2-week holiday to Greece and came back with a large number of
photos. Neither she nor any of her friends are experienced
photographers. Neither am I, although I probably know a touch more
than they do and have a slightly better camera (still only a Digital
Ixus 430 - a good camera but by no means 'professional' in standard).

She is a pretty girl: short, curvy with dark blond hair and a nice
smile. However, the problem - and it really is starting to cause me
some serious personal distress - is that my she almost always tends to
look awful in photographs. She has quite deep-set eyes and curvy
cheeks, and her nose is quite long and thin. I think, then, that the
problem is in photos that are naturally lit (i.e. from above) she
tends to get very unattractive shadows around her eyes, under her nose
and under her cheeks. These exaggerate her facial features and make
her look fat and ugly. I can honestly say she looks almost
unrecognisable in photos... they REALLY don't do her any justice!

A couple of other horrid photos were taken by a friend who was in a
squatted position, looking up at my girlfriend in a group. This made
her look bottom-heavy and really overweight. This is obviously one
angle to avoid.

The one pleasing photo I found was taken from the front, lit by flash,
and has my girlfriend leaning forward over a (seated) friend's
shoulder. This setup gets rid of the ugly shadows and actually looks
like how my girlfriend looks 'in real life', if that makes sense. It
is this that has made me think that the answer lies with lighting and
angles.

Does anyone have any tips? Should I try to stick to lighting my
girlfriend from the front? Are there 'standard' techniques for this
kind of thing? Any general advice / tips would be really appreciated,
because it really hurts to not have any nice photos of my girlfriend!


My 'standard' technique for holiday photos in to have the sun behind
the subject and use flash. Bit tricky getting the balance right tho.

http://www.backfire.co.uk/yaritza/ywS.jpg

Don't forget, the camera always make people look fatter, that's why
top models are skinny.


H.




ridiculous


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