What's Your Best Side?

I'll bet you have never thought about which is your best side of your face. Unless you're a teenager obsessed with Snapchat, it's just not something people think about. I had been a professional photographer for several years before I started to think about this. I would take a technically perfect portrait, but something wouldn't be quite right. During one of my continuing education courses, I stumbled upon what was missing. Finding the subject's best side. As it turns out, most people look best on their left. The brain actually tells the left side to show more emotion than the right. If you study portraits from the old master painters, you'll find most of their subjects are painted from the left side.

Here are a few tricks you can use the next time someone says, let's take a picture. One of the easiest things is to look at your eyes. Many people have one eye that is slightly smaller than the other. By simply angling your face so that the smaller eye is closer to the lens, it will create an optical illusion evening out your eyes size. Another trick is to pay attention to which side you part your hair. Typically you will photograph better if your part is facing the camera. It doesn't always work, but the odds are with you that it will. When I find Someone who is difficult to tell their best side, I photograph them from multiple angles, then review the images on my computer. The combination of paying attention to the clues and simply looking at a photograph taken from every angle only takes a few minutes and always results in a much better portrait. Interestingly, about 60% of the population looks best on their left while 29% look better on the right, with one percent looking great on both sides.

This may be more than you want to think about when someone's just taking a snapshot of you. But, when you're having a professional headshot taken, this is just one of the tricks up my sleeve to help you make your headshot make a great impression.