Getting a relaxed smile

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silverJON

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Jonathan
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I know it's not a new problem, but as a casual photographer, I really need to know a little bit about personal technique when taking portraits.

I'm generally warm and friendly and people get along with me fine and enjoy having photos taken. But when I'm taking important shots of sober people, for instance, to go into student magazines and newspapers, or of friends and family to be printed, I just don't know what to say to get a natural smile. I know that there are lots of creative things to do to get children to smile, but none of it is appropriate for adults!

I don't want to have to surprise people or catch them off guard, because I've tried it and people get really uptight about having shots taken when they weren't expecting it.

Usually, they know it's a fake smile. If you say, "how about a more natural smile?" then it gets even more strained and fake. If you tell jokes, it just doesn't work, especially as people seem to suppress their open amusement when there's a camera pointing at them (even a portrait lens quite a few feet away).

I've spent ages searching, and I just can't find a good guide. So does anyone have any tips?

Thanks loads

Jonathan

(Posted in this forum because it doesn't have any photos so can't go in the People and Portraits forum!)
 
I'm no expert, by any means, but i've found that if you just be..'yourself', I've found it tends to work.

Or, maybe if you crack a joke ABOUT cracking a joke. Example - Something along the lines of 'see, if you were a child, pulling funny faces at you and wiggling my tounge would normally get a nice big smile' and then laugh yourself and slightly look at them to show them that you're laughing, but all the time being focused on taking the photo so as soon as they crack open that natural smile you're away with the shutter, possibly an idea?

I know exactly what you mean about the 'fake' smiling though dude, had a long conversation about this with a mate a few weeks ago.
 
get them to say Hey instead of cheese :P
 
Hate to be crude...but floating an 'air biscuit' can often get a chuckle :naughty:
 
Thanks for those tips! Brilliant - I'll try them out when I can next.
 
I had to do a portrait of someone who just wouldn't relax in front of the camera (another photographer - you know how it is).

Beauty of digital is could shot as many pictures as wanted at no cost, so explained that it gets easier with practice, had a remote shutter release and "machine gunned" the camera at them... after the first 200 shots (in about 10 minutes) and some funny faces they didn't mind sitting chatting and having a camera noise once in a while didn't stop the conversation which meant I got an array of natural poses, chatting, laughing.

works well if you have time with them to get the right shot.
 
Another technique I've heard about and started trying is to get people to jump - a famous photographer called Philippe Halsman did a lot of this to break away from stiff portraits.

link here for some of his work
http://linnilabelled.wordpress.com/2007/10/06/philippe-halsman-the-father-of-jumpology/

or a google images search will bring up famous ones of Dali, Edward and Mrs Simpson....


One other hint I picked up from having my photo taken is to take a couple of pictures and show them to your sitter MIRRORED. Pretty simple if you're shooting tethered to a computer. This works because generally people don;t like pictures of themselves if they think they look funny. Most people know what they look like in a mirror. So they will like mirrored pictures more because they look like what they imagine themselves to be like.

This can quickly give them a lot more confidence that you can get a good picture of them and help them relax for you.

hope that helps and good luck getting more tips as I'm often in the same boat...
 
Get them to talk to you and tell you a joke or funny story, it's much easier for someone to relax if they're doing something rather than sat there listening to you tell a corny joke whilst pointing a camera at them. Then just wait for the right moment and shoot.
 
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