"Smile for the camera"

[Amber-Sue]

While growing up when picture time came and this phrase was spoken I almost never showed my teeth.It was always a closed mouth grin. Now I know that a woman is happy to give a wide smile for a lot of situations and Amber would love to be able to show how proud she is but how does a person give a smile. I feel as tho I do not know how to smile. When I try it looks so fake/forced

Amber needs help to give a natural smile to show her true beauty

Amber

[ClosetED]

I am not sure if looking in a mirror will give you the same view you will see in camera, but you can start there.
Think about how happy you are to see yourself as Amber, out with friend at mall, passing.
How peaceful and calm you feel. It may be a smaller smile, but that is a good start.
I normally don't show emotions in drab but do have nice smile with pictures. Not as white as some, but OK.
But the smile as Ellen is great!
Hugs, Ellen

[Candice June Lee]

Hi Amber, I have the same problem. I look in the mirror to try and help, I look at selfies, and other pics. My said Saturday, you need to just relax and smile. Later I was relaxed and smiled just out of the blue. The pic came out fine. Funny how that worked. I guess we need to do that, relax enjoy life and have fun.

[sugarbabe]

Think of something hilarious and try to laugh out loud before doing a big CHEESY SMILE! :D

[Karren H]

Smile! "I am smiling" was always my reply growing up. Men don't know how to smile but happy girls do. Took me years to figure that out.

[Krisi]

I also have trouble showing my teeth when I smile. I've noticed that many men don't show their teeth while many women do. It might be how their face is made. Even when I try to force a smile for the camera it doesn't come out right. That's where I think having a person take the photo as opposed to using a self timer might work better for photos.

I suppose men, for the most part, are expected to be serious while women can be a little more carefree.

[Sky]

Well, my jokes suck, so next time we meet I'll bring a feather to tickle you. That or a bottle of brandy. Ok, forget the feather, brandy it is. :D

[Julie Denier]

I've always had a problem with smiling, too. When I finally figured out how to smile properly, it made a world of difference in my photo appearance for both my femme and guy sides ;)

[Lorileah]

and see, I smiled though this whole thread. It's simple, relax your face, you should be smiling because you can dress. At least that's what I read here

[susann_gardener]

I too have a smile problem. Wish there were a "smile DVD".

[ChristinaK]

Do people show teeth when they smile?

I'm ugly when I don't show teeth and uglier when I do!

That's a dude talking. Christina would show teeth, but she doesn't know how :-(

[Tracii G]

Relax and let out a natural smile.

[Jenniferathome]

I never understood the inability to smile. I think one must actually restrain oneself from smiling rather than just letting go.

Life is funny. Cross dressing is funny. Monty Python is funny. Have you never read of book and laughed out loud? Whatever you think is funny, think of that and let loose. I can't help but smile. Hell, sometimes I just think of funny things and start to crack up. I don't care what people think. Don't think about smiling, enjoy the funny

[heatherdress]

Use a mirror!

Practice smiling. It will become more and more natural. Try to relax more. Think of things that makes you feel good.

[sometimes_miss]

Despite all the selfies out there, there remain a significant number of people who don't like having their picture taken. My sister is one of those; a good picture of her is rare. The few times we managed to get a picture, she was always making a weird face or trying to hide her face. My dad wouldn't smile with teeth; the best we could get was a closed lip smile from him. He didn't avoid pics, but for some reason wouldn't smile much for anyone. Teeth were fine so that wasn't the reason. He sort of resembled Gary Cooper, and had practiced trying to look like him in photos where he didn't smile either. Me, I break out in a big grin, maybe because it always bothered me that neither dad nor sis would cooperate for me in getting their photos taken. And I'm the one with the irregular teeth!

[Barbara Jo]

We al know how to smile when we hear or see something humorous.
Also you don't necessarily have to show teeth to have a great smile .

The old adage is true... "A smile is just frown turned up side down. :)

[Meghan4now]

Amber, props on a good thread question. I think you will find a lot of company here in that department. First off, generally guys are not enouraged to smile like women are. In fact we are often taught to perfect our menacing look or scowl! Secondly men are brought up to be more stoic. Maybe not across the board, but in general in most cultures.

So now, as a girl, you have to overcome a very basic inclination to not smile. BUT even men are allowed to smile, it just requires being a little happier.

My advice? Get a good make over. If you look at my avatar, you see a smile that is rare in male mode. That smile was not forced, it came from pure joy and exhilaration. Even now when I look at that photo, I feel joy.

[cdterri]

I also have never been able to smile, If I try to force one I look even worse. Family will avoid taking pics of me because I appear to be scowling or angry even when I'm perfectly happy.

[Scarlett Viktoria]

Relax, yes, but what I do is wait until JUST before snapping the picture and act like someone just said something amusing to me. Think about what you do in that situation. It forces out an exhale and you will smile with your eyes (and obviously your mouth). Your eyes are a dead giveaway for a fake smile. So, don't hold your smile (especially waiting for a timer on the camera, that will kill it) but rather smile real quick right before each shot is taken. Sometimes thinking about how great it feels to dress up helps.

[Helen_Highwater]

There's a recent post by Robin in the media section that includes a link;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xfzmLzFw48&feature=youtu.be

If you watch the video and especially the mouth movements, the speaker Jaclyn constantly shows her upper set of teeth while the mouth movements are far more pronounced than what you'd expect to see in a male speaker. So my thought is if you're looking to give that "girly"smile will practicing talking like a GG lead to it being more natural. Has it something to do with muscle development? I believe it has something to do with GG's not having such pronounced facial hair so the top lip is able to sit closer to the nose but that doesn't explain it all by any means. The articulation of both the top and bottom lips is way more pronounced than anything I'd normally expect to see in a male speaker.

In primates how teeth are displayed plays a large part in indicating a "no threat here" stance. It's not a huge leap to think that what we witness is an echo from our early development. However it's also possible that what we see is learned behavior, GG's at a young age copying their seniors so as to be part of the female club.

If I deliberately smile a big toothy grin type of smile I can feel that I'm using muscles I don't usually use. Not because I'm a plain old misery but because they're muscles I don't normally use when speaking unlike Jaclyn.

[Teresa]

Amber,
As a photographer I had to work so hard for the smiles, if I'm faced with a camera I smile like a Cheshire cat, my wife always says you take a good picture, only because I smile !

[Carole]

I was watching a recorded 'quiz' programme last night that went out last Sat. Stephen Fry's QI. They had a question about smiles and cameras. It seems that most countries have their own words for making a smile, here in the UK it is ' cheese ' (altho' sh1t has always worked for me). In Croatia (Ithink it was) the word translated to cabbage

[Sky]

It seems that most countries have their own words for making a smile, here in the UK it is ' cheese ' (altho' sh1t has always worked for me). In Croatia (Ithink it was) the word translated to cabbage

You bet. The idea is to make that "ee" sound to widen your mouth as much as possible. And the sound is spelled differently in every language.

[Karen RHT]

Sorry Amber, wish I could offer you something more, but I'm virtually identical to you when it comes to smiling. It simply isn't a normal facial expression for me. Strange part is I'm basically a happy person.


Karen

[Ally 2112]

I just looked in the mirror and i am not sure what is worse smiling or not smiling .Either one does not seem to work for me

[Robin414]

I do smile but I just dont show the fangs...despite I have nice ones...I smile with my eyes 😉
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[IamWren]

I love that picture of my friend Robin!!!

But not to worry Amber, according to this article (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/01/researchers-have-discovered-a-surprising-reason-we-smile-in-photos/) smiling for pictures is a recent phenomenon.
To quote part of it:

"In the fine arts a grin was only characteristic of peasants, drunkards, children, and halfwits, suggesting low class or some other deficiency,”

I can see Robin is smiling in her photo above and I don't care if she's drunk.:tongueout:

[Robin414]

OMG, I sooo have a drunk pic...I almost posted it once...ok, maybe I did (it's a nice pic) but then deleted it real quick! 😉

[Claire Cook]

Hi Amber,

For me, I just remember how happy I am to be wearing the clothes I really want to .. it's like the real me just comes out. Then when I make eye contact with another lady and smile, and she smiles back, well, that is positive reinforcement!

[CarlaWestin]

Smiling has always been an issue. Even after a complete dental rebuild, I had to teach myself how to smile.

[Krisi]

There's a local (male) TV news anchor who is nearly always smiling with teeth showing. It's almost as if he had surgery to make a permanent smile.

Around here, there's not a lot of news worth smiling about but he still does.

[Pat]

There are physiological reasons why men have a harder time smiling but most of them can be overcome with practice and facial exercises. I have a long screed about it somewhere but the basics are the same as they are for anything -- gather examples of what you'd consider success and try to emulate them, set aside time for critical practice (in front of a mirror,) but allow for the fact that your smile is going to be different. Over time you can develop a genuine, natural toothy smile -- all you need is desire to have it.

[Katey888]

Try not to put pressure on yourself Amber - as has been said already, try to relax and just be your natural self... Not everyone has a natural toothy smile and the world would be a boring place if we were all the same... :D

I've known many folk that have had a problem with smiling because they had dental problems (not saying you have - just that this can lead to inhibitions...) but a nice closed mouth smile can be almost as photogenic if you work at it. :)

If you're worried about looking a bit geeky (I do - lots. But I've stopped worrying...) try just parting your lips a little rather than the full 'Fright Night' teeth exposure. Slightly parted lips are a little less defensive and more - amenable, somehow...

But most of all, try not to stress yourself - be natural, and be naturally happy.

Katey x

[tracigirl_tv]

This is what I would like you to recall, next time it's time to smile:

A skeleton walks into a bar and sits down. Bartender says, "What can I get you?" Skeleton says, "A beer and a mop."

Infallible!!

254876

[Amanda M]

Look in the mirror. Remember the funniest story you ever heard, and capture the next moment. I see so many pictures of lovely ladies, carefully and beautifully made up, real beauty, destroyed by a frown, or more often, I suspect, of fear of "How I might look if I let go and really smile!"

Look at the photos on here - which ones do you love, the smilers or the scowlers?

YOU are lovely and you can rejoice in that. Please, everybody, share a smile for all of us on here. We need it!

Happy Christmas , and a peaceful New Year to all. Looking forward to seeing your smiles on the photo section! Luv Ya!

[Acastina]

I struggled for years to find the right smile. I finally did a series of of photos from barely smiling to grinning like a fool and looked at the results critically. I found one that's about one-third of the way up from barely that was just right, and that's what I've been doing ever since (about 8 years now). You don't want to look like you just heard the funniest joke ever, but you don't want something that's a turned-up scowl either. Upper teeth showing clearly but not looking as if about to take a bite of something. It's now my go-to unisex smile for photo opps.

One thing to remember is that we seldom smile continuously or even for minutes at a time; it's more a momentary facial expression. The best technique I can offer for photos is to wait until just before the shutter snaps and then smile like you just saw something funny or an old friend you've missed. Catch that moment of emotion and don't try to hold it too long. I use an older digital point-and-shoot camera with a remote. It beeps, does its auto-focus dance, and snaps. I try to time the smile for the end of the auto-focus moment, then release it after the snap.

Ever watch those head shots of football players being introduced to the TV audience at the start of a game? Notice how awkward some of them look holding a sort-of smile? That's what I mean about it being a momentary expression of emotion. Try to hold it too long and you look like an idiot. Catch the moment.

[Tami Joy]

Don't think about smiling just get in the habit of smiling all the time then you shall be fine Amber.