How to Shine in Your Photos… By Not Shining

By Shidduch Photographer

In your shidduch photographs, there should be only one thing that shines, and that’s you. The shiny spot is what gets noticed, and we don’t want anything detracting from your inner spark and your killer smile. Here are several pitfalls to avoid:

 FACE

Remember how in all those old movies, the women were always going off to powder their noses? Well, that’s what you might need to do, in order to get your best photo. Even if you don’t need face powder in real life, you may need to use it when being photographed. Light may reflect on the oil of your skin. Being nervous in front of the camera may make you sweat, giving your skin more shine than you would like. You can find face powder in the makeup sections of drugstores and department store cosmetic sections (we use Elf HD (High Definition) Face Powder in clear), or you can use baby powder applied with a cotton ball. As far as makeup, frosted eyeshadow, frosted lipstick or glittery blush, should not be worn in photos.

LIGHTS

Lights are used to highlight your best angles. Keep the light sources themselves out of the picture, lest you be upstaged by a bright glare.

WINDOWS and MIRRORED SURFACES

These also can be glare sources, especially if you’re using a flash – you will see the flash in the reflections.

EYEGLASSES

Eyeglasses reflect light sources and camera flashes, which will mask the one thing we most want the viewer to see: your eyes! If you’re being photographed with your eyeglasses on, you’ll want to take many photos with your head angled in slightly different positions and/or with the camera moving to catch you at slightly different angles, so that you get some photos in which your glasses don’t have glare. And remember (from our Character article), no sunglasses!

BACKGROUND

Car lights, traffic lights, the sun, shiny steel poles, torches from angry villagers, are all common distractions in photographs. We recommend keeping them out of the frame. (Especially the angry villagers. Sometimes you just have to run away very fast.)

CLOTHING

Avoid clothing materials that are shiny, such as: satin, spandex, sequins, glitter, jeweled buttons, etc.

JEWELRY

Some jewelry or a watch, is fine, but don’t overdo it. Too many shiny pieces of gold and silver, diamonds and rhinestones, will only draw the eye of the viewer away from your face and toward the glitz.

We hope this article helps improve your next photograph: Take away the shiny, to make it your time to shine!

*****

Blog by Breindel and Eric.  They are the founders of ShidduchPhotographer.com, a photography service that specializes in improving your shidduch photos, using Staged to Look Natural™ Photography. Both of them work together during photo sessions to make sure you feel your best, so that you look your best.

Breindel and Eric are happy to give you advice about your Saw You At Sinai profile photos. Please email any photos you would like us to look at to breindel@shidduchphotographer.com