I’ve been taking professional photographs for many years. Ever since I started, I’ve heard a constant comment. It is always said something like “I just don’t take good pictures” or “the camera just doesn’t like me.” Almost invariably, when this statement is uttered, everyone within earshot gives a chuckle, or immediately starts assuring the speaker that they really do look good. Sometimes it’s true, but often it’s not. Some people do not photograph well it’s that simple.

If you’ve looked at enough photographs, and seen enough TV and movies, you’ve been struck by one or two anomalies. Someone who is frightfully unattractive looks great in a photograph, or, someone who is stunningly attractive looks horrible. What causes this? Is it the photographers fault? Bad lighting, perhaps? Did the subject not get enough rest the night before? Of course these things could be true, but there’s actually a very real, constant explanation for this phenomenon: dimensions.

We humans live in a world of three dimensions: front/back left/right up/down. Since we have stereo vision, we can see all three of these dimensions. Using geometry, we can see how the dimensions are arrived at. A straight line is one dimension: front back. To create the second dimension, make a line at a right angle to the first line, and do so until you have a square. This is two dimensional. Now, make squares at right angles to the first square until you have a cube that’s three dimensional. Voila!

One of the problems we have in understanding geometry is simply this: a two dimensional object, such as a square, has absolutely NO depth (thickness) at all. This means that it is completely invisible when looked at from the side view. But what’s this all got to do with why you don’t look good in photographs? Simple: people are three dimensional, and photographs are only two dimensional.

Anytime that you lose a dimension, your view is penalized, per se. If I take a head-on photograph of a cube, it appears as a square. I can do some ‘tricks’ to fool the viewer, such as make sure there is a shadow showing that the square is actually a cube, or taking the photo at an angle which shows at least one other side of the cube. But no matter what I do, the picture will always be a two dimensional view of a three dimensional object. Needless to say, there is a substantial difference between a square and a cube. And there is a substantial difference between seeing someone and seeing a picture of that same someone.

In people, all sorts of things affect how we perceive them. Many of these things are only present because of the third dimension. The distance between the ears and the tip of the nose, the depth of the eye sockets, the distance the nose and chin protrude from the face, and so on. None of these elements of a person’s appearance are necessarily discernable in a photograph, and yet they are easily seen in person.

Some people are attractive because of the 3-D elements. Others do not depend on 3-D elements so much for their attractive appearance. And some people have such a string feature that is visible in 2-D, that any loss of 3-D is not very noticeable. Vanessa Williams, for example, was quite famous for her beautiful baby blue eyes. Blue is not dependent on dimension.

If you or someone you know doesn’t photograph well, take heart. You might try getting a digital camera and shooting picture after picture each one showing just a modest shift of the angle of the head. Don’t just change the angle side-to-side, but up and down as well. Looking slightly upward changes everything, as does looking slightly to one side. Do this in full, but not direct light such as under your porch, or on a cloudy day. Don’t use the flash! If this doesn’t achieve the desired result, try the same thing, but have a prominent light source. You can do this by pointing a light directly towards yourself, or by sitting in a darkened room, with only one light source in the room.

The techniques above will help to exaggerate the illusion of 3-D in the 2-D medium of the photograph. Do this enough, in enough positions and with enough lighting changes, and you just might be able to get back those good looks the camera’s 2-D limitation has stolen from you. Happy Shooting!