Are you photogenic? Why might you/might you not be? I am not.

Yeap, somehow every single picture taken of me my hair looks awful. I always get complemented on my hair but on photos i look like i cut it myself. I also seem to get caught at the exact moment im gaping at something, so i look ridiculous.

Two things: One, the impulse is always to be critical when you see an image of yourself. I'd had photos that I initially thought were terrible that I later decided were quite good.

Two, if you strain for the photo, it shows.

A fair amount of it is psychological. I don't consider myself photogenic at all, even though I do consider myself attractive (as do others, generally speaking). Others also tell me I look good in photos, even though I think I look like death in about 99% of them.

I think the way I turn out in photos is highly sensitive to lighting. Something about the shape of my face, I guess, which is somewhat angular and chiseled. It only looks good in natural light, and looks horrible in photos taken in any sort of artificial lighting (which is, unfortunately, most photos). But honestly, I think a fair amount of how I think I look in pictures is in my head. I just have a mental image of how I look under the best of circumstances, and whenever my picture shows up looking substantially worse than that ideal image, I get disappointed. Especially when the delta between ideal and actual is huge in any given photo.

I agree with pretty much everything everyone has said in this thread. There was a time in my life where I'm sure I was battling with BDD (Makes sense, since I had pretty severe OCD from my teens to my 20s, and the two are often comorbid.) I'd see a photo of myself and just be completely depressed, and feel depleted for the rest of the day. Based on what I felt during those days, I can easily see how BDD sufferers could become suicidal.

Some of it was psychological, some of it was grooming (I tended to overuse astringent, so my skin often looked unpleasantly red and shiny in flash photography,) some of it was a longstanding discomfort posing in front of a camera, and perhaps some residual amount is a result of actual flaws with my appearance (unimaginable, I know!)

Like I said, I was camera shy for a long time, so it took a while to find an expression I could be comfortable with posing in front of a camera. I don't have any 100-watt smile to flash, so I just hold this intent, faux-confident expression these days. If I have to hold a fake smile for too long waiting for a photo to be taken, my mouth muscles actually start twitching like Mr. Burns'.

And since this is StyleForum, never be afraid to re-evaluate what color clothing is most flattering for your complexion, although I'm sure you've given this matter consideration in the past. I used to wear red and yellow polos alot, and they certainly weren't helping the matter. There are very, very few caucasian males who actually look good in red and yellow.

Take my advice, never smile.

Yeah, there are things I've had to get used to. I have deep eye sockets, so in any lighting situation where the light is directly overhead, my eyes can become pits of blackness. Also, I have high, prominent cheekbones, which sound like a good thing to have, but often create unpleasant shadow effects in certain lighting conditions.

It's all about projecting confidence.

My name is Matt and I look awful in photos. I detag probably 80% of pictures of me that are uploaded. Other than a borderline photogenic angry-face, I generally look terrible, and who wants a zillion angry-face pics of themself floating around.

In my experience, most people think they are unphotogenic. They look more or less the same in photos as the do in real life. The problem is they overestimate their looks. The mirror doesn't upset their overestimation. The camera does.

One reason I don't look good in many photos is that because of my height most pictures seem to be taken from below. It's a bad angle.

Funny that you say that, since when I first saw your Facebook photos, I fairly cried out, "Damn, that is one ugly motherfucker!" Good to know it's just the pictures.

if you're going to smile in photos, learn how to make it look real. mouth smile without eye smile = fail

Ah yes, the zygomatic smile. I'm not sure it can be faked.

I had a job interview at a local hotel and didn't realize till I got there how posh the place actually was. I was woefully underdressed, to say nothing of the shortcomings of my resume. I did the interview and it was pretty clear I wasn't getting the job, and who knows, the older man who was interviewing me very well may have been thinking "lolololol this stupid L00S4R actually thinks he's gonna get the job lolololol!!", but nonetheless he had such a kindly face and zygomatic smile that I had difficulty believing he had ever had one negative thought about anyone in his entire life.

If you're in a service industry, particularly a "luxury" service, a kind, reassuring face may be all you need.

Me on the other hand...

Pics or it didn't happen