How To Teach People To Take Good Photos Of You

Categories Misc.78 Comments on How To Teach People To Take Good Photos Of You

Hello, beautiful people. Is there any feeling worse than getting all done up, having a fabulous night out and wanting a photo to capture the memory . . . only to have your friend take literally the most awful photo of you that you have ever seen? (Which is saying something because you’ve seen yourself in all kinds of states. I’m talking 3-day-deep-binge-watch states. That’s not a good look on anyone.)

Well, today I’m helping you to fix that problem by showing you how to teach your friends how to take good photos of you! To test this theory, I took my friend Luke to some lavender fields and made him take photos. Here’s the before – and the after.

Now, I know that you’re thinking “wow, Mia, that’s so vain” and it most definitely is – but as a blogger a lot of my content is photographic. And a lot of my growth/brand depends on my social media – which means that I have a lot riding on being able to get decent photos . . . and I’m not interested in ditching all my friends in favour of photographers to achieve those dreams.

 

 

Tips For Taking Better Photos Of People

1. Rule Of Spacing

The rule of spacing is so freaking important – and, thankfully, it’s one of the easiest things to explain to people. All they need to know? You want an equal amount of space on any side of you. Let’s look an example.

2. Look. At. The. Freaking. Photo.

I don’t know why this needs to be on this list, I really don’t, but the amount of people that approach photos as “point in your vague direction and shoot” is just confusing. Seriously, I’m not joking – tell people to look at the photo they’re taking while they’re taking it and they’ll end up taking a far better photo.

They’ll also end up telling you “oh, look down –  that angle is awful for you. Can you tilt your head?”. Which is solid advice we all need at least once per photoshoot.

3. Have a reference photo

This is a massive help for you too, especially if you’re anything like me and a truly awful model. It allows the person you’re asking to take a photo (who, let’s face it, is probably not a photographer and has no idea what to do) to actually have a clue what they’re supposed to do . . . and it helps you to be like “oh, okay, I should be doing that.”

4. Just take loads.

Can we bold this? Highlight it? Underline? People that take one photo of you when you ask for a photo are what I like to call saboteurs. Okay? That’s not a real friend, that’s not someone who wants you to get a good pic for the ‘gram.

Tell the people taking your photo to take loads. Hundreds. Thousands. Okay, so clearly not literally – but you get my point. You want them to take loads, so that you may possibly get one that’s usable.

5. Make it fun!

Look, let’s face it: your friends have better things to be doing than taking photos of you. Don’t be ungrateful or rude if you don’t come out of photos looking like Beyonce – and don’t moan at them if they aren’t into it. Make sure you’re keeping it fun and upbeat; they’ll be willing to take more photos for you and the photos will probably come out better because you’re both having a laugh!

6. Give them a bit of direction

Again, your poor innocent friend probably has no idea what they’re doing – and you might need to give them a bit of direction. What lighting you’re looking for, how to use your phone/camera, how many photos you want etc.

Okay, my friends, those are my top tips for getting people to take good photos of you! As a blogger, this is a skill you’re probably going to need at some point, so I hope these tips were helpful. What did you think? Do you find these tips helpful? Let me know your thoughts down below!

Peace,

Instagram // Twitter // Bloglovin’ // Youtube // Pinterest

Published by crystalsandcurls

I'm going through a bit of an existential crisis right now, I'll tell you about myself when I figure out if I'm real or not.

78 thoughts on “How To Teach People To Take Good Photos Of You”

  1. This was super helpful! The amount of times family and friends took like the worst pictures of me at events I wanted to remember is not even funny 😭 Taking loads is so important. And omg ikr like how do people not look at the camera or viewfinder when taking pictures? Please. 😂 Love this post! And girl you look stunning (I love lavenders!!)

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    1. Thank you lovely! And omg RIGHT? Like I want a memory, not to bloody hate myself xD Yes, yes, yes! It’s one of those things that’s like “how are you even confused about this, it should just be standard!”. Thanks lovely xx

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  10. I needed this! Somehow I have always been the photographer of my friendship group, so having GOOD photos taken of me is a freaking challenge. Most of the time, I end up shooting self-portraits because I can’t be bothered to give so much direction hahaha. Might actually send the link to this post to a few friends. xxx

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  13. Okay that’s it, I’m officially sharing this link with all of my friends 😩♥️♥️♥️ I used to get really frustrated with my friends who suck at taking pictures. Especially because I’m really good at taking them! These tips are so helpful, and I can’t wait to try them during my next photo shoot ☺️

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  16. Great tips Mia (once again <3). Letting others take my blog photos has sometimes ended up disastrous – however, the next time I'll know which instructions to give them. So thanks a lot for sharing these great and amazing tips! ❤ I hope you enjoy what's rest of this week xx

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  23. Girl YASSS!!! My friends take a lot of my pictures and I have had to “train” them. It is amazing how many people don’t take decent photos, or have that creative eye. These are such great tips! Thanks for sharing sweets! ALSO these are gorgeous pictures. YOU are stunning! ❤

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    1. Aha omg I relate to that – certain friends of mine have been “trained” too! And right? Sometimes it’s like “I mean, you’re …. you’re just not trying, right?” Aww thank you so much lovely ❤

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  24. About all you could really do to help them do this is put a limit on how long they can cry for, in joy, having frozen your image in time and space. Perhaps they should write testimonials for having photographed you
    Of course Slash would say….. fuck off 🤡😈

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      1. On my way to get this last bit of dental work done. Will be a pleasure to be alone with my discomfort and no morons hassling me.
        I feel like I were in that band Still waters from Almost Famous, and I saw from day dot that their attitude was as bout as rocknroll as Edward Woodward in the Wicker Man… sometimes I am well ahead of the curve.
        I feel dirty because some Christian just attacked me because I deterred him from tackling me and giving me a Ned Flanders.
        Nothing funny about this 😝

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  25. Yayyy thanks for the tips! I’m the only one in the group who takes the photos because my friends ‘dont know’ how to! And YOU ARE RIGHT! Just look at the screen when taking a pic and the battle is already half won! JEEZ. Its not that hard!

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  26. I feel like I need to stick this entire post on my forehead whenever I ask someone to take photos of me. That said, my friends and I probably look like we’re on crack whenever we take photos, especially me, because I tend to talk throughout the entire thing, walk people through the whole process of what I’m doing next and WHY i’m suddenly popping a squat on the floor or flipping my hair like an idiot and basically be a fool, simply because we’ve kinda nailed the whole ‘candid’ photo… just yet to master the ‘professional, everyone look at the camera at the same time, with the same genre of vogue pls’ photo, but i’m sure we’ll get there eventually. xx

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  27. This was an amazing post! ❤️ One of my brothers is a wedding photographer and always know how to make the right pictures and knows everything about photography. My other brother can also make great pictures. My mother takes a lot of pictures of me too but sometimes they are really bad haha so I ask her to make many more as there must be one that’s okay and not messed up lol 😂 The rule of spacing is so important too. These are really great tips. You look awesome ❤️

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  29. I absolutely love your blog and I feel like I learn how to be a better blogger every time I read one of your posts. This was also really good because currently I just take me photos in a self timer and they don’t always turn out the best.

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  30. Gosh I really needed this!Whenever I take my friends’ photos they end up liking them, but whenever they take pictures of me, I end up disappointed.I love the rule of thirds too, I recently found out about it and it’s sooo helpful.Totally gonna show this to my best friends!Great post xx

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      1. welcome girly! it’s omgryry.wordpress.com
        Aaaah you remember me!! 😂 I’m really fangirling rn 😂

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  32. These are all such helpful tips! I think a tip similar to asking someone to actually look at the photo would be to ask them to check you are in focus – the number of times the picture has been out-of-focus or the focus has been on someone/something behind me!!! xx

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  35. Thank you for this post it was soooo helpful!! The amount of times my poor mum has to take pictures of me is too much sometimes so I’ve just mastered a go to pose so she only has to take a few. It was particularly bad when we were on holiday in Canada because I was asking her to get pictures of me basically every day 😂 at least now with the help of this post I can direct her to take better photos of me xx

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  37. Wow this speaks to me..I already sent a screen shot of our blog to me friend because we always seem to bump into this issue!! Although fortunately she never has any shame with asking complete strangers to take another if their first try is awful 😂

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  40. Pingback: August 2018 in Review – AyR Galaxy

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