What I tell my boyfriend when taking pictures of me
How many of us work hard to look good on camera? We are wearing an awesome fit, having a fantastic hair day and our skin and makeup is flawless. Then we pick the correct setting: This could be a field of grain, down by the ocean, a mountaintop, Disney! Finally we have the perfect lighting: The natural golden light that somehow makes us look like an angel, or the sun is at its peak making skies clear and crisp, even the shadows from a flash that covers up the blemishes. Everything comes together, even the stars are aligning into place, all that is left to do is snap the photo. So you hand the camera to the closest person nearby: A family member, friend or maybe a significant other. But plot twist! They simply do not care how to take a photo of you because “you always look great to me,” or “it’s not a big deal it’s just a picture”. GASP! The fate of your image, the picture that you show everyone associated with you is in the hands of someone who doesn’t care!
On TikTok, knowing how to take another person’s picture has become a comedic reality. The trend is known as “how I tell my boyfriend to take a picture of me.” In the trending TikTok videos, girls pose while a phone (usually an iPhone) is rapid-fire snapping pictures while the instructions–the girl posing has given to her apparent significant other–popped on the screen. Funnily enough, Wong Fu Productions, a short film company, did a similar comedy YouTube video about four years ago called How to be an Instagram Boyfriend ft. Simu Liu. The video shows boyfriends and significant others taking a class on how to become their partner’s personal social media photographer. Please note: These instructions are not just for your significant other. These lessons are for besties, family members, anyone you know who isn’t usually as invested in taking pictures, but somehow always ends up behind the camera. Now if you look up the trend or search the video, the following are the most common instructions :
- Take multiples
In this case hold down the capture button and allow the model to move naturally into multiple poses, this allows them to have a variety to choose from.
- Lighting
Make sure whatever light is present- whether it’s sunlight, fluorescent, even lamp lighting- make sure it is on your model not behind them. If the light is behind them it will cast shadows over the main features of your model. Also, keep the lighting at a natural angle, too low and the model looks like a scary story-teller, too high and the model has bags under their eyes.
- The shoes are apart of the outfit
One of the universal truths is that shoes when in the context of fashion are necessary to keep in the picture. Your model has feet, if you are taking a picture of them from a distance it is expected that the shoes are included. So when taking the photo make sure the shoes are in the shot and a space below.
- Take notice of your surroundings
Get the background, but do not get trash. This means wait for pedestrians, look for curated backgrounds, if there are objects that do not match the aesthetic of the photograph, change the angle that you take the picture. Make it so that the main objects are the main focus. Try putting your model in the center of the photo grid, so her head is beneath the top center block of the grid, feet above the numbers at the bottom of the screen.
- Keep phone between chest and shoulder height
This allows the photo to be proportional, allowing your model to look as good as they do when posing in the mirror.
- Get the angles
Your model has a good side that they like the picture to be taken from. Angles work in the same way. This means regardless of the pose, your job is to tell them to suck it in, push it out, chin down or up, shoulders lax, turn their face! If you get the picture right, you did your job.
- Care!
At the end of the day, it truly is just a photo, but it is also the effort that you invest in something that someone you care about, and hopefully love, cares about so give it a hundred percent!