Push your forehead toward the camera

Because the thing that ruins the photo is the opposite move, and you make it without knowing. Many people say that pushing the forehead toward the camera, with the chin tucked slightly down rather than up, sharpens the jaw line and takes the double chin out of the picture, because it changes how the light hits the face; some discussions link a professional portrait photographer’s demonstration of it. Some people explain the reflex: when people smile for a camera they push the head back, and the tuck counteracts that. Some people describe it as sticking the forehead out and down while you smile, and some say a slight tilt of the head to one side finishes it. Others give the physical cues: if you are much taller than the camera, push until your ears are past your shoulders; purse the lips a fraction and relax the lower lip, so a smile does not show a row of bottom teeth; and narrow the eyes slightly — one person calls it a squinch — so they look intent rather than startled. One person warns it feels unnatural at first and then becomes instinctive, and one says it can look strained without practice, and some say some of these expressions look strange overdone — how far to push is a gap people named; this page’s own line is that it is a small move, not a lunge. This page checked the mechanics against what portrait photographers teach, and they hold. It is not about weight: one person points out people of average weight have double chins in photographs because of bone and skin, and some people say the same about themselves.

People corrected it, and that is worth more than the trick. Some people say to press the tongue up into the palate, or behind the front teeth, to tighten the neck, and others repeat it; some people say that pressing the tongue up actually pushes the flesh under the chin out and makes it look worse, and that the movement that works is tightening the throat as if you were about to swallow, or drawing the middle of the tongue up into the soft palate. Some people give a version of the same tension that is easier to find: make the sound ‘ng’, as at the end of ‘sing’, and hold the tightness that appears at the back of the mouth where it meets the throat. People argue whether the tongue trick works at all; some people say it defines the jaw, one person says it makes the chin worse for some faces, and people’s decider is your own anatomy — try it in the mirror and watch, because you can see the answer. This page’s reading — not people’s — is that these are supporting moves and the forehead is the main one. A second point here is about the person holding the camera, and it settles most of the next question: the height of the photographer does not matter, because a photographer can kneel, or lift the phone, or step back — the angle is chosen, not inherited.

Higher for the face, lower for the body, and people argue which you want. Some people say to ask a taller person to take the photo so the camera looks slightly down at you, which hides under the chin; one person says a shorter photographer makes you look taller and more imposing. In other discussions, one person each way argues the same thing about angle — one says looking down at a camera at shoulder height gives a better jaw line than a high camera, and that the problem is posture, not height. People do not give a single decider; one side says posture and chin position matter more than camera height. One person gives the conventions from headshot work — a little below eye level to convey authority or lengthen the legs — and says it does not carry over to a casual double-chin problem — and one person warns good portraits are generally taken at eye level, which is why photographers bend their knees. This page carries one person’s point as the answer: you do not need a taller friend, because the person with the phone can raise it, kneel, or step back; ask them to hold it a little above your eye line and a step further away than feels natural, and do the forehead move into it. If you are the tallest in the group and the camera is always below you, one person says to push the head forward until the ears pass the shoulders, so the camera does not see under the jaw — and one person warns that if it does, the whole effect is lost.

Smaller adjustments, and people have a short list. Some people say pulling the shoulders back and standing out of a slouch does a great deal for how the body reads in a photo. Some people shift the weight onto one leg with the other foot a little forward and the shoulders slightly uneven, so the body is angled to the camera rather than square to it — one says it avoids the stomach folds a square stance creates; some say to keep the elbows a little away from the body, so the upper arm is not pressed flat and wide against the side; one person says, for women trying to look slimmer, to flex the stomach rather than suck it in. On the face: some people say to find your better side by photographing both profiles and practising your smile in a mirror, with and without teeth; some say to look a fraction above the lens — one person puts it at about two inches above centre at arm’s length — or through the camera to something far away, so the eyes are not crossed or fixed; others say the best advice for the original question was simply to be natural and smile with your teeth. Others give the timing: think of something genuinely funny five to ten seconds before the shutter, because a smile held longer than that sets; look away and turn to the camera just as the picture is taken, which one person says looks less frozen. People argue whether a slight purse of the lips is a technique or a duck face; the decider is the degree, and people’s line is that subdued is a technique and exaggerated is a joke.

When your face is not the face it was designed for, or when you have decided you would rather not. One person warns the forehead move exaggerates a prominent forehead, and some people say so of their own; one person warns the move may not work through a very dense beard; one person warns that dropping the chin without bringing the head forward blends the jaw into the neck, and another that bringing the chin up while leaning forward exposes the neck to the camera and enlarges it — the move is forward and slightly down, both parts; lighting — which also shadows the chin — is a gap people named; and one person notes that a photograph used to demonstrate the move was also retouched, which is why this page promises a jaw line and not a transformation. One person points out people of average weight get double chins from bone structure or loose skin, some people say they get one in photos without being overweight, and people say the move works at every body size. And one person says something this page keeps on the page: they would rather be photographed as they actually look, without tricks, and call it being themselves — which is a position, not a mistake, and if it is yours you can close this page having lost nothing. Part of the discussion is not about photography at all but about whether it is acceptable to comment on other people’s bodies; some people said it is not, and this page stands with them, and that strand is not carried here except as this sentence.