How to Look Photogenic in Every Photo: Tips to Stand Out!

maybe you're someone who's always like, "Oh my God, I do not look photogenic. I don't look good in pictures. I feel like every time I take pictures, I just don't look good. Like, my pictures never come out good. Or I look so pretty in real life, but then when I take pictures, I just look not that good. Like, I don't look good in pictures."

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Why not? Hi Queen, welcome back to my channel! Venance here. For the best branding, business, and content creation tips, make sure to subscribe to my channel and hit that bell so that you are notified every time I post a new video.

Today's video is so game-changing because we are going to talk about how to become more photogenic. Whether you are a model, a content creator, or you're just looking to look better in pictures, this is going to be the video for you. By the end of this video, I'm going to give you all my secrets to all my slay shots, all my viral pictures, and just how to look better in pictures. This has truly helped me—just looking better in pictures has truly helped me grow my online presence as well.

First, I want us to address this: the reason why you don't feel photogenic yet. Why? And I feel like that is such a thing. I feel like a lot of people do feel like they look good in real life, but it doesn't convert when they actually are taking pictures.

But Queen, let me tell you something—no one is born photogenic. No one is born photogenic. Maybe some people, maybe some people, but no one really is born photogenic. I feel like it's something that is learned. Like, you have to learn to be more photogenic. You have to learn to show up better in pictures. I feel like it's a skill. It's a skill that you have to build. It's a skill that you have to learn, like everything else. You have to learn—it's not something that everyone is born with. It is something that is learned.

So now, let's get into the five secrets on how to be more photogenic.

First, you need to find your lighting. Lighting is probably the most important thing when it comes to looking your best in pictures. I'm telling you, sometimes I think that my pictures are so good and I look my best until I go into different lighting and I look even better. I'm like, "I couldn't even believe that my picture could look even better!" And the only difference is the lighting. It's literally the lighting. I'm telling you, you need to understand your lighting.

There are different types of lighting. There is the sun, okay? If you go outside, there's the sun, which is natural lighting. There's lighting where you are in the house and you are in front of a window. Right now, I am in front of a window, but there's also two lights. There is also artificial lighting—like if you go to a photoshoot, you know the photographer will have artificial lights. Some of the artificial light could be just a ring light. It could be one of these that I have here. So, one of these—this is kind of like an artificial light that I use sometimes, so you can use this as well.

But there are different types of lighting based on the different types of pictures that you want to take. For example, if you are at a photoshoot, a lot of the time, the photographer is going to have one of these artificial lights—the big ones, as well as ring lights. Let's say if you're somewhere that doesn't have a lot of light, you can use a ring light.

So, understanding what kind of light works for you—most lighting is going to look good, but the main light that you want to avoid is overhead lighting. Like, let's say that you are outside, taking pictures in front of the sun, but you're literally behind the light or on top of the sun. You're not going to look good because it's going to give you shadows, it's going to give you eye bags, it's just not going to make you look good.

Sure, you are standing in front of the sun—or your light—but now I am standing behind the sun. Literally, the sun is behind me, so there are going to be shadows, and my pictures are not going to be hitting, okay? So, you want to stand in front of the sun. The sun needs to be hitting your face. That’s how you know that your pictures are going to come out bomb.

So always be mindful whenever you're taking pictures—be mindful of where you're at and where the light is hitting you. You always, always, always want the light to hit you from the front. Like, if you are outside, don’t have the sun hit you from behind. You can even be under the shade and it's still going to look good, but just make sure that the sun never hits you from the top or from the back. Overhead light is not good because it’s going to give you bags. You don’t want bags, right? You don’t want bags, so really, really avoid that.

Next is to know your angles. So, with knowing your angles, this is just practicing. Try to practice in front of a mirror. Try to practice which side is your best. I know my side—this is my good side. So anytime that somebody wants to snap a picture of me, you're always going to see me moving this way because I just know that this is my good side. But if I want to take a picture straight on, I already know what looks good and what doesn’t look good because I practiced a lot.

I've been modeling for so many years, so this is something that I have done. I've been in front of cameras so many times that I already know what looks good for me. Look in the mirror all the time and make sure that you are practicing.

I feel like with posing, you don’t always have to do dramatic things. It could just be such a simple shift in your body. Like, for example, don’t always try to switch up your poses so dramatically. Just a little switch—like instead of being like this, you just go like this. That’s already a big difference, right?

Understand your body more so that whenever you're taking pictures, it makes sense.