How to Find Your Best Angle and Side

11/17/2019

Do you know your best side? And do you know how light can work to flatter your face?

A lot of photographers find it challenging to figure out the best sides and angles for their clients, which is one of the reasons headshot photography is so challenging.

If you knew your best side and could explain to your photographer right off the bat which angles you like the best and where the light should be positioned to look more flattering for you, you’d save time and start getting great shots right away!

Too many people waste the first hour of their shoot with inexperienced photographers by trying to figure out what angles and expressions look best, and by the time they start capturing their best stuff, the shoot is over.

So How Do You Find Your Best Side?

90% of people look better on one side than the other. Why? Because our faces are not perfectly even. If we were to take a photo of someone and cut it in half and flip it over so both sides match perfectly, the photo would look really weird.

Take a look at the two photos below:

As you can see, people look more normal when their faces are not entirely symmetrical.

This calls into question whether we want the lighting to be coming perfectly from the center and whether we want our face directly straight forward into the camera, or tilted or turned one way of the other. What looks best and how can find tell?

The easiest way to find your best side is to use a simple point system for now, until you start to get the knack for why one angle or the other looks better for your face and you can tell just by looking at yourself.

Let’s assign a numerical value to each facial feature so we can figure out which side is your best. Follow the steps below, looking at yourself in a mirror while doing it:

Eyes: First, look at your eyes and notice if one is bigger than the other. In about 70% of cases, the bigger eye should be the one positioned closer to the camera. Give the side of their face with the bigger eye one point. If both eyes are almost the same, no points are needed. Note: To make it easier, touch your face on the side where your giving yourself a point, because since you’re seeing a mirror image of yourself and it can be easy to get confused.
Jaw: Look at your jaw. Turn your face a bit to each side and notice if your jaw looks fatter or thinner on one side or the other. In about 70% of cases, shooting with the face turned so the jaw looks thinner is the best choice. Give the side of your face that makes the jaw look thinner another point. Again, it’s possible that both angles look about the same. Only assign a point if one side is noticeably different.
Nose: Look at your nose. Does your nose look larger or smaller from one side or the other? Does it seem to be more pointy or distracting from a certain angle and less from another? If one angle or the other looks significantly better, assign another point to that side.
Blemishes & distractions: Look for blemishes or distracting elements. If there are some big blemishes or distracting marks, or you don’t like your hair from a certain side, think about whether you’re planning on having the final photo retouched. If you are, you don’t need to worry about this step because the issue will be fixed afterwards. If you’re not planning on retouching your final photo, give the side where the blemish doesn’t show another point.
Add it up. Add up all the points and see which side had the most. Let’s say your nose looks better on your left, but your eyes and jaw look better from the right. You’re not planning on retouching the final photo and can hide a blemish when you turn your face to the left. If you add up the points, you would get 2 points on your left side and 2 points on your right. So in this case, you probably look even from both sides and you can easily do shots facing both directions. If, however, your eyes look perfectly even, that means you would have 2 points for the left and one 1 point for the right, so you’d probably want to be shooting on left side of your face for most of the shoot.

Remember that in the end it all comes down to personal preference. If you think you prefer a side opposite to what the point system suggests, you can ask the photographer to do a test shot of you facing each direction and take a look and see which image you like best. The steps above are just a simple starting point and only work correctly about 70% of the time.

How to Find the Best Lighting for Your Face

Once you know your best side, the photographer should position the key light so that your nose is pointing towards it. Essentially you want your face pointing towards the brightest light source, not away from it for the beginning few test shots. If you’re pointing away from the brightest light, it can sometimes make your face look fatter or cause parts of your face to be obscured by shadow, which definitely won’t work for a headshot.

After the photographer gets the lighting set up, you should ask to see the photo so you can get an idea of where the light is coming from and what it’s doing to the shape of your face. There are a few fixes we will discuss below that can help your face look better on-camera if you remember to try them during your shoot:

Face too wide: If your face seems to wide (or fat) in the shot, you should ask the photographer to switch the lights so that one light comes from above you and another light comes from below you. This is called “clamshell” lighting, and it works wonders to thin out the face. Most people like clamshell lighting best because it’s similar to the light in bathrooms, carving out the structure of the cheekbones.
Uneven eyes: If your eyes appear uneven where one eye seems bigger than the other, ask the photographer to switch the sides of the key light (the main one hitting your face), meaning to make the dimmer light brighter and the brighter light dimmer. This will create what’s called “broad” lighting which should definitely help even out the eyes.
Dark eyes: If your eyes appear shadowed or you’re not seeing a sparkle of light reflected from them and they look a bit sleepy, try looking at the top of the lens or the camera logo. If that doesn’t help, ask the photographer to physically lower the height of the key light (the brightest light) so it fills in your eye sockets and creates a nice reflection (the reflection is called a “catch light”).
Double chin: If you’re seeing a double chin, try adjusting your body position or doing the “turtle.” You can lean forward towards the camera a bit to stretch out your jawline or you can push your forehead towards the camera so that your neck gets stretched a bit. If neither of those help, ask the photographer to stand on a stool or chair and shoot at you from above.
Wrinkles: If you want to soften you’re features and hide wrinkles and blemishes, ask the photographer to use a brighter fill light. And if you want to define your face more and have stronger shadows, ask the photographer to use less of a fill light or none at all.

Remember, when you’re shooting outside, sometimes it’s not possible to make all these technical lighting adjustments. However, if your photographer is technically proficient, you should be able to tell them what you’re not liking and the two of you can come up with a creative solution to it, such as turning to one angle or another so the light falls across your face a certain way. They can also try using a reflector from below to create that “clamshell” lighting effect we spoke about earlier to slim the face. Have fun with it and try not to be too hard on yourself!

Remember, customizing the lighting for your face is something most other people won’t notice in your headshot... You will probably be the only one who really cares how wide or thin your face looks. So don’t stress too much if you can’t get it looking perfect; your expression is much more important.