Photos: Do you have a "good side/bad side?" - YouLookFab Forum

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Photos: Do you have a "good side/bad side?"

Kari

Veteran

When you are being photographed, do you have a side of your body or face that you clearly prefer to face the camera?

With me, there's no question. The left side of my face must at least slightly face the camera. My hair is parted on the right, so I have more of a soft sideswept bang from the left; but I also think it has to do with the asymmetry of my face, and certainly my nose looks much more crooked from the right than from the left.
(Pictures from the "bad side" are in #1 below.) Generally photos taken of me from this direction are taken by other people when I didn't have much time to prepare, or was physically squished so that I had to turn to that direction. And I'm sure most people would think I was completely nuts if I said "Wait! Stop! No photos until my left side is facing the camera!"

It's got to the point now where my face just automatically turns that direction, so I don't have very many pictures taken from me where I'm facing toward the right - I even managed to turn my face to the left while being photographed riding a tricycle. (See pictures in #2.)
Coincidentally, my left ear is dominant, so if I'm listening hard to something I also turn with my left ear slightly facing forward.

I'm sure I can't be the only one. Anyone else photograph much better from one direction?

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22 replies

Latest reply was from Janet

goldenpig

(website)

Veteran

Kari, I just had to say that you look great from both sides! That one with the ice cream cone is especially cute!

Fruitful

Veteran

It's only as I'm getting older that I'm noticing this. My younger face probably got away with more, but now the cartilage in my nose has changed so it's quite noticably assymetrical, and my brow hair grows a little differently, and my mouth droops and lips are thinner.

I like my left side best too and also part on the right side (this was an unconscious decision and I used to part it on the left).

I used to think it was funny when people said "get my good side" but now it makes a difference to me.

I think your "bad side" looks beautiful btw ^_^

Anonymous

Kari you cracked me up just now. I have my pose as well. I slightly tilt my face to one side in most pictures, if I can. My fiancee calls it "the magnum" have you ever seen Zoolander? That's where the magnum reference comes from LOL

You are beautiful either way but I can completely see what you are talking about. I suffer from the same affliction.

Kari

Veteran

Alas, I haven't mastered Magnum yet, but if I'm really feeling foxy I can make it to a Blue Steel.

I'm glad that I am not the only one, and thank you for your kind words! I don't think my right side is dramatically ugly or anything - I just feel like I look more symmetrical when I'm photographed from the left, and am also more practiced at tilting my face to avoid a double chin from that angle.

Jilly

Kari, you're not the only one! (I think you look adorable from both sides btw). My best pics have probably been when I faced directly forward. When I was younger, people used to tell me they couldn't understand why my drivers' license picture was so good, and I finally figured out it's because I had to face forward to take the picture. Weird, huh?

Jonesy

Veteran

I think you look fab from all angles, but I do know what you mean about the good side. I much prefer one of my eyebrows over the other one, so I tend to favor the side with that eyebrow, if that makes any sense at all :).

But in terms of photographs, I will take any photo of myself from any side angle, as long as it's not a shot from below me! My FIL is famous for crouching down underneath people and shooting up, so he captures every possible double chin tendency. It's the worst! He thinks I just hate to be photographed, but actually I just hate to be photographed by *him*!

AJ

Veteran

Yes, I prefer the right side of my face to be photographed. The left side of my face is fuller than my right, so I like to show the slender side, LOL!

You look lovely from either angle. : )

CocoLion

(website)

Veteran

Left side! Like Fruitful, my nose cartilege is uneven on the right, skewing the length and shape of my nose. I change the parting of my hair from left to right every time I wash my hair, so that has nothing to do with it. Maybe I should settle on one side for hair?

It took me coming to YLF to figure this all out, it came from taking pictures of myself and studying them.

I also don't like to be photographed with an open mouth smile because that's when my very crooked smile really shows!

lyn*

(website)

Veteran

I do have a side as well; I think my eye is lopsided on the other side

ManidipaM

Veteran

I had to laugh at Jonesy's description. I typically have the opposite problem, where people catch me foreshortened because I'm short!

Personally, I prefer being photographed head-on, slightly tilted to avoid looking like my passport and other ID --- the coffin-box pose. I hate it when someone catches me looking over my shoulder (all my chins on the twist), and prefer not be shot in profile either (I dislike the flatness of the back of my head with my prominent nose).

Kari, I have to say, if you hadn't said, no one would ever know you *had* a bad side!

mrseccentric

(website)

Veteran

You're gonna crack up at this quirk of mine! Well, for decades i had an undiagnosed sacroiliac problem. Basically, the cartilage had stretched due to an injury and meds so the pelvic bone would shift around on the end of the spine (it's excruciating). Thankfully an astute physical therapist diagnosed it and taught me how to put the joint back in; years later the joint is much more stable.

You may guess where this is going........because the two joints were asymmetrical, the muscles became asymmetrical, and i ended up with pretty uneven butt cheeks and two uneven saddlebags. (As a side note, no panties would stay in place either, so i wore a lot of thongs. Everything ended up in there anyways, may as well have less material!)

I still tend towards a perkier left side (rounder cheek, less saddlebag) with the right side less so (flatter cheek, more prominent saddlebag). When photographing pants/belt details, etc. i pose so as to 'showcase' the left hip and downplay the right.

That's all i have to say. steph

Anonymous

All your photos are cute!

But you have me thinking now...I realized a little while ago that I instinctively turn my head the same way in every photo...maybe that's why!

nicoleb

(website)

Veteran

I don't...think so? I tend to angle my face the same direction in a lot of my photos but it's honestly only because it feel more natural to me to look off into the neighborhood then look off at...my back door.

My side bangs are kind of long so my eyes can get lost if I turn to my right but I don't know if I have a bad side/good side...

Diana

Veteran

Not really, unless I'm not smiling. My face droops ever so slightly on the right side due to a combination of a slightly lazy eye and residuals from Bell's Palsy, but it only shows when I don't smile. (In any case, I think my smile is one of my best features so I almost always smile for the camera anyway.) I've gotten over the fact that my face is asymmetrical anyway. I do prefer my face from the front or 3/4 rather than profile though, since I have a very flat profile.

Travelgal Nicole

Veteran

Mine's the right side. I know what you're talking about. You look great in your photos!

Vicki

(website)

Veteran

I think you look great from both sides and, like GP, I also like your ice cream shot, from the "other" side. But, I have to agree with you, there IS a side I favor and it's my right side, because my left eye turns funny and my right upper lid seems lower, making my right eye seem smaller. From one of the posing links someone posted, it was suggested that the smaller eye be closest to the camera. The hair parting is interesting and I part mine on the left, which would be the same "formula" as yours, Kari.

Meredith1953

Veteran

I like my left eyebrow better!

rachylou

Veteran

I do, but I can't figure out which one it is. I'm direction challenged, looking at photos.

Kari

Veteran

CocoLion, I have a crooked smile too. My smile is tilted, and my lower teeth are crooked (in spite of having years of braces as a child, sniff.) I smile open-mouthed anyway, crookedness be damned! My whole face and body are asymmetrical anyway (which I've read is normal.) One ear is higher than the other; shoulders, breasts, and hips are all slightly different heights; one eye's a little lower, smile's a little droopy on one side and can come off as being a "sneer" if I'm not smiling really open-mouthed... so having an asymmetrical hairstyle (and outfit, for that matter) actually disguise those issues.

It's funny the way that we use hair partings to complement our "good" sides, for those of us who have them. It took me years to realize that the side part really played into which side of my face I liked having photographed.

I like the ice cream photo too, even though it's on the "wrong" side. I think part of the reason I like it is that my dad happened to snap a photo when I was laughing at just the right moment. It's hard to accurately capture genuine delight and amusement in a photo, but when it happens, it REALLY works.

Heather

Veteran

Kari, this thread is so on time for me. I take awful photographs. AW-FUL.

In the fall, my DH and I went to a cocktail fundraiser. Our friends were on the host committee of this event. My DH and I had our photo snapped on their "red carpet" at the beginning of the party--whatever, right? We will never see these photos again.

Ah, not so fast, my friend.

Our friends decided to gift us a professional copy of our photograph.

Dude.

The picture was so TERRIBLE that I was certain that it had to be a mean trick on our friends' behalf. I shall never know. That photo is buried in some drawer as I feel guilty that it was a gift.....*shudder*

So to answer your question: both sides are bad! ;D

Aziraphale

Veteran

LOL Kari, you're so funny! I think you look good from both sides.

But, what Fruitful says is true. Our faces get more asymmetrical as we age (I've read interesting science-y articles about this). I'm not sure if one of my sides is "better" than the other, but they're sure as hell different. My nose is dead centre and straight, but I've always had one eye that folds a little more than the other, one slightly higher side to my smile, that sort of thing. And the lines that are starting to form around my eyes are not even on both sides.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Ugh, I am so asymmetrical! But when I smile for pictures, it helps. Really, my worst angle is the profile view -- big nose, double chin, yuck. I really don't like my profile at all.

A bit ironic, since I prefer the side view of my body, which shows that I have boobs and a flat tummy, while hiding the fact that I have wide hips and saddlebags!