It matters what your subject is feeling because it usually shows up on their face — the frozen moment of a photograph often reveals all sorts of inner goings on. We ran Nicole through a series of expressions to see how her face changed as she changed expression. I suspect that when we pose in various faces we actually take up those moods — to some degree.
Bottom Line: If you get different expressions out of a person, you get very different pictures.
What I love about this sequence is how the entire mood of the shot changes with the tiniest changes in Nicole's expressions. At this point I don't even know how to label all the expressions, but they all say something different.
105mm, f13, studio softbox to left
Left
Right
The goal here was to have the most vacant expression possible — not show any emotion, which is pretty much impossible. I think people tend to have different resting points — many gravitate to a faint smile as a base, others to a slight frown: a protective measure to keep people away.
Seen alone, this photo makes Nicole look serene, but next to the smiles it makes her look sad.
I also suspect that people will read into her expression some reflection of their own feelings. I wonder if the people who tend to "live in a smile" see a different Nicole than the people who "live in a frown".
Nicole's chin is a bit more down, which changes the shape of her face and her eyes are more focused, not so vacant. But I don't know what to make of her expression, other than I'm not sure she is happy.
Talk about subtle changes — you can see she is happier here than in the shot to the left — but when I study the two images I can hardly identify what is different. Her eyes are slightly closed, but what does that mean?
Clearly this is the beginning of a smile, although just in the eyes.
This is the real-deal smile. The eyes crinkle way up for a real smile, and the lips stretch out. Odd, that an expression that narrows the eyes and thins the lips should be so clearly positive, but there it is.
Mild disgust. Why is it that this one-sided expression says "Things look iffy"? This is not half a frown — you can't do this with both sides of your face. (I think some people can't make one-sided expressions.)
Skeptical. Another asymmetrical expression that says, "I really don't know about that." Compare to mild disgust to the left, which is a negative reaction to somewhat yucky news.
Surprise. Eyebrows up. The great illustrator Norman Rockwell would have his models raise their eyebrows to make their expressions more open. I often ask a subject to raise their eyebrows so their eyes are more available — I ask them to say "Oh, really?" in a positive way, as in "Did you hear the Sox won the game?", followed by "Oh, really?"
The goal here was to have the most vacant expression possible — not show any emotion, which is pretty much impossible. I think people tend to have different resting points — many gravitate to a faint smile as a base, others to a slight frown: a protective measure to keep people away.
Seen alone, this photo makes Nicole look serene, but next to the smiles it makes her look sad.
I also suspect that people will read into her expression some reflection of their own feelings. I wonder if the people who tend to "live in a smile" see a different Nicole than the people who "live in a frown".
Nicole's chin is a bit more down, which changes the shape of her face and her eyes are more focused, not so vacant. But I don't know what to make of her expression, other than I'm not sure she is happy.
Talk about subtle changes — you can see she is happier here than in the shot to the left — but when I study the two images I can hardly identify what is different. Her eyes are slightly closed, but what does that mean?
Clearly this is the beginning of a smile, although just in the eyes.
This is the real-deal smile. The eyes crinkle way up for a real smile, and the lips stretch out. Odd, that an expression that narrows the eyes and thins the lips should be so clearly positive, but there it is.
Mild disgust. Why is it that this one-sided expression says "Things look iffy"? This is not half a frown — you can't do this with both sides of your face. (I think some people can't make one-sided expressions.)
Skeptical. Another asymmetrical expression that says, "I really don't know about that." Compare to mild disgust to the left, which is a negative reaction to somewhat yucky news.
Surprise. Eyebrows up. The great illustrator Norman Rockwell would have his models raise their eyebrows to make their expressions more open. I often ask a subject to raise their eyebrows so their eyes are more available — I ask them to say "Oh, really?" in a positive way, as in "Did you hear the Sox won the game?", followed by "Oh, really?"
