I Hate Having My Picture Taken

A common comment I hear when women book brand photography sessions with me, or when we're about to start the shoot, is "I hate having my picture taken." My first response is "Do you know how many times I've heard this statement from other women?" My second response is "When we start, I'll take a couple of test pictures and I'll show you, and you'll respond how everyone else does… WOW!!" And then, so said, so done.

I would surmise that we are in a crisis of low self-confidence and low self-image today. Every day we are bombarded with images on television, social media, magazines, posters and apps — to name a few — that are full of heavily edited images of people. These edits smooth skin, cover blemishes, change skin and hair colours and even adjust facial and body features. This type of photography doesn't reflect the true nature of the visual identity of the individual. In essence, it further increases the low self-confidence and low self-image we experience every day.

The first point I like to address in response to the overall statement "I hate myself in photos" is that there is a huge difference between photos of you taken standardly on a smartphone, compared to photos taken of you with a professional camera and lens.

Smartphone photography in standard mode creates a very flat image that has all the different elements in the picture in focus. This therefore creates an image of you that doesn't look natural, because there's no depth of feature in the image. Our natural eye sees depth in everything we look at, so when we see an image where your face and body appear flat, people generally don't like it.

Secondly, as the first "selfie generation," we have developed a habit of taking photos with our smartphones at weird angles that attempt to flatter us.

Thirdly, the front-facing "selfie" camera lens on our smartphones has historically had a much lower resolution — something like 12MP (megapixels) — than the camera lens on the back of the phone, which might be 24–48MP. This makes a huge difference to the overall quality of the photo and the detail the camera is able to capture.

As a professional brand photographer, I use professional cameras and specialised lenses to take brand photography of my clients. Each image I take is 50MP. On top of this, I use lenses such as 35mm f/1.8, 85mm f/1.8 or 24–70mm f/2.8 — specialist lenses used regularly in the photographic industry to capture portraits of people. These lenses specialise in capturing the natural depth in an image of facial and bodily features, creating a much better representation of the client, and therefore a better reaction to the portrait once it's taken. Here are a few examples of previous brand photography shoots I've done on my Brand Portfolio page.

The main vision of Alexander Media Creative is "Elevating Women's Visibility Online," and one of the main ways I do this is through brand photography sessions. I take time to plan the shoot ahead of time — understanding what the client needs the images for, where they want to use them, the location of the shoot, and the style of the shoot. It's important that the images created fully reflect the personality and character of the client I'm working with. I want all my clients to feel empowered and confident to share their images on socials, websites and other printed material — especially as business owners, or within their working environment.

Are you ready to feel more confident in front of the camera?

If you're ready to create a professional library of images that reflects you, your personality and the business you've built, you can book my supportive Brand Photography — Max Session here today. I'll guide you through the entire experience — from planning and posing to choosing the images that elevate your visibility online. It involves a session of up to 90 minutes, with three different outfits and 25 edited images for your professional library.

Book Your Next Shoot Here Today