Wonder how celebrities look perfect and eye-bag free in “candid” photos? (hint: it’s a learned skill)
Being a celebrity often entails looking photo-ready, all the time. If you look in supermarket magazines or gossip sites you’ll see candid shots of actresses and actors with unwavering natural beauty and glimmering faces.
It seems impossible, right?
But it is possible with a simple move.
A lighting team wherever you go?
You may have heard the story of how Barbara Streisand had her team rearrange the entire set of Rosie O’Donell’s talk show to create more flattering lighting on her face. And how she made Jimmy Fallon trade chairs with her to reveal her more flattering side.
Proper lighting chases away shadows and can make you look years younger when the brightness and angle is right.
But you don’t have a lighting crew or a professional lighting apparatus nearby every time someone takes your picture. So you have to control the position of your face and your body to catch the best light.
Tap into your moth brain
You’ve heard the expression, “like a moth to the flame.” A phenomenon called phototaxis is how moths gravitate towards light. And you can do something similar to get your face in its best light.
The phototactic tilt (or PT Tilt) is a move that gives you an advantage when someone is taking your picture. It only requires 2 steps and takes less than 3 seconds.
- Use your moth vision to quickly scan the room and find the brightest light source. This can be a window, a ceiling light, a lamp, a neon sign, etc. Make sure the light isn’t directly above you or you will have unflattering shadows (unless you’re looking straight up at the ceiling, which doesn’t look natural in photos).
- Tilt your head so the light is shining nearly directly on your face, with your chin pushed slightly forward.
What the PT Tilt does for you
The PT Tilt reduces under-eye shadows and dark circles, so you don’t look tired. It also lessens the ability of the camera to pick up the wrinkles around your eyes and mouth.
The chin thrust part of the PT Tilt will make any double chin look smaller and will give better jawline definition- definitely an attractive feature.
How to make the PT Tilt work even better
On its own, the PT Tilt can work like magic for your photos, selfies, and candid shots. But if you want to up the ante, you should combine another tactic called the squinch. It’s a special kind of smile that adds warmth to your face in photos. I explain the best way to squinch, here.
And if you have eye bags or dark circles that are not completely eliminated by the PT Tilt and the squinch, you should seriously consider expertly performed under-eye filler with a cannula. This non-surgical tool has changed the life of many of my patients who thought that surgery was the only option for eye bags. I talk about the details of how it works, here.
