How to plan props and conceal flaws in photos

Polyphotos. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Polyphotos

In the old days, a newspaper photographer would take a film of 12 photos to select the best. 

When I was a child, and a teenager, department stores had a photography department. They offered polyphotos. Poly means many. 

To get children to look at the camera and smile, the photographer would wave a soft toy or puppet. You could do this. With a baby, the photographer might ask the parent or nanny or brother or sister to wave the toy.

As a photographer, you can get the attention of the subject by shouting 'smile', 'cheese', or count down 'three, two, one - done'.

After a Polyphoto session, you received a sheet of 16 or 24 or 30 - at different prices for the photographer's time as well as the printing cos.You received postage size prints and selected the best one for an enlargement.

The polyphotos of me as a child and a teenager are still hanging on my wall.

Bracketing

The system of taking several photos in order to capture one good one, is known as bracketing.

Later, my photo was taken by a local newspaper photographer for an article about the publication of one of my books. They chose a photo. I asked if I could see or keep the other photos.

Many years after that, the newspaper did another article about me. I asked, "Are you going to send a photographer?"

"No," they said. "We'll just use a stock photo."

I thought, that's a pity, to re-use an old photo. I was disappointed.

However, I was exceited and delighted when the article appeared. The photo was one I had never seen before. They must have kept a set from a previous photo shoot. They had 'new', not recent, but never seen before, photos of me taken previously.

By taking a large number of photos, you will see what looks best.

 I have just reached 109 photos of Dress of the Day - smile with Angela. My husband takes the photos, at mid-day, outdoors or on a sunny balcony. We have learned to avoid a photo with the sun behind me which makes me appear as a silhouette. 

We also avoid poses in which I am squinting against the sun.  I don't like it. I appear with half shut eyes and frown lines between my brows and a pained, cross expression.

Selfies

If he is not around, I take a head and shoulder selfie against a plain background. I can see exactly what I am taking.

PREPARE PROPS

I plan my shoes, my hat, and my props. I look around the garden, room or house for something in the same colour. Do I have a hobby item?

Should anything be left out? A building which is a distraction. A building revealing my location.  building belonging to others which should not be there to protect their privacy, and beware of giving the falso impression that I own a mansion, hotel, palace, fast car, yacht, or weapon. The caption can reveal the truth. the fireplace with the fire is not my home but a hotel dining room.

How Many Photos Do You Need

We usually take half a dozen photos in different photos. 

1 People look different in profile, full on, three quarters, looking up, looking down, serious, smiling, open mouth showing teeth, closed mouth. Find which works best for your face and the lighting. I have a mole on one side. If you have a mole, age spot, birth mark, freckles, moles, a pimple, or a wart you might prefer the side without it. On the other hand, you might consider a mark your trade mark.

DISGUISE

HOW TO HIDE HAIR, UNTIDY HAIR, NO HAIR

2 Hide untidy hair or a bald spot under a cap, hat or scarf. Unless you want to make baldness a feature.

You can later crop a photo jsut above the eyebrows if you prefer, or forgot the prop.

HOW TO HIDE EYES

3 Hide baggy eyes by applying egg white. 

4 Or wear sunglasses. (Drug addicts wear glasses to hide the pupils of their eyes, from prying passers-by and police.)

5 If you like your eyes or want to look more open and honest, you could remove glasses.  Besides, they will date you in years to come.

6 Spectacles can be fashion items. They can look trendy for a modern photo.

What about shut eyes? Bracketing usually gets around that problem. Once we had a photo of a group of four people linking arms. In one photo the pose of the legs, all raised in a dance, was excellent. However, one person had eyes half shut.

I said to my husband, "It's a pity you can't take the dancing picture numbers four, and the eyes of the person on the ar right from the first photo.

He retorted, "Well, you could do that in photoshop, but it would take you hours to match it up, if it worked at all."

I left the room. Five minutes later, I went back in, and found him with the copied eyes in place, but bits of doubling and distortion.

He had blown up the photo and was fiddling about. I went away.

Ten minutes later he called me. There it was, the perfect photo. You would never know we had copied in the eyes. 

We sent it off to the four friends. They never knew how much effort went into that photo. But they were pleased to have it. 

HOW TO HIDE HOLES, STAINS, OR MISSING BUTTONS

7 Stains on clothes, or missing buttons, can be concealed by a brooch, a patch, a scarf, or a hand.

8 HOW TO CUT COLOUR TO DISGUISE MISMATCHED COLOURS

 Are you wearing a red blouse with an orange skirt? Strange green shoes? Pink lipstick with a red dress? A red dress next to orange flowers. A man with brown socks and navy shoes? A colour blind friend with a blue tie on a purple shirt? 

Dead murky brown clothes on dull grey? A white blouse with brown coffee stains down the front?

Turn photos into black and white. 

 9 HOW TO ENHANCE COLOUR

 Try out the colours in the editing mode on your phone. The little pencil is editing. You can crop out litter and clutter and distractions, and enhance colour. 

10 BAN BABIES, CUT CLUTTER, LEAVE OUT LITTER, & PROMOTE PRIVACY 

Shrink to fit to cut out the littered background.

PRIVACY

Do you have a baby or bank statement in the background? A calendar revealing your days out of the house? A password reminder on a pinboard? A car number plate showing? 

Your house number - stand in front of it to block it out.

Shrink to fit in your camera editing programme.

TIP FOR YOU

Now you know that you can have different photos on all your articles and websites by taking assorted poses.

PREPARE, POSE, EDIT!

Useful Websites

https://www.wikihow.com/Be-Photogenic

https://www.wikihow.com/Crop-Your-Images

https://www.wikihow.com/Put-Text-on-Pictures

https://www.wikihow.com/Shrink-a-Picture

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.