Smile in photos?

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When I look at myself in the mirror and smile I look nice, but when I am in front of a camera for some reason I completely lose the ability to smile that same smile and I always end up with a BIG HUGE GRIN or some purposefully small smile that looks like I'm trying to be sexy but I'm really just sick to my stomach.

I always try. It's part of my personality.

^^^
good for you
this world needs more smiles in it.

My mom would always get really mad at me for not smiling when I was very young. She would pinch me in the arm... it was a sh***y thing of her to do.

Anyway, in all photos after the age of, maybe, 5 or so, I always smiled really big and wide because I thought that was what i was supposed to do so i wouldn't get pinched by my mother. like this:

But then that also caused problems. Like my grandad, he was avid hobbyist photographer, when he would take pictures of me i would do my usual and he would laugh and tell me to "stop posing". I didn't know what "posing" meant. Of course I know now that he wanted me to just do natural casual smile instead of big smile but it was a great perplexing mystery to me as a child.

Yep, exactly like that.

It's actually funny because now my smile is what I get complimented on the most and it is very easy for me to smile and I smile almost all the time. People say I have a gorgeous smile and a very encouraging one. So I don't know what made me change from then to now. But I am grateful that it is natural and easy for me now and it is very natural and easy for me to smile in pictures. I think after about age 6 or so is when I started to see more smiles in pictures and I really notice it in my yearly school photos. But definitely from about 3 to 6 or so I had many more photos with blank stares than with a natural smile. I am curious what may have made me change. Maybe some of you might have ideas to that. It's definitely a good change and I am very glad and grateful for it but curious none the less.

That reminds me of when I was told to "say cheese" because I wasn't smiling for the photo... I ended up saying cheese, but not with a smile. This went on for a good couple years of school photos.

My smile is awkward-not too awkward but needs improvement. I practice though. I am trying to make it better. You should have seen it when I was first diagnosed an aspie. Horrible. I looked like I was miserable. I looked upset. It took years for it to finally improve. And when I was 2-10 I looked angry haha.

I have always done fake smiles in photos. I thought everyone did that. I have some weird ones too and ones that don't look like I'm smiling. I always hated my smiles because kids would make comments about it. They also made fun of my front teeth too so I would hide them when I smile and my smile was worse. Now I don't care anymore and I show my teeth again.

This is what I am wondering about. You say your smile looks awkward. I look at this pic on your new avatar and I see a lovely looking girl with a beautiful, sweet, warm and friendly smile. I don't see anything awkward about it at all. In fact, I doubt you could be any cuter if you tried. If I saw you in my class and you smiled I would not even know that you were not an NT. I have seen pics of myself where I felt my smile looked weird but people always tell me I have a magnificent smile. I think sometimes we see ourselves much differently than other people see us. Even when we look at pics of ourselves we might be more critical than other people would be. Maybe if it feels uncomfortable to smile we think we look strange but I wonder if we really look to others as strange as we think we do. But HopefulFlower looks very pretty to me when she smiles.

Last edited by skibum on 30 Jul 2013, 2:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I never knew chickens liked to be hugged. That is so awesome!

Even in this pic, which I like very much, your smile is not awkward at all. It is very lovely. I hope you can see that and really believe it.

I'm a pretty good smiler if something tickles me just right, but if I have to do it on command it feels forced and my face feels really tight. I've learned how to flash a fake toothy smile when I need to, but then I look overly-animated or just plain strange..

This thread sums me up perfectly! I have had an ongoing conversation with my mrs about why I don't smile in pictures.

I find it hard to explain why apart from that I can't fake smile. If i am happy I smile, if someone tells me to smile I can't just break into one!

Got married last month it was such a nice day and there were so many pictures taken I have ended up with lots of pictures of me with a huge grin on my face. They are lovely but actually look a bit alien to me as I have never seen myself looking like that!

Congratulations on getting married. I wish you and yours all the best. I am so glad you could see yourself with a beautiful smile in your wedding pics!

Thank you you're very sweet. Sorry I thought I had replied to this already but I guess I didn't. I have to agree that other people do see us differently. We tend to be-like you said-more critical. And thank you very much this was very kind message. I actually was an extremely awkward smiler when I was younger and have photographic evidence of that lol. You are a great person and have really made me feel good about it.

Thank you so much. It's easy to be sweet with you guys. I am so glad you are feeling good about how you look. You really are a beautiful girl so you never have to worry about feeling awkward like that again.