Can you actually smile with your eyes?

I was taking someone's headshots a while back and while I was resetting a light she asked me, "is it true that you can smile with your eyes, or is that just baloney?"

I thought about it for a few seconds and came to the quick conclusion that yes, "smiling with your eyes" does indeed exist. I can remember many headshot sessions that would start a little bland and dry, with a familiar phenomenon that I'll refer to as the "cheese syndrome." I will be talking with a headshot client about something unrelated, like sports or something, and we'll be conversing and smiling geniunely at each other and laughing. Then as soon as I bring my camera up to my face to take a photo, and my subject is looking down the barrel of the lens, they have the instantaneous "cheese!" reaction and bring out the fakest smile since Joan Rivers.

I don't blame them, I blame cameras. We have all had our photo taken hundreds or thousands of times in front of national monuments and at school portrait sessions in the gymnasium, that as soon as we see a camera we have a Pavlov's dog reation to "say cheese!" and mindlessly flash our pearly whites.

During my headshot sessions, I try to medicate this "cheese syndrome" with an old-fashioned home remedy: conversation and jokes. If I can get a client confortable enough to be around me as individuals, they can momentarily forget the camera is there and smile for me- a person- insted of for the camera. I have noticed a real difference in a person's smiles while looking through the photos following a session and can tell when the person was just smiling for the camera, and when I told a joke or said something dumb and they were smiling at me.

And I just stumbled on a WikiHow and a Wikipedia entry on smiling with the eyes, which made me smile with my mouth. Apparently, there is a scientific difference between a smile and a "genuine" smile, which is referred to as a "Duchenne smile," after its discoverer, Guillaume Duchenne.

As Wikipedia explains:
A Duchenne smile involves contraction of both the zygomatic major muscle (which raises the corners of the mouth) and the orbicularis oculi muscle (which raises the cheeks and forms crow's feet around the eyes). A non-Duchenne smile involves only the zygomatic major muscle. Many researchers believe that Duchenne smiles indicate genuine spontaneous emotions since most people cannot voluntarily contract the outer portion of the orbicularis oculi muscle.

I love this description because it reminds me of one of the main reasons why I like to call my headshots "organic headshots." I think of an organic headshot as a headshot that someone means. It's a headshot that shows a person as they really are and can convey a sense of who they are and their personality and friendliness through the photo.

Okay, so now that we know we need to smile with our eyes to get a genuine smile and make a photo look better, how do we do it? Here's a Wikihow with some good tips.

Cheese!

Fashion in the fall

Last night an old friend and I met up for photo shoot in an alley, using some cool clothing from local Chicago designers.

We had a lot of fun, and were interrupted only once by a passing car. Not only is Tonee an excellent model, but he can grab a light on a stand and carry it to safety lickety split too!

Actually, we were interrupted a couple other times when we would hear some scurrying in bushes or behind trash cans. There were a lot of rats in the alley and if you don't move or make much noise for a while, they come out to explore.

I think some of them got used to us after about an hour, as they started to poke their heads out to say "hello" here and there.

But they were camera shy, so thankfully Tonee is the only one in the shots.

It was nice to get outside shooting on one of the last warm evenings of the season, before it gets too consistently nippy at night to wander around with cameras blazing. We laid out the outfits for the evening with lots of jackets and coats, and didn't really need them.

A very special thanks to Tonee Dang for being an excellent model for the evening, and for the designers for providing the shirts: Fussya Co. by Chris Ho, and Black Market Caviar by Marco Lopez.

PHOTOjournalism, duh.

Yesterday my second article in C-U Confidential was published as part of a hopefully long-running column on the independent film scene in Chicago. The article is here.

C-U Confidential is an online publication with a print counterpart, run and edited by Jason Pankoke- a totally swell guy who really loves movies and loves bringing people together with them. He started the magazine to track the activities of independent film in the Midwest. It's a very tiring project: there is quite a lot of indie movie action around these parts.

My second article is a profile of a new documentary by Logan Futej and Jared Hoffa. A film about their biker gang grandparents. Don't worry, they're safe people and I was not harmed during the interview. This photo is the photo I took of the duo just before they held a test screening at Columbia College Chicago to get some feedback for the film. And a stuffed panda bear. His name is Panda Bear.

I plan to include my own photos of everyone I interview for the column. Duh, right? I'm a photographer. I love photography and I love independent filmmakers, so this column is a chicken-egg puzzle for me. Did I agree to write for it so I can learn more about independent film in Chicago? Or so I could just take photos? For my first interview, I took the photo after I asked the questions... but for this one I took the photo before the interview. Hmmm... egg? Bawk?

"The Swooning Shadow" and other tales

If I could change my middle name, I think I'd change it to "rim light," because I like rim lighting so much. (Or I'd probably change it to "superhuman destroyer of evil," but that's a post for another day.)

Maybe it's because of my background in cinematography and filmmaking that gives me an affinity for rim lighting, aka edge lighting- films use it a lot to add dynamics to a scene. A light placed behind the subject to light the edge of his or her hair, shoulders, etc., really makes the subject stand out from their background and gives them a solid look. It splashes light all over their edgy parts, but also creates new shadows and gives their features depth. Hand me a shovel, because I dig it.

I took this photo last night as a comp photo project. I snapped the subject's photo with a simple lighting setup, then another of myself for the shadow, and replaced his shadow with mine in Photoshop. (Sounds simple enough, but my mouse-using wrist is still sore and my eyes are watering from staring at the screen for so long...) Special thanks to Dave Hamner for modeling for the photo, and for being so awesome!

From the land before iPods

I was looking for something in my computer and came across this photo I took a few months ago. I was walking through an outdoor lumberyard and spotted this amazingly bright red "boom box" thing that has obviously been the still-working radio of choice for lumberyard staff for at least 15 years.

I think it's so pretty. I want to throw on a pair of matching Reeboks and jam to some George Michael or something. Who's with me? Boom box. Max boom for your system.

The giant lumber shelves it was sitting on went back at least 20 feet. Even though it was a beautifully bright sunny day, the light was directly overhead and couldn't reach into the depths of the shelves, so the camera really caught exactly what the scene looked like: bright light on the front of the shelf with a fast drop to pitch black toward the back. It was really pretty- the kind of sight that looks like a still-life photo even if you don't happen to have a Canon 5D in your pocket. And it makes you want to jam to George Michael or something. Anyone? Hello?

Olympian needs "non-Olympic" headshots

Today I took Alexandra Yeung's headshot: a mountain biker who competed in the 2000 Olympic Games representing Hong Kong. She now lives with her husband, Mike, in Chicago and is working for the City of Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid. And she's an evironmental engineer! A very busy woman.

She came to me for headshots because she needed a photo to go along with her bio summary for various print and online materials whenever she speaks somewhere, sends a press release, or any other 2016-related use. I get a lot of requests for this type of headshot and always ask what the majority of uses it will be for, as well as what the person is trying to portray.

For example, a business professional who does a lot of formal speaking engagements might need a headshot that is more formal-looking, with a suit, full, bright lighting, and a mottled background. Yet writers usually request more informal or creative-looking shots for their bookjackets. Alexandra wanted something that wasn't quite corporate, but also "non-biking" or "non-Olympic," since she's not trying to promote her biking, but her more professional side.

We took a few different types of photos, and this one is my favorite. It's approachable, but kind of cinematic in a way. It presents her in a professional way, but with a bit of creativity that links her image with the fact that she has such a diverse and interesting background. And I think the gaze on her face portrays that too. It seems to say, "ask me about how I was in the Olympics."

You're famous, Mr. and Mrs Breen!

A wonderful couple I took photos for in the past just contacted me- they are going to be featured on an episode of TLC's "A Baby Story," airing later this fall. Congrats, Jen and Jim Breen! The television show recently filmed and followed the couple during the birth of their second child, which they decided to undertake as a home birth, after being inspired by the Ricki Lake documentary The Business of Being Born.

Here's where I finally come in... several years ago I took engagement photos for them, and the TV show will be using some of them as footage during the episode. Woo! I can't wait to see the episode, Jen!