What is it that makes a person photogenic?

[zsas]

This 30 second video sums up my opinion of this matter. I say all are beautiful and it's our job to photograph that beauty...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFWr-...e_gdata_player

[Ole]

"Photogenic" is a totally subjective term. It's not an absolute or quantifiable. I find it used to describe someone whose looks a photographer likes who took a photograph they like. Dismissive? Sorry.

I have to disagree. While a good photographer should be able to take a good picture of any person, there are some who are simply more photogenic.

A long time ago when I did test photography for a model agency, I saw all types: Those who look great but aren't at all photogenic, those who look great and are, and those who look quite ordinary but look great in photos.

The biggest surprise was a pair of identical twins. I couldn't tell who was who during the photo session, and they swapped in and out and back and forth all the time - but in the pictures, one was photogenic and the other not. Or at least less so.

[BrianShaw]

"Beauty" has been objectively quantified, both geometrically and statistically... why does "photogenic" have to be subjective?

[cliveh]

For those of you who still do no understand, this question is not about beauty, sexuality, personal preference of the opposite sex, those you fancy. I am asking what makes a person photogenic? Be produced on photographic medium different to the way they look in real life.

[CGW]

"Beauty" has been objectively quantified, both geometrically and statistically... why does "photogenic" have to be subjective?

According to which culture's aesthetic sense? C'mon.

[BrianShaw]

According to which culture's aesthetic sense? C'mon.

Oh, indeed... that was a confounding variable!

[CGW]

Oh, indeed... that was a confounding variable!

All the better to argue it's purely subjective, m'dear.

[BrianShaw]

Well, you know what they say about statistics and statisticians. I'm not sure what anyone says about geometry, though.

[eddie]

Slightly more seriously, as a photograph involves a two dimensional representation of a three dimensional object, I think it would be safe to say that some of the three dimensional features of some people render in two dimensions more easily and more effectively than other three dimensional features.

I think Matt may be on to something...

[Maris]

"Photogenic" is culturally determined. If a portrait subject can be used to turn out face pictures like the ones in the popular "beautiful people" magazines then they are photogenic. If we lived in the Sara, Lobi, or Surma tribes the women with the biggest lip-discs would be the most photogenic!