Presumably people who are ‘not photogenic’ are not made of some different type of material that reacts differently to light than photogenic people. The problem must either be a lack of good quality photographs or an issue with uncomfortable body language when being photographed.
The camera also adds (visual cues that make it look like it adds) weight, and messes with color. My best friend just got married and had lots of photos taken of her and her husband. He looks fine because he starts out skinny as a rail and his coloration works in the photos. But in the very same photos, she develops a blotchy complexion and her hair color looks unnatural and gross. And while she’s not fat, the extra ten pounds on the glossy photo nudge her a little that way. Her body language looks fine in photos (and if she were tensing up, wouldn’t she also look tense on video? Video of her looks much better), and the quality of the photographer or camera can’t be the issue because in the very same photograph her husband looks exactly like himself in real life and she looks weird.
I don’t know exactly what the problem might be with your friend’s wedding photos but in general the problem of how to make people look as good as possible in photos is quite well understood. There’s an entire industry devoted to doing it. I can list several technical errors that can appear to add weight or mess with color but these kinds of things are not unsolvable. Part of the skill of a good photographer is avoiding these problems. Photoshop can also be used to fix specific problems with colour reproduction. I would bet that an experienced portrait photographer could identify what went wrong with your friend’s pictures to produce a less than satisfactory result by examining them for a few minutes.
I suspect there may be genuine cases where certain people seem relatively less attractive in still photos than in person but this may be due to aspects of their personality or behaviour which the camera cannot capture. I doubt there is anyone however whose perceived attractiveness is not increased by a good photo relative to a bad one and in photography much of what constitutes ‘good’ has been figured out over the years.
“Knowing what to do” and being able to do it well are different. I have had good photographers take pictures of me. They have used the appropriate lighting and angle and helpfully tried to coach me in what to do—how to pose, how to smile, what to wear. And indeed, their pictures turn out better than most snapshots. That doesn’t mean that I am able to use their advice effectively—to hold an unforced smile and keep my eyes open at the same time, avoid tilting my head funny, or not look frustrated and impatient after the 50th shot. It’s a difficult skill for me, and while I expect I could be better with practice, it’s not high on my list of desired skills to improve. So I’m not photogenic. Which means merely that I don’t have these skills now and don’t pick up on them quickly, but when you look at my awful pictures it’s no different than if photogenic-ness were some immutable inherent quality.
(But I’m off the market anyway. On the upside, my partner was pleasantly surprised when he first met me in person that I was better-looking than my photos suggested.)
The camera also adds (visual cues that make it look like it adds) weight, and messes with color. My best friend just got married and had lots of photos taken of her and her husband. He looks fine because he starts out skinny as a rail and his coloration works in the photos. But in the very same photos, she develops a blotchy complexion and her hair color looks unnatural and gross. And while she’s not fat, the extra ten pounds on the glossy photo nudge her a little that way. Her body language looks fine in photos (and if she were tensing up, wouldn’t she also look tense on video? Video of her looks much better), and the quality of the photographer or camera can’t be the issue because in the very same photograph her husband looks exactly like himself in real life and she looks weird.
I don’t know exactly what the problem might be with your friend’s wedding photos but in general the problem of how to make people look as good as possible in photos is quite well understood. There’s an entire industry devoted to doing it. I can list several technical errors that can appear to add weight or mess with color but these kinds of things are not unsolvable. Part of the skill of a good photographer is avoiding these problems. Photoshop can also be used to fix specific problems with colour reproduction. I would bet that an experienced portrait photographer could identify what went wrong with your friend’s pictures to produce a less than satisfactory result by examining them for a few minutes.
I suspect there may be genuine cases where certain people seem relatively less attractive in still photos than in person but this may be due to aspects of their personality or behaviour which the camera cannot capture. I doubt there is anyone however whose perceived attractiveness is not increased by a good photo relative to a bad one and in photography much of what constitutes ‘good’ has been figured out over the years.
“Knowing what to do” and being able to do it well are different. I have had good photographers take pictures of me. They have used the appropriate lighting and angle and helpfully tried to coach me in what to do—how to pose, how to smile, what to wear. And indeed, their pictures turn out better than most snapshots. That doesn’t mean that I am able to use their advice effectively—to hold an unforced smile and keep my eyes open at the same time, avoid tilting my head funny, or not look frustrated and impatient after the 50th shot. It’s a difficult skill for me, and while I expect I could be better with practice, it’s not high on my list of desired skills to improve. So I’m not photogenic. Which means merely that I don’t have these skills now and don’t pick up on them quickly, but when you look at my awful pictures it’s no different than if photogenic-ness were some immutable inherent quality.
(But I’m off the market anyway. On the upside, my partner was pleasantly surprised when he first met me in person that I was better-looking than my photos suggested.)