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.)
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.)