Peter Hurley Shares His ‘Most Incredible Tip for Looking Photogenic’: Squinching

Back in February of 2012, portraitist Peter Hurley shared an awesome tutorial that showed how to accentuate your subject’s jawline in portraits and instantly make them look much more photogenic. That video went insanely viral amongst photographers, and now, Hurley has finally released a followup in which he shares what he calls “his most incredible tip for looking photogenic.”

The first video was called “It’s all about the Jaw.” This one is called “It’s all about the Squinch.” Okay, so we all know what a Jaw is, but what the heck is Squinching!?

Squinching is a term Hurley made up (although it’s actually in the dictionary…), and for him it describes the action of squinting your eyes in such a way as to portray confidence and self-assurance as opposed to the fear and uncertainty that you project when you stare wide-eyed at the camera.

Here are a few before-and-after examples pulled from the video that show the difference a bit of squinching can make:

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One final clarifying point, and Hurley is big on this: squinching isn’t the same as squinting! The difference is minor but important. When you squint, your top and bottom eyelids close up and your eyes end up all but disappearing — you look neither confident nor self-assured.

With ‘squinching,’ you’re lifting and tightening the lower eyelid, while only letting the top one come down a hair. It might seem like a slight difference (and it is) but it’s a big deal when you get in front of the camera.

There you go: famous headshot and portrait photographer Peter Hurley has now given you TWO ways to look way more photogenic in pictures. So check out the full tutorial to get a bunch more before-and-after comparisons and even a science lesson on how this works, and then go out and try it yourself.

Whether you’re the photographer or the photographed, it seems you can never go wrong with a little squinching.

(via ISO 1200)

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