As you may already know, faces are not symmetrical. Which side is better may be a matter of opinion, but it is the photographer’s job to present each person in the best light possible.
I’ve been reading up on posing in Steve Stint’s book, Digital Portrait Photography, and I’ve learned how to hide common imperfections like double chins, long or wide noses, and even size and height differences in eyes. It’s amazing how the right composition of a 2-D image can conceal so much of the 3rd dimension.
Thinking about all this led me to perform a little experiment on myself. I split an image of myself and copied each side to create two symmetrical images: one of the left and one of the right. The original photo isn’t exactly straight on, so that’s why there’s such a drastic difference in width, but you get the idea.
My conclusion: symmetrical people look like aliens!
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