Anne Lindsay does fabulous portraits of children and adults–see her work at www.annelindsayphotography.com.  She says her motto is “I capture a moment in time,” and she really does.

WG – What does it mean to be photogenic?

Anne – It’s not necessarily how good-looking you are, although that can be helpful.  I’ve had the geekiest-looking kids or adults who had these huge personalities, and they were beautiful on film.  The biggest thing is attitude.  To be photogenic you have to want to be photographed.

WG – I never thought of it that way.  Can you do anything to improve someone’s photogenic-ness?

Anne – I have people move around while shooting them.  In that joy of moving we often find the person.  I do a lot of children and I’ve had parents say, You’re the only one who’s been able to capture my child.  It’s because I let them jump around and be themselves.

WG – It’s true we often have a certain “face” we put on for photos.  At least adults do.  “Say cheese for the camera!”

Anne – Ha.  Cheese is the worst thing to say.  It’s best to have people say “Ah.”  It opens up your mouth. 

WG – If I want to shoot better photos, what should I do?  I mean, what makes for a good photo?

Anne – Lighting is the number one thing.  You can do tons with lighting.  For a woman with wrinkles you shoot her from the front with the light directly behind the photographer.  To make a guy look better you light from the side—the shadows make him look more manly.

WG – I thought you were going to say the number one thing is that the subject be relaxed!

Anne – That is the number one thing!  I’m always telling people, relax your shoulders, relax your eyes.  Being photographed is sometimes a little like going to the dentist—you are in a strange environment with a lot of equipment.

WG – So being relaxed, and then lighting…..what else?

Anne – Now that I think of it again, lighting is really super important.  Maybe it’s fifty-fifty–lighting with being relaxed.

WG – Anything else?

Anne – Where the photographer places himself is important.  The angle.  With an older person, you shoot them from above because it makes them bring up their eyes, which brings the chin up, so you no longer see a double chin.  For a child, you need to be down at their level. 

WG – What about Photoshop?  Do you use it?

Anne – Absolutely.

WG – It’s not considered “wrong”?

Anne – People expect it!  To a large degree it’s taken the place of make-up, which used to be super important for certain kinds of photos.  No—actually make-up is still important.  Photoshop augments make-up and lighting.  It’s not just for wrinkles but is an amazing photographic tool to organize images and modify images.

WG – I can see this for magazine shots, but what about for photos of “real” people?

Anne – I have a lot of real people clients who don’t want their wrinkles to show, or want a mole removed.

WG – You actually have those conversations?

Anne – All the time.  People ask, Can you take five pounds off me?  Can you take this mole off my face?  For family photos, I’m always moving heads around to get the perfect family photograph where everyone is smiling. 

WG – Amazing.  I guess photography has really changed.

Anne – Photoshop is just an extension of what photography has always been.  Before you had photo finishers.  You sent your neg to a finisher.  They took the wrinkles out or whatever.  It was a big business, a whole business of photo retouching.

WG – Is that industry dead now?

Anne – No, it’s called Photoshop!

WG – But you don’t send it out, you do it all yourself.

Anne – I do a lot of it myself but there are also companies that will do this for you.  You’re actually giving more of a service than you used to.

WG – It’s a digital world.  Has digital photography changed the way you take photos?

Anne – No, I always overspent.  I like to shoot a lot.  Used to spend a ton of money on film.  One of the nice things about digital is that I don’t have to pay two dollars for every Polaroid.  Of course now I have to sort through a lot more shots.  So I’m not paying for film, but I am paying in time and a great assistant to help with the back end of today’s photography.  The camera is only the tip of the iceberg in today’s professional photography world.  Photographers have their expensive camera, computers, lighting, studios, and the list goes on.  It’s an amazing ever-changing and expensive business.

WG – I agree about the expensive part!  Can you tell by looking if a photo was shot with film or digitally?

Anne – Pretty much.  But it’s getting harder and harder.

WG – I’ve often thought that anyone who took enough pictures would eventually take a good one.  That if you gave a chimp a camera and enough film he would eventually take a good photo.

Anne – No, not really.  It’s a matter of eye, talent, and a lot of hard work.  One of the most renowned photographs Ansel Adams ever took was a grab shot.  He was driving along through a tiny town, there was this amazing moon.  He jumped out, threw his camera together, and grabbed the shot.  He had the eye to spot a good photo when he saw one.  He had amazing skill and enormous talent.  You bring all that together and the grab shot can be one of the best.  That’s the difference between an artist and the person on the street.