I Hate Having My Picture Taken

Do you spend countless hours untagging pictures of yourself on Facebook?  The truth is, almost NOBODY likes EVERY picture they appear in. With digital cameras in everyones pocket, there are more pictures making the rounds. So naturally there are more photos of you to hate yourself in. With the popularity of Facebook and countless other photo sharing sites, there's almost no getting around it. Granted, sometimes your expression can be a little off (like if you're about to sneeze), but nobody thinks that's how you really look. The fact is, if you're in a photo, people will see it. If you find yourself despising more photos of yourself than not, there's a few things you may consider doing that can alleviate some of your anguish.

1. Practice in the mirror. If you're just uncomfortable in front of the camera, practice your "look" in front of a mirror. But be aware…it's a mirror so everything is backwards. This is not exactly how you'll look in a photo.

2. Make self portraits in secret. This is a great way to practice your "look." Most cameras have timers and most computers have built in web cams. No one will know but you, so practice your posing.

 3. Learn how to pose.  If you have a "good side" try to position yourself with your head slightly turned to be on the good side. …extend your chin if you have more than one.  Try to arrange your body about 3/4 toward the camera (with one shoulder closer to the camera than the other). If you're in a seated position, try to angle your body slightly. Ask the photog to count to 3 so your ready…take a deep breath just before the photo is taken. Be aware of your posture!

4. Ask to see it. Not every picture is a posed shot, so ask to see the photo after it's taken. If you don't like it, politely ask the photo-taker to take another one or to NOT post it on-line. Depending on how well you know the shutterbug, you could ask to see the photos before they are made public. 

 5. Behave yourself! Don't put yourself in potentially embarrassing situations where someone would WANT to photograph you. People would just love to get a picture of you doing something silly or potentially embarrassing so they can share it with others. If you happen to have a judgment lapse and someone gets a photo, ask them nicely to keep it private. It's probably not a good idea to pose with the stripper at your bachelor party if you have political aspirations…or if you wife-to-be doesn't know about the stripper. Remember: everybody has a camera. 

 6. Stay out of the photo. If you fret about it that much, ask the photog in a nice way to please refrain from taking pictures with you in it. If someone is taking candid shots that include you and you'd rather they didn't, politely ask them not to. If you're with a group and someone pulls out a camera, politely back away. Tell them digital cameras interfere with your pacemaker, or that being in a photo will compromise your secret agent status. 

 7. Ask for help. Chances are you have a friend that feels the same way you do about seeing themselves in a photo. Practice taking pics of each other and discuss what you like or don't like. Give your friend honest advice and they're likely to do the same.

 8. Don't Look. If you hate looking at yourself in photos, don't look at yourself in photos. What you see is not what everyone else sees. If it pains you that much to look, look the other way. I don't like reality TV, so I don't watch any reality TV.

 9. Fix it. If you're unhappy with your overall appearance, try something different. There must be a million different ways to change your appearance to something you like better. Unfortunately, I'm not qualified to give beauty tips so please ask a professional.

 10. Just get over it! Again, only YOU see YOU the way YOU do. Chances are you don't look any different than you usually do, and that's how people see you. No one stresses over how you look in a photo except you.

Bonus Tip: Hire a professional photographer.

AND, if you're the one taking and posting photos, use discretion! If the person is a friend of yours, it's always good to check with them before posting (I have several arrangements like this). If it's a particularly unflattering photo, think before you post! And yes, I've learned this from experience. People can be quite hypersensitive about others seeing them in photos. Try not to offend. If someone asks you to remove a photo from Facebook, do it. No questions asked. Often, a photo you took may look fine to you, but the subject might not like it. No point in making anymore enemies than you have to!

Facebook: What's Yours Is Now Theirs

Facebook is one hard beast to avoid, especially when everyone you know is using it to share news and pictures. BUT, did you ever take the time to read Facebook’s terms and conditions for any intellectual property you post? I’m referring to the millions of photos that people post every week if not every day. What belongs to you now belongs to them. See for yourself.  

Facebook is the number one social networking sight in the whole universe, and their terms tell you in black and white that anything you post is THEIRS to do whatever they want with: (IP = “Intellectual Property”)

For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.

BUT......

When you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others).

In other words, even though you've deleted the content, they still have it and can do whatever they want with it. AND if you’re like me and you embed metadata into your file (name, copywright info, etc.) you’re still out of luck. Facebook strips out all of that information necessary for you to retain your rights. 

That’s it...you have no rights and no say and you get nothing should they decide to use your photo for any kind of advertising. Facebook’s terms are unfavorable and it seems like most people really don’t worry about it. I can tell you from experience that the idea of someone using my picture without my knowledge who I am not in any way affiliated with...let's just say I’m no fan of D Magazine anymore.

There’s a few things you can do that will make your photo not so appealing to the picture-stealers, and yet not have a major impact on how your photo looks. Apparently, most people don’t use any kind of editing software before they upload photos to Facebook. That means they’re uploading the highest resolution they can. Facebook will still compress the photo before you can view it, but the high-res photo you uploaded is now in their hands. If you use some kind of photo editor, it should have a way to scale down the resolution (some editors refer to it as “quality”). This won’t hurt your photo and will make it slightly less desirable when Facebook is fishing for a good photo to sell for a “Meet singles in your area” ad. It’s also a good idea to scale down the image to about 500 pixels on the longest side. Another method of increasing your photo's undesirability is using a watermark. I usually put my logo or just a copywright notice off to the side of the images.

It's important to note that the only guaranteed method of protecting your images is by not posting them at all.

Last week Facebook announced they are going to begin supporting high-res images. You'll be able to download them but when you view them they’ll still be considerably compressed. My advice: AVOID posting high-res images. That only makes them more appealing to be used for something you didn’t intend. 

If you want to share high resolution images, stick with Flickr.

I enjoy using Facebook and manage two Facebook pages...one personal and one business. It's fun and it's a great tool for keeping in touch. Just be careful of what you put in their hands.