There was a Toronto photographer who did “three-S” portraits. When someone arrived at her studio for a business portrait, which she hated doing, she would tell them to “sit down, shut-up and smile.” She would then proceed to photograph them as quickly as possible.
Most companies know that business portraits are important. When a business hires a corporate photographer to produce portraits of its key employees, these people should be warned that they will be asked to smile. This is not meant to be cruel and unusual punishment.
A smile need not be a big, toothy grin. But a friendly appearance is important and that comes not just from the mouth but also from the eyes.
By having the employees smile, the photographer is following proven science.
A recent study at Penn State University found that when you smile, you don’t only appear to be more likable and courteous, but you actually appear to be more competent.
– Ron Gutman CEO/founder of HealthTap
Smile Recognition
You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to understand any of this. Or maybe you do.
In his book, A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness, well-known neurologist Vilayanur Ramachandran wrote that humans are capable of displaying two types of smiles, real and fake. (You already knew that, right?). Each type of smile is generated from a different part of the brain.
A fake smile can usually be easily distinguished from a real one and it’s not exactly brain surgery because our brains are already hard-wired to do this, (although there is some disagreement as to how “wired” this really is).
Like some digital cameras, our brains (and some animal brains) have built-in facial recognition. The fusiform face area is a part of the brain that specializes in facial recognition. But we’re much better than any digital camera or computer. Not only can we differentiate between faces, we can also interpret facial expressions such as happy, sad, anger, joy, disappointment, excitement, friend or foe.
For most people (i.e. not models or actors), a real smile is produced only when the person feels like smiling. The reason is that a real smile involves both the mouth and eyes. An artificial smile uses only mouth muscles. Some people can fake a smiley mouth but shaping the eyes correctly is tough to simulate.
Actually it is possible to fake a genuine smile by having electrodes connected to one’s face. These electrodes stimulate the appropriate muscle groups in the face. However I’m not aware of any business portrait photographer using this technique probably because electrocuting a customer is often bad for business.
Smile Science
All babies smile by about two months. This is *not* learned by the baby watching their parents because even babies born blind will smile. Smiling is associated with the orbital cortex, in the front of the brain, which supports social behaviour. A smile is a universal expression among all humans.
We usually only smile around other people because smiling is more associated with social messaging than just expressing an emotion. A study showed that when a bowler throws a strike, they don’t smile while they’re facing the pins but only when they turn around toward their friends.
Smiling shows that we want to be part of the group, we’re friendly and we can be trusted. Smiling does show we’re feeling happy but we want, and need, to share this feeling with other people. We smile at them so they can smile back at us and make us feel even better.
We prefer to be around people who smile because we feel better when someone smiles at us. The other person who smiles at us can be real or they can be in a movie or a photograph. The result is the same because it’s a built-in genetic response. When someone smiles at us, it means they’re not a threat to us and this puts us at ease.
Business Portrait Smile
What all this means is that having some sort of genuine smile, even just a small one, is important in a business portrait. (Proper portrait lighting, a nice background and good photo technique are also important). The viewer will interpret a smile as a sign of friendliness and competence which will create a sense of trust. A smile will help put the viewer at ease.
A smile always triggers a positive viewer response and that’s the purpose of a business portrait. A side benefit is that it’s been shown that people who smile more often tend to be happier, live longer and are more successful in relationships.
For your next business portrait, remember the Three-S Portrait: Science Says Smile.
