Not knowing what to do in photos?

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When people take photos of me, for example with a group of friends, I look so alienated from the group. I don't know how to pose. I just end up doing something like thumbs up. I was looking through pictures from different stages in my teens, and some more recently, and it's all the same. I don't look comfortable.

Are any Aspies out there good with photos, or do you feel my pain?

I feel your pain, I always end up coming out really stiff and I can't fake a smile at all, even though I have been told many times I have a beautiful smile.

I dread posting for photos, either as an individual (the worse) or in a group. I cannot just paint on a smile and make it look natural like some can. I don't like photographing people either but If I do, Id rather have candid shots whether I'm the subject or the photographer.

I come out different from the group. Just awkward pose and rarely looking into the camera. My dad unusually has a hand on my shoulder to help me stay still and not wander off.

Yep, same here. Awkward pose and blank (or just stupid) face expression. Also I'm often the one who blinks at the wrong time. All in all, I hate being photographed.

Yep, I know that feeling. I can be smiling perfectly normally, but then the camera comes out... Lately I've just been freezing my expression just after I've laughed, before the photo is taken, instead of faking a smile.

I am a smiling autistic. But not for pictures.I am told to smile for a posed picture. I try so hard. I even deliberately scrunch up my eyes because I read that is one of the hallmarks of a genuine smile. But, people get annoyed at what they call either my fake smile or grimace. They think that I am deliberately ruining the picture. If I try not smiling, well, that upsets them as much as my "mona lisa half-smile [ "you look like you're in a different world.Can't you at least pretend to enjoy being with everyone for 30 seconds?"]

I have even looked up 'how to take a good picture," practiced the tips, and STILL can't take a picture that others do not find annoying. I have no idea why this one thing that most others find so simple is so impossible for me.

I quit trying to pose because it never worked out at all. I just let the camera do its job and take the result as a blank face is better then a stupid grin or something although I usually try to refuse photos, have for a long time. Candid photos can sometimes work out so I use those if I need one.

Absolutely. Every time.

I learned that the 'normal' look in a picture comes from doing an overly exaggerated and false facial expression (at least in my view). Aka the kind of smile you would give a little kid that is crying to make him stop rather than a 'oh hey picture! smile!' type of thing.

^^ I think you're right about the way people tend to look in pictures, but I like it when someone looks happy in a picture. I never pose well in photos and usually smile awkwardly.

I like to do my Cyberman impersonation when anybody wants to take a picture of me.

The other issue I sometimes have is keeping my eyes open through flash photography, if the camera is too slow(like many digital models) it gets mine closed. Light sensitivity issue I suppose.

Last edited by rapidroy on 22 Mar 2014, 7:40 am, edited 1 time in total.

You could do the human version of this.

I was always told that I needed to change my attitude and get excited to take a picture. They never seemed to understand until later that I just plain didn't know how to give a "real" facial expression and posture. They would act like I was being cynical or awkward. It actually bothers me when I see tons of family pictures and nothing but "plastered on", overly expressive smiles because it feels "fake" to me. I understand that they probably were happy but it doesn't seem like they were always that happy or that kind of happy for that matter. And people always use this toothy smile for pictures. When I do really smile and my family tells me that it "looks genuine" I never have a toothy smile. And it's not because I'm embarrassed of my teeth, it just feels "fake".

When I have to take a picture I try to block everything else out and think of the children in my family, especially my nephew Phillip. I think of what it was like teaching him to talk, teaching him to play, me and my brother watching him run around and get into everything. If I can just focus on that alone it isn't too much of a problem, because I don't think there is anything more beautiful or exciting than getting to watch the formation of a human being. I don't understand how people can produce such an expressive smile on command, without having to think of something that is really novel and emotionally compelling to them.

Last edited by Lukecash12 on 23 Mar 2014, 11:06 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I think this sums it up very nicely for me as well.
I just feel like the Terminator in Terminator 2 when trying to feign a smile.

Almost all photographies taken by other people are a dead giveaway of my Asperger's syndrome.