ZBB member photos, part 5. (Something for the weekend, sir?)

[Kereb]

The smile is part of myself, I can't get rid of it. I'd welcome advice on Smiling 101 but it would need to be IRL or via webcam.

I dunno, I kind of suspect it's not Part of Yourself but it's a Smile For The Camera smile. That's why it doesn't reach your eyes. (we've ALL seen such as Sears family photos where it looks like the photographer said "everybody grimace!!") Instead, you're widening your eyes ... perhaps actively resisting the smile's natural tendency to cause a little bit of a squint? But yeah, deer in the headlights eyes on a smile is a little unnatural, and might be an artifact of your posing. Do you look like that in candids?

As for the smile itself, I can't help but notice that you always seem to resist letting the smile spread all the way to the edges of your mouth. You show your teeth from top to bottom but pinch it in from side to side, like someone drew the shape of a lemon or the dairy queen logo:

[Shrdlu]

You squint when you smile? When i smile my mouth moves, and nothing else.

[Kereb]

most people's eyes squint a little
some, a lot.
your eyes PROBABLY are affected by your smile even if you aren't aware of it
if you tested this by going to your bathroom mirror and smiling at yourself, you won't learn anything.


(and I know not only from observing people but from spending the last several years animating facial expressions that a smile where the eyes do not move is a creepy fucking thing)

[Shrdlu]

I've tried by holding my finger around my eyes to feel if I anything changes when I smile, but it don't if I don't force it. However, I can separately smile with my eyes, my mouth or both if I want.

Have I told you about my poker-face?

edit:

(and I know not only from observing people but from spending the last several years animating facial expressions that a smile where the eyes do not move is a creepy fucking thing)

seems to fit me then....

[Torco]

how do you smile with the eyes and not the mouth? its the very pressure exerted by the cheeks contracting that pushes the lower eyelids up.

[Kereb]

I've tried by holding my finger around my eyes to feel if I anything changes when I smile, but it don't if I don't force it.

you're missing the point. It's still a smile that you're thinking about. Your spontaneous smile could be different, but you'd have to find a candid photo or get called on it by someone else when you weren't thinking about it, or else you'll never know.

[MisterBernie]

What an in-depth discussion of smiles!

[Torco]

LOL at american smile

[----]

I'm American and I only smile like that in family photos to try my best to communicate to the people seeing the picture that it is very awkward.

Are you shirtless in that picture?

[blank stare II]

Can't you get braces? Are they too expensive or something

Rednecks don't believe in dentistry. And snuff gets caught in my teeth enough as it is.

[Xephyr]

It's better than my smile. I had the displeasure of recently finding out what my natural smile looks like: a sneer. With an upturned upper lip and everything; you can see more of my upper teeth than my lower, and there isn't an open-to-the-top crescent shape like there's supposed to be *at all*. I've been trying, like.. physically attempting, to do a smile that looks normal but for fuck's sake it's almost like I don't have the correct facial muscles. So: I don't smile.

[Xephyr]

Like this:

[Torco]

yul chicken chow mein wil be ledi in a minut

[Bob Johnson]

Monobrow and fetal alcohol syndrome? You poor thing

[candrodor]

Returning to the issue at hand, hey, I am really pleased with this photo! And generally!



And since teeth have been discussed recently, I'll say preemptively: I have a milk tooth still. Thus the gap.

As for smiles, try laughing your way into a smile. They turn out differently to just trying to smile on purpose.

[Nannalu]

finlay's long-lost half-brother

I was actually thinking the same thing!

Cyber-bully!

[Nannalu]

yul chicken chow mein wil be ledi in a minut

ooh ye ye ye! ai lu' chicken chow mein ong mai plait. it nai' it nai'.

[MisterBernie]

I'm American and I only smile like that in family photos to try my best to communicate to the people seeing the picture that it is very awkward.

That's actually how I got that description. When I did a three week exchange to California, every one of my classmates and I noticed this fake family photo smile in the pictures of all our host families.

Are you shirtless in that picture?

Yes.
Yes I am.

[Skomakar'n]

how do you smile with the eyes and not the mouth? its the very pressure exerted by the cheeks contracting that pushes the lower eyelids up.

I think you can approximate this if you do smile, and then move your mouth back into a neutral state while retaining the eyes in the same state as well as you can.

finlay's long-lost half-brother

I was actually thinking the same thing!

So was I! I forgot to post the message, though, haha.

[Shrdlu]

I almost forgot this classic.

[Torco]

I just decided that for my conculture, smiles where you intentionally show your teeth a lot are frowned upon as fake and overeager.
Really, wtf

[finlay]

because i haven't shown you my face in a while. I keep hating photos of myself lately because i look fat. and i also can't smile and have a tooth that's misaligned with the rest of them...

[Astraios]

If that thing on your wall is candles, I want it. xD Also, you have purple eyes. O.O

[Simmalti]

Also, you have purple eyes. O.O

That's the first thing I noticed

[Shrdlu]

Finlay: you look very, very, very british!