What's your photo saying? The pictures you post on your website and social media send cues to others about who you are and what you stand for.

2. It might sound silly, but the pictures you put on your
profiles, your website and your social media send cues to others
about who you are and what you stand for.
You want your pictures to be:
- True to Reality
- Flattering
- Authentic
- Positive
And this is exactly what I’m going to teach you in this guide and as
always, we are going to do it using science!
xoxo,Vanessa
What’s Your Photo Saying?

3. #1 Know Your Angle
Where should the camera be when taking a picture?
Should it be above you? Below you? Straight on?
*There is a science to the angles of your shots

4. Just like adults see children from above—
and children typically need to be taken care
of, when we view people from above, they
appear weaker and in need of protection.

5. The opposite happens when we see someone from
below.They tend to look more self-confident,
more sociable and more attractive.Why? As
children, we admired and ‘looked up to’ adults.

6. Fronting is a body language term that describes where
your body is facing. If you are fronting with someone, you
are aiming your torso, head and toes towards that person
— a nonverbal sign of respect.

7. #2 Face It
Do you look fake in your picture? Inauthentic?Too posed?
*This all comes down to the microexpression

8. A microexpression is a brief
involuntary facial expression that
happens when someone feels an
intense emotion.There are 7
universal facial expressions that
people make across cultures.
We want to teach you the 3
microexpressions that are most
used in profile pictures.

9. HAPPINESS
The only true indicator of happiness is when the
muscles along the sides of the eyes are activated
and pulled up (crows feet).
Is your smile reaching the eyes in your photo?

10. Fake Happiness v. Real Happiness
Showing true happiness is
essential for making a picture
feel genuine, warm and real.Take
photos when you are doing
something that actually makes
you feel good. Think about
personal passions or people you
care about to bring out that true
happiness and make sure your
smile reaches your eyes.

11. CONTEMPT
The smirk or one-sided mouth raise is the
universal facial expression for contempt,
hatred and disdain. It is the ultimate
negative facial expression.
Are you smirking in your photo?

12. Smirking is a cardinal sin of
profile pictures. So many
people make this mistake
without even realizing it. If
contempt is in your profile
picture, you’re telling the
world you don’t want
people to connect with you.

13. FEAR
Fear is when we raise our eyebrows and
eyelids as wide as they will go and open our
mouth to scream or take in a quick breath.
Are you flashing fear in your photo?

14. Depending on the flash or lighting,
p e o p l e c a n s h o w a s m a l l
microexpression of fear in their
photos! When someone’s eyelids
are just slightly wide so you can see
a bit of the upper whites of their
eyes we think of them as low
confident, fearful and anxious–not
the signal you want to send out!

15. Remember:
Want to learn all 7 microexpressions? Check
out our videos:
ScienceofPeople.com/Face
• Smile for real
• Never smirk
• Banish fear

16. #3 Power Up
Do you want to show power, confidence
and charisma in your photos?
*Harvard Business School researcher Amy
Cuddy discovered that there are universal
power body language moves

17. 3 Power Body Language Rules
• The more physical space someone takes up with their body, the
more confident they appear and feel
• Strong body language is when the forehead and chest are pointed
up and the shoulders are rolled back
• Powerful, confident people aren’t afraid to open up their body
especially their torso and chest so that they are free of barriers—
uncrossed arms and legs

19. #4 Get Colorful
What signals are you sending with the
colors you wear in your photos?
*Color specialist Leatrice Eiseman says how color
affects us correlates to that color’s behavior in
nature. She has asked thousands of people what they
think of specific colors and has found many patterns.

20. What to Wear: Our Color Guide
*Print this guide and put
it on your closet door for
easy reference!

21. What to Wear: Our Color Guide
*Print this guide and put
it on your closet door for
easy reference!

22. #5 Context is Key
Think your photo is only about you?
Think again!
*Here at the Science of People, we conducted an
experiment looking at the most popular photos on the
dating website HotorNot.com.We found that the hottest
photos tended to have some kind of background story or
activity— hiking, beach trip, travel, cooking and more.

23. Trophies: We also looked at
‘trophies,’ objects that people
put on display in their photo in
addition to themselves. Men’s
favorite objects were guitars,
cars, motorcycles and guns.
Although none of these
impacted hotness scores.
Want even more on Hot or Not?
Read our full analysis here:
ScienceofPeople.com
Sorry guys, not all women are impressed by a guitar.

24. Want to dig a little deeper? Check out:
Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People
Do you wish you could decode people? Do you want a
formula for charisma? Do you want to know exactly what
to say to your boss, your date or your networking
partner? You need to know how people work.
In Captivate you’ll learn a wealth of valuable shortcuts,
systems and behavior hacks for taking charge of your
interactions at work, at home, and in any social situation.
These aren’t the people skills you learned in school.

25. Test Your Photo
Does your LinkedIn photo look competent? Does
yourTwitter photo look fun? Does your OkCupid
photo look attractive? Find out!
*We have partnered with PhotoFeeler, a free profile
photo testing tool that helps people choose better
profile photos by clueing them into what their
photos are really saying.

26. We gave this tool a little spin
ourselves. Here’s the 3 photos of me
and how they ranked.
What’s your impression saying? How
smart, likable fun and trustworthy are
your photos compared to the average?
How it works:
1) Upload your photo
2) Vote on other people’s photo
3) Wait for the results
Ready to play?
http://bit.ly/1Vf0n4z

27. Photofeeler conducted a study
based on over 60,000 ratings of
perceived Competence,
Likability and Influence for
over 800 profile photos in their
database. From eyes to smiles
to photo setting and more,
PhotoFeeler analyzed multiple
characteristics to rate the
photo in the above three areas.
Here’s an overview of what they
found:

28. Eye Obstruction: Be wary of
‘playing it cool’ in your profile
photos.This study found that eye
blockage, especially with
sunglasses, can significantly harm
both your likability and your
impression.
Squinching: Slightly squinching or
subtly closing your eyes can help
portray confidence and comfort.
Photos with ‘squinchers’ had
higher scores in competence,
likability and influence.

29. Defined Jaw:Accentuating your jaw
line or creating a shadow line that
outlines the jaw all the way around
may boost your ratings in
competence, likability and
influence.
Smiling: According to PhotoFeeler,
smiling is ‘by far the most impactful
characteristic [they] found in this
study.” While a closed mouth smile
only slightly raised a user’s
likability rating, a smile with teeth
skyrocketed ratings for all 3 areas.

30. Style of Dress: This study found
that nothing tested paid greater
gains in perceived competence
and influence than formal dress.
Area Shown: How much should
you show off in your photos?
This study found that a photo
featuring a bust (head and
shoulders) or torso (head to
waist) is preferable to a face-
only close-up or full-body shot.

31. Guess what? This study
found no statistically
significant effect on a user’s
photo based on the setting
(solid/studio, nature, urban
or home).Take your picture
where you feel most
comfortable!

32. The key here is moderation.
Don’t over-lighten or over-
saturate your photos. This
study found that having a
too-dark photo can drop
your likability score. Black
a n d w h i t e h a d n o
statistically significant effect.

33. Lie Detection in 100 Minutes
Do you know when someone is lying to you?
We like to think we are great at spotting lies—but on
average we can only detect deception with about 54%
accuracy.That’s barely better than chance!
I believe learning how to spot deception is a life skill.
We should all know how to have more honest interactions.
We should all be able to protect ourselves from liars.We
should all be able to decode hidden emotions.
That is what our new course is all about.
Want even more?

34. Congratulations! You are ready for the perfect
profile photo. A little challenge for you…
Check out your current profile photo on LinkedIn,
Twitter Facebook, etc. Can you update it to one
that captures your best angle, expression and pose?
Remember, be YOU.The best photos are the ones
where you are having fun. This will show through
and show who you really are!
xoxo,Vanessa
You did it!