How to take the best photo for facial analysis

Lens and distance

Don't take a close-up selfie. Phone front cameras are wide-angle and sit a few centimetres from your face, which balloons the nose and centre of the face and distorts almost every ratio. Stand back about 1.5 metres and have someone take the photo, or use a timer and prop the phone up.

If you can, use the rear camera — it's sharper and less distorting than the selfie camera.

Angle

Face the camera straight on. The camera should be at eye level, not above or below you, and your head should be level — not tilted up, down or to the side. Even a few degrees of tilt shifts the facial thirds, the canthal tilt and the jaw angles.

A quick check: your ears should look level, and you should see roughly the same amount of each cheek.

Lighting

Soft, even, front-on light is best — a window during the day is ideal. Avoid harsh overhead light (it casts shadows under the brows and nose) and avoid strong side light (it fakes or hides bone definition). No heavy filters or beauty modes; they smooth skin and subtly reshape features.

Expression and grooming

Keep a relaxed, neutral expression with your mouth closed. Smiling changes the lower third, the mouth and the eye area. Pull hair off your forehead so the hairline and brows are visible. Remove glasses.

The quick checklist

Rear camera, ~1.5 m away. Camera at eye level. Head straight and level. Soft front light. Neutral closed-mouth expression. Hair off the forehead, no glasses, no filters. Get those right and your numbers become something you can actually trust.

Set up in five steps

1. 1

   Choose the light

   Stand facing a window in daylight, or use even indoor light from the front. Avoid a light directly overhead or to one side, which casts shadows under the brows and nose and fakes or hides bone definition.

2. 2

   Position the camera

   Use the rear camera if you can, at eye level and about 1.5 metres away. Prop the phone on a stack of books or a tripod, or have someone take the photo, so it doesn't drift.

3. 3

   Frame the shot

   Centre your face, include your neck and the top of your shoulders, and pull your hair back from your forehead and ears so the hairline and brows are visible. Remove glasses and hats.

4. 4

   Relax and look

   Let your face go neutral with your mouth closed. Look straight into the lens, blink just before the shot, and keep your head level rather than tilted or turned.

5. 5

   Check and retake

   Before you upload, check that your ears look level, you can see about the same amount of each cheek, and there are no hard shadows under your brows or chin. Retake if anything looks off.

Mistakes that wreck the numbers

The biggest is a close-up selfie. A front camera held at arm's length is a wide-angle view of a face a few centimetres away, which distorts the proportions of nearly every ratio. Beauty modes and filters are almost as bad, because they smooth skin and subtly reshape features before the app ever sees them.

Other common ones are a tilted or turned head, hair across the forehead or ears, glasses, a smile or a pout, harsh overhead light, and a very small or blurry image. Each one affects specific measurements, which is why a single bad photo can make an otherwise good face score oddly.

Using the same setup twice

If you want to see whether something you changed made a difference, the photo has to stay the same. Use the same spot, the same light, the same distance and, ideally, the same time of day, since puffiness under the eyes and skin redness change through the day. A difference between two scans only tells you something if everything else stayed constant.

Questions about photos