TRICK TO HELP YOU LOOK GREAT IN PICTURES, even if you're not so cool!

1. Take a look at your favourite pictures of yourself and try to spot a pattern. Do you like the way you look from a certain angle? When you smile a specific way? Try to replicate your best poses next time you have your photo taken.

2. Try this old school red carpet trick: Put your tongue behind your teeth when you smile to avoid a goofy, too-wide grin.

3. Blush is a must! Without some colour on your cheeks, your face can look two dimensional in photos. Use a medium pink shade on the apples of your cheeks to help shape your face.

4. Try the “red carpet” pose: put your hand on your hip, angle your body to the side and turn your head towards the camera. It’s a cliché, but it really does work to help you look slimmer.

5. Stand in front of a white wall. A light-coloured backdrop will help brighten your face. Using a white background also helps a camera’s automatic settings find the right colour balance, so your skin tone doesn’t end up looking too pink or yellow.

6. Be in more pictures! People who think they’re unphotogenic tend to pose for fewer photos overall, but photography is a game of averages. Even Kate Moss doesn’t nail it on the first frame. The more shots you let your photographer take, the more likely you’ll be happy with one or two of them.

7. A photo shot from just above you is way more flattering than one shot from below. If you’re taller than the person holding the camera, grab a seat.

8. Avoid standing directly under a light, which can cast weird shadows on your face. Instead, stand facing a natural light source, such as a window, or in a spot where soft light hits your face from the side.

9. Curled lashes and mascara are musts. “Both open up your eyes, and the eyes are the focal point of a picture. You want to draw people into a picture, so you want to maximize the impact of the eyes. They more open they are, the more the light hits them and that’s what makes them twinkle!”

10. Forget saying “cheese,” and instead think of something funny. Better yet, joke with the photographer. A natural smile trumps a fake one every time.