While driving one day and trying to decide on my first “real” article to write about on this blog. I wondered why photographers would say to their subjects, “Say cheese!” when they wanted people to smile for a picture. As I pondered this question, I sat their driving in my car and repeating to myself over and over again the word, “Cheese”.
The word cheese is simple to say. It’s one syllable and because of the combination of letters used in the word. It forces your face to form a smile. Of course if you wanted to you could totally force out the word cheese without really smiling. The best results seem to occur when the “eese” portion of the word cheese is held. Just so the photographer has enough time to snap a photo or two.
There are also other words I’ve heard photographers use when taking photos. For example Koreans often use the word “Kimchi”.
Although a delicious dish to eat I don’t believe the “kimchi” is as good as the “cheese” in producing consistent smiles. Unlike the word cheese, kimchi consists of two syllables. When taking photos of people who use kimchi as opposed to cheese. The photographer has to be sure to have their timing right. If the photographer snaps too early when the subject is saying “kim” then the end result is a picture with a closed mouth. On the other hand if the subject doesn’t hold the “chi” portion of the word long enough you’d get a very weird half open smile.
What are some other variations of the “cheese” you’ve heard photographers use?
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