The word "cheese" is ruining your photos. Here is what to do instead.
Saying "cheese" creates a wide forced grimace that looks nothing like an actual smile. It stretches your face unnaturally, exposes too much teeth, and signals to everyone looking that this is a posed photo — not a genuine moment. The science of genuine smiles shows exactly why this fails and what works instead.
A genuine smile — called a Duchenne smile by scientists — involves two sets of muscles: the zygomatic major (which pulls the corners of your mouth up) AND the orbicularis oculi (which creates crow's feet around your eyes). The word "cheese" only activates your mouth muscles. Your eyes stay flat and expressionless, which people detect as fake in milliseconds — often without consciously knowing why they swiped left or clicked away from your profile.
The single most effective trick is to recall a genuinely funny memory right before the shot. Your brain triggers real smile muscles automatically. The result is a Duchenne smile — the kind where your eyes crinkle — which is universally perceived as warm and attractive.
Pro tip
Ask whoever is taking your photo to tell you something funny right before they shoot. Candid laughter is always the best photo.
Tension is the enemy of natural photos. When you know a photo is coming, you tense up without realizing it. Taking a slow exhale right before releases facial muscle tension and creates a relaxed, natural expression that reads as confident rather than stiff.
Pro tip
Blow air through your lips like a horse right before the photo. It sounds ridiculous but it works every time.
One of the key markers of a genuine Duchenne smile is that it involves the muscles around your eyes — specifically the orbicularis oculi. You can consciously activate this by squinting very slightly. This single change makes a forced mouth smile look dramatically more genuine in photos.
Pro tip
Practice in a mirror. Smile with just your mouth, then add a very slight squint. The difference is immediately obvious.
The wide open "cheese" smile stretches your face unnaturally and exposes too much teeth and gum. A slightly more relaxed closed or partially closed smile looks more natural, more confident, and more like how you actually look when genuinely happy.
Pro tip
Try a closed-mouth smile in some photos. Many people find it photographs better than they expect, especially for professional headshots.
Professional photographers take hundreds of shots to get one great image. The secret to great selfies is volume. Take 20-30 shots in quick succession while thinking of something that genuinely makes you happy. The best frames will almost always be the ones between poses — the candid moments.
Pro tip
Use burst mode on your iPhone by holding down the shutter. Review the frames and look for the ones where your eyes are most alive.
Browse our complete smile and photo improvement resources.
Cheese forces your mouth into an unnatural wide grimace that only activates your mouth muscles. A genuine smile also involves your eye muscles creating a warm crinkle around the eyes. Without this eye component your smile reads as fake to everyone who sees the photo.
Think of something genuinely funny, exhale slowly before the shot, squint your eyes very slightly, and take many photos in succession. The best frames are usually candid moments between poses rather than the posed shot itself.
A Duchenne smile is a genuine smile that involves both the zygomatic major muscle (corners of mouth) and the orbicularis oculi muscle (around the eyes). It is named after French neurologist Guillaume Duchenne who first described it. Genuine smiles are largely involuntary which is why they are so hard to fake convincingly.
Yes. It takes practice but the key is shifting from thinking about your smile to thinking about something that genuinely makes you happy. The emotional trigger produces the physical expression naturally. Practice in a mirror until your natural smile feels comfortable on camera.