This troper cannot smile for photos very well at all. People don't realize it has to come naturally, and it never does.

Try thinking of something you like or something that makes you laugh. It works for this troper, who has the same problem. Though sometimes not even then. A few years ago, a classmate told me that a smile of mine was freaky. I was thinking about how much fun a friend and I were going to have at a convention that weekend.

This editor, apparently. Especially in the photos. Or so I am told. Look, people, I'm TRYING. And the whole "you look like you're about to murder the photographer" thing has gotten old after 10,000th time I heard it...]

This troper's brother, as a result of blunted affect caused by his schizophrenia, retains the same dull look in his eyes when trying to smile for photos.

It's a recurring theme for this troper, having to repeat variations of the phrase "This is my smile, this is what my smile looks like". Now I just pull faces.

My brother is the worst person ever at smiling in photos. It always looks like he is in great pain, but is suffering in silence. The only photo I have ever seen of him with a real smile on his face was at his wedding....and even then only in some.

This troper's elementary school photos are long-standing SnarkBait for the rest of his family because of his blatantly obvious unsmile. Fortunately, he's learned how to do it more convincingly over the years.

this troper apparently gives one when asked to smile. When she's actually happy or amused, it's not so bad, but seriously, in photos it's like a grimace.

This troper so much. Any toothy smile of his is downright disturbing.

When I was younger, I got so sick of random guys on the street ordering me to smile that I would do it in a way that only my mouth moved and the rest of my face stayed the same. Judging by some of their expressions, the effect was sufficiently creepy.

I never take a good photo. Starting with some with family on July 4th, 2010, I now just glam pose for any photo. I look slightly less ridiculous.

After being gently pressured into it, this tropette has stopped giving a toothy smile in photos because it always turns into a SlasherSmile when I try not to blink when the camera flashes.

This troper got sick of her dorky "say cheese" smiles in family photos making already lousy pictures of me look worse (I don't photograph well -- I seem to have a knack for getting caught at a bad angle or with a dumb look on my face), and now just stares sullenly at the camera, or does her best SlasherSmile when the pestering for a smile gets too annoying.

I never pose for photos, if at all possible, unless I can cover my mouth. My photo smile isn't a SlasherSmile or anything, it's more...chimpanzee. Constipated chimpanzee.

This Troper never liked the way professional photographers tried to make him smile for school pictures(smiling with teeth feels weird, and I have bad/weird teeth anyway), so about halfway through elementary school he switched to a more natural half-smirk kind of smile... much to the chagrin of photographers. Thankfully they seem to stop caring once you reach highschool.

When this troper tries to force a smile, she looks like something out of HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi. Although apparently when she actually smiles naturally (a notably rare event unless there is a cat in the room), she apparently looks quite nice. Except if the natural smile came from some dark humor or her more insane side, in which case it's Higurashi again and freaks out a few of my friends. It's one of the many reasons why they're keeping me as far away from CallOfCthulhu as they can.

This troper tries to refrain from smiling, simply because she thinks she look weird when she smiles. Especially with her braces.

This troper works retail, and thus has to smile all the freaking time. It just looks bad on me.

This troper's friend, his fake smiles are just scary (his yearbook photos amount to "I'm going to ''kill you all''" and "eff the world"), though when he actually smiles... hoo boy. This troper, however... doesn't really have a pretty smile, not in her own opinion anyway. Much nicer smirk. I never smile for my pictures because I think it looks awful. Then again, I'm a StepfordSmiler of epic proportions. My smile, though not attractive, brightens the days of my classmates (because they can "always find something happier" when they have bad days). That's why I do it, ugly or not.

This troper rarely smiles, but when told to smile, for example in photos, it ends up looking rather unsettling, quite often like a SlasherSmile. Once, when she was younger, during school photos, she fake-smiled and the photographer commented that she looked like she was about to murder him.

This troper doesn't have a very nice smile when she's laughing or smiling naturally, but if a picture is being taken, her smiles are ESPECIALLY unsmile-y.

This troper's smile border's on slasher smile when his teeth are shown. Even without teeth showing he still can't and was told this matter o' factly by a girl he was in a play with when they all had to bow at the end. He'll have a genuine smile if something's funny but he can't do it on cue.

Smiles don't suit my face at all. I've even tried to improve it in a mirror, but it just doesn't seem like I'll ever get a smile that doesn't make me look either mad or AxCrazy.

This troper can't fake a smile without looking high or sleepy. Also she never shows her teeth while smiling, it just looks weird.

This troper has to be genuinely happy to pull off a smile in photos, otherwise it just looks like he wants to eviscerate the photographer. It's actually pretty funny to watch the photographer's reaction when the troper responds to the coaxing, "C'mon, lighten up a bit!" However, when he ACTUALLY smiles, it's quite normal. But it hurts his face.

When people try to force me to smile, I look like I'm on crack. At worst, I probably fall into UncannyValley. I'm not very photogenic.

This troper has three facial expressions in photographs: "I want you to die a slow and painful death", "I am superior to you, and this fact pleases me" and "Your hide will make a fine poncho!". One person he knows claims that his real smile looks more psychotic than his deliberate psycho-smile.