Journal · Measurement · capture
How to take a photo for a face rating, step by step
Stand facing a window in daylight with overhead lights off, put the lens at eye level, hold the phone at arm's length or further, or use the rear camera, relax your face, move hair off the forehead and turn off every filter and beauty mode. Then note the spot so the next scan can match it.
Inside this article
Find the part you need.The eight steps, in order
- Face a window in soft daylight. Avoid direct sun and keep your whole face evenly lit.
- Turn off overhead lights so they do not cast shadows over your eyes.
- Set the lens at eye level. A shelf or tripod helps keep it steady.
- Keep the phone at least arm’s length away. Use a timer to step back; include your whole head and shoulders.
- Face the lens straight on, with your chin level.
- Relax your face: lips closed, teeth apart, brows at rest. Do not smile or clench your jaw.
- Move hair off your forehead and face. Remove glasses and hats.
- Turn off filters, beauty mode and skin smoothing. Take three shots and upload the sharpest, unedited one.
Score and tier are free, no sign-up, and the free-scan photo is deleted right after scoring.
What makes a photo good enough to rate?
Use a sharp, evenly lit photo with a neutral expression. The aim is a repeatable setup, so changes in the camera do not look like changes in your face.
Start with the checklist. For the reasons behind it, see how light, angle and lens affect a rating.
Why does the light source matter for the eye area?
Because the eye area is where shadow is read as anatomy. Light from above puts the brow ridge between the source and the eyes, so the upper lid darkens, the under-eye hollow deepens and the tear trough reads as a line. A rater sees all of that as a heavier lid, darker circles and less even skin, and marks the eye area down for a fixture on the ceiling.
Frontal window light fills those hollows instead of carving them. It also shows the skin as it is, which cuts both ways: it will not hide texture the way a soft lamp from the side does, but it will not exaggerate it either. Honest is the goal, because the score is only useful if the next one is taken the same way. A ring light is an acceptable substitute if it is the same ring light at the same distance every time.
Why does lens distance change the midface?
A phone's front camera is a wide lens, and a wide lens held close to a face enlarges whatever is nearest to it. The nose and the central midface are nearest. At a short distance they grow, the ears and the jaw angle shrink, and the horizontal proportions the harmony area relies on, the facial fifths, are pulled out of shape. The rater cannot tell a wide midface from a close lens; it just sees a wide midface.
Distance undoes this. From a step back, with the rear camera or a mild zoom, the perspective flattens and the face is rendered roughly as someone across a table would see it. If the rear camera means you cannot see the screen, use the timer and check the shot afterwards. Being unable to see yourself is a feature: it stops the small unconscious chin adjustments that people make when they are watching themselves.
Why does a neutral expression matter, and what counts as neutral?
A smile lifts the cheeks, narrows the eyes and widens the lower face. Clenched teeth flare the jaw at the angle. Raised brows expose more upper lid and change where the brow sits over the eye. None of these is a fault, but each produces a face that cannot be compared with a relaxed one in another photo, so a rater comparing two scans would report a change that is only expression.
Neutral is easier to describe than to hold. Breathe out, let the jaw hang so the teeth part slightly behind closed lips, and look at the lens rather than at your own image. If you are using the front camera, look at the lens itself, near the top of the phone, not at the preview lower down; looking at the preview reads as looking slightly down.
When should you take the photo?
On an ordinary day, an hour or two after waking, at a time you can repeat. Faces are fuller straight out of bed, and a face after a short night is not the same face the rater would see after a normal one.
So a photo after a late night, a flight or a heavy, salty dinner is a data point, not a baseline. If it is the only one you have, take it, but retake under normal conditions before you compare anything against it.
How do you match conditions for a re-scan?
The first photo is a baseline only if the second can be taken the same way. Note the window, the time of day, where the phone was propped and roughly how far back you stood. On a paid re-scan BecomeTen shows the original photo as a faint alignment layer on the camera screen so you can line up the same framing and distance, and it grades both photos on lighting, angle and sharpness before it will show a change from baseline.
Then leave the setup alone and change the thing you are actually testing. When to re-scan, why a difference within two points is noise, and what a real trend looks like across 6–8 week checkpoints is covered in how to track progress. The attractiveness test page explains what the rater is looking at before you take the photo.
Questions
Does a ring light work instead of a window for a face-rating photo?
Yes, with two conditions. Keep it centred on the lens so the light stays frontal rather than from above, and keep it at the same distance for every scan. A ring light is more repeatable than a window across seasons and times of day, which makes it a good choice for a long tracking series, but it is slightly harsher on skin texture than an overcast window.
Should I crop the photo to my face before uploading it?
No. Upload the full frame with the head and the top of the shoulders in it. The rater locates the face itself, and cropping tightly throws away the context it uses to judge angle and lens distance. A crop also makes it harder to match framing on a re-scan, because the alignment layer will show a different scale.
What resolution does a face-rating photo need?
Any modern phone camera is more than enough. What matters is sharpness, not pixel count: the photo has to be in focus on the eyes and free of motion blur. A slightly older phone propped still on a shelf will produce a more usable photo than a current one held at arm's length in dim light.
Can I use the phone's timer and rear camera if I cannot see the preview?
That is the recommended setup. Prop the phone at eye level, set a short timer, step back and look at the lens. Take three shots and pick the sharpest, checking that the whole head is in frame and the face is square to the camera. Not seeing yourself stops the small chin adjustments that shift the lower-third score.