When a character has an uncanny tendency to look fantastic on photographs and generally still pictures, even when they were taken under less than flattering circumstances or when the character actually looks a lot plainer in reality. They may be contrasted by a character who is better looking in everyday life, but they can't get a good photo of themselves even if their life depended on it; such contrast is usually Played for Laughs.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto: Sakamoto is a high-schooler who's perfect in EVERYTHING, including being photogenic. In one chapter, three Japanese Delinquents among his classmates trying to kidnap him and take pictures of him with no clothes to scare the girls of their class — only to get involved in a fire that Sakamoto get them out because of his "Fire Dance." After being rescued by a professor and admitting the guilt, the trio agree that Sakamoto was awesome after all, and the one who took the photo of Sakamoto stares at it for a bit and utters:
I think... I'll make this my wallpaper.
Comic Books
Film
- Kanako in The World of Kanako looks insanely good on all of the pictures that she appears on. While there a lots of photos shown around in this movie, every character uses an extra-long time to watch those with her on them.
Live-Action TV
- A Running Gag in How I Met Your Mother is that it is physically impossible to take a bad picture of Barney Stinson—even if he is choking on saucy nachos with his suit inside out when the picture is taken, he'll still look cool and stylish on it. Except when he's sneezing.
Music
- The song Fotogen (photogenic) by German punk band ZSD is about looking good on a "Wanted!" Poster and on mug shots:
- Fotogen – auf den Fahndungsplakaten
Du bist so schön jeder will ein Foto von dir haben
Fotogen – in der Bullenkartei
Es ist ein schönes Gefühl so begehrt zu sein. note
Newspaper Comics
- Inversion: Calvin and Hobbes shows that Calvin cannot take a good photo, because he's too bratty and nonconformist to take a decent snapshot. He's proudest of one that caught him in mid-sneeze, spewing snot and spit freely.
Video Games
- Idol Manager: This trope is implied by some idols having a "Photogenic" trait that results in the agency getting double the money for any photoshoot to which they are sent.
Webcomics
- A pair of Their Story strips concern Sun Jing and Qiu Tong taking their student ID pictures. Sun Jing's turns out to be atrociously bad, while Qiu Tong proves so photogenic that the school photographer ends up doing an entire impromptu photoshoot for her and lets her keep the pictures for free.
- Inversion: Author Vanity Thorne from Phillip M. Jackson's Sequential Art is a lovely and lithe Cat Girl in person, but somehow cannot take a good photo. Her best friend, Kat Vance, a professional photographer, tried to capture Vanity on camera, but couldn't. "I am teh nimble kitty."
Western Animation
- Alan from The Amazing World of Gumball parodies this. He is a balloon with a cartoonish drawn face, but when a picture of him is taken, he has the super-imposed live-action face of a handsome man.
- In Class of the Titans, Neil is a descendant of Narcissus. Part of his power set is being ridiculously good-looking and always taking a good photograph. (His appearance in the opening credits is of him being photographed.)
Real Life
- Zeddie Little, a.k.a. the Ridiculously Photogenic Guy
, became the subject of a Memetic Mutation when a chance photo taken of him in the middle of a marathon run captured the hearts of millions of internet users. Variants include but are not limited to
