Sharp features: high cheekbones, heavy lids, elongated proportions, a gaze with no softness in it. This face does not disappear under heavy makeup and can carry a complicated look.
How to tell whether it is your type
The cheekbones read even in flat light, the jaw is defined, the face is narrow and long rather than round. People call you interesting rather than pretty, and you come across as sterner than you feel. Soft makeup is barely visible on you; graphic makeup works immediately.
Easy test: shoot a portrait in hard side light. A face with architecture gets stronger in that light; a face without it falls apart.
What work it brings
Runway and editorial, where the job wants graphic quality rather than warmth. Heavy makeup, designer shows, magazine stories, black-and-white work. Commercial advertising books this type less often — a shopper is offered a face they can identify with, not one they admire.
What to shoot for the book
Profile and three-quarter, which are what show cheekbones. A frame in hard light. A close-up looking straight into the lens. One shot with the hair down and one with the face fully open: an agency needs to see the shape of the head.
What to avoid: softening retouch. Remove the shadow under the cheekbone and you erase exactly what you are booked for.
What it is confused with
Strange look. The difference is symmetry: a strong face is a regular face with powerful structure, while a strange look rests on broken proportion. A textbook strong face is Natasha Poly.
