How to get your boyfriend to take the photo you asked for

Take his photo first, the way you want yours. He opens it in LikeThis, and it shows as a see-through ghost on his iPhone camera. You stand where he stood, he lines up the ghost and takes your photo. You get the same spot, the same angle and the same height, on the first try.

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Last updated: 2026-10-20

Being a girl and asking your boyfriend for one photo is torture: my photo of him at the clock tower next to his tilted photo of me

"Being a girl and asking your boyfriend to take one photo of you is torture"

On 13 October 2026, a post on X said exactly that. It had more than 41,000 likes within a week, and hundreds of women answered with their own photos. You know them: "I'm barely in it." "He cut my feet off." "From below, so my legs look like a giant's." And then: "but this one is my favorite."

He is not doing it on purpose. The photo you want is in your head, and he has to guess four things:

Framing: where you stand, and how much of the background shows.
Angle: straight on, from the side, from below.
Height: the phone at eye level, chest level or hip level.
Distance: how far back he stands, and the zoom.

Me vs. him
The trick: his photo first
With LikeThis

The people in these example photos are AI-generated. They are illustrations, not LikeThis customers.

The trick: take his photo first

Women already do this. The tip on Reddit: "I take a photo of my boyfriend first to show him the composition, and ask him to recreate it." LikeThis turns that tip into one screen.

Take his photo. Put him in your spot and shoot him the way you want yours: the landmark in, the feet in, the phone at the right height.
He opens it in LikeThis. Your photo of him is now a see-through ghost on his camera.
Stand where he stood. He moves until you sit on the ghost and the horizon sits on the ghost horizon. A strong ghost helps him place you; a faint ghost helps him see the real scene.
Check it together. Slide between your photo of him and his photo of you. If it is off, he takes it again on the spot.

Tips that make the first try work

Use the same lens for both photos. Most phone photos use 1x; for wide shots, use 0.5x both times.
Mark the spot. Stand exactly where he stood, so he only fixes the phone, not you.
For full-body photos, take his photo with the phone at hip height. The ghost tells him if your feet are in.
Busy street? LikeThis Pro has Outline mode, which shows only the edges of the reference.
Want a photo of you both? Use the self-timer and the same ghost.

Questions people ask

Why does my boyfriend take bad photos of me?

Most of the time he cannot see what you see. You picture the full scene: the mountains, your shoes, you in the middle. He sees a person on a screen and guesses the height, the distance and the zoom. Girls, we all have the same boyfriend.

How do I teach my boyfriend to take pictures?

Do not teach. Show. A tip women share on Reddit is to take a photo of him first and ask him to recreate it. LikeThis makes that easy: your photo of him sits on his camera as a ghost, so he copies it while he shoots.

Why take his photo first and not just show him a photo?

Because you are the one who knows the shot. When you take his photo, you choose the spot, the angle and the height. Then he does not have to imagine anything: he lines up the ghost and you are in the same frame.

Is LikeThis free?

LikeThis is free to download, and your first shot is free. To keep shooting, you need LikeThis Pro: $4.99 a week or $29.99 a year, both with a 3-day free trial, or a one-time lifetime purchase. These are US prices on 2026-10-20; the App Store shows the price in your currency.

Does LikeThis use AI to change my photo?

No. LikeThis does not generate, edit or beautify photos with AI. It shows a reference photo over the real camera, and he takes a real photo of you. It helps with four things: framing, angle, height and distance.

Take his photo first. He takes care of the rest.