We Tried Mark Zuckerberg's Tricks for Looking Taller in Photos

Didn’t you think Mark Zuckerberg is tall? According to a 2010 New Yorker profile, he’s “only around five feet eight, but he seems taller, because he stands with his chest out and his back straight, as if held up by a string.” Wired writer Graham Starr thinks Zuck seems tall for another reason: He stages his photos to exaggerate his height.

Zuckerberg doesn’t wear vertical stripes or platform shoes (or Timberlands). But in publicity photos from his “I’m not running for president” tour of the U.S., he often stands closer to the camera, or holds himself higher as others walk or lean around him. Check out his shoes in the truck photo above, next to the shoes of the man behind him. Either Zuckerberg has gigantic feet, or he’s a lot closer to the camera than he first seems.

Props to him, really. Looking taller next to other people is a lot harder than looking taller in solo photos. And while it shouldn’t matter to anyone, Zuckerberg has an image to maintain. 58% of Fortune 500 CEOs are over six feet tall, and the last president shorter than Zuckerberg was William McKinley. But Zuckerberg comes across as much taller, even towering over 5' 10" Bill Gates on a sofa.

Most internet sources, including the murky world of celebrity height forums, list Zuckerberg as just 5' 7". IMDb splits the difference at 5' 7.5". Either way, I feel a kinship, as I’m 5' 6" on a good day. So I went out with my colleague Patrick Austin to see if we could use Zuckerberg’s tricks to make me look taller.

First we started easy, with a subject who was already shorter than me. As I inched toward the camera, I easily doubled our height difference.

But that was easy mode. All I accomplished here was to make someone else look short. Could I look taller than someone my height, or even someone taller?

I couldn’t even get my arm up over our next volunteer’s shoulders. So instead I just beelined for the camera.

I believe we achieved some parity in that last shot, even if I had to wave my hat above my head in a desperate bid to confuse the viewer. Without a pair of $200 elevator shoes, I clung to that hat, hoping it would give me an extra optical inch. It was time for a tougher test: group shots.

These two men were not just taller than me, they were fit enough to highlight my skinny little torso. I did something desperate: I stood on my tiptoes.

Patrick figured out that the “stand closer” trick sometimes hits a limit. Without a super-low angle, our volunteers’ downward eyelines were enough to give away our height difference. Plus I was forgetting to cheat to the camera (more on that below), the way Zuckerberg did with his cattle rancher friends.

Lastly we tried a varied group shot, with a whole range of heights. Our volunteers kindly ignored my blatant toe-stand and even leaned in to give me a comparative advantage. I’m pretty sure the “move toward the camera” trick paid off, until our volunteers turned it right back around on me. Again, the hat was essential.

We found three basic tricks for looking tall next to other people:

Get closer to the camera, but “cheat out” by turning a bit toward the camera, to imply you’re as far away as your companion.

Maintain excellent posture. Shoulders back, chin up, legs straight. But like Zuckerberg, look casual, not like you’re standing at attention.

Wear a hat, and wear it high.

Find the shortest person in the group, and stand next to them.

Looking taller can’t repair the longterm psychological damage of being short, but it can trick the public, at least until they google you.