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This is the reason why people never smiled in old photographs

It wasn't just because they didn't have iPhones.

This is the reason why people never smiled in old photographs
14 March 2016

Whenever you see an old-timey group photo, the subjects always look moodier than a teenager at a garden centre.

And before today, we put it down to the past being a bit rubbish. After all, they didn't have the internet, or Soccer Saturday, or McDonald's chicken nuggets - they had every right to be angry.

But according to Vox.com, there's a far more reasonable explanation for the phenomenon. According to camera heads, retro cameras' long exposure times meant that shooting photos took minutes at a time. People couldn't hold their smiles for that long, and it would have inevitably led to blur. 

The steely-faced look was also influenced by classic paintings, amongst other things. Check out the video below for the full explanation...