Ever watch a Filipina in a group when she bursts into laughter and abruptly covers her mouth in embarrassment over showing free emotion like that in front of the group?
Smiling - actually, any emotion North of the Robo-Cop look - is considered un-seemly and ill-mannered and such like.
There is a Universal natural tendency to NOT smile for pictures - unless they have had a few belts, etc, etc...
YOU have to get them to smile.
YOU have to do that by making them feel safe...
And YOU make them feel safe by making them laugh, or making them part of the process, or quickly taking one picture and immediately showing it too them that see nothing bad is going to happen so how about a nice smile, ok?
The word I use, in Tagalog, is masaya, happy. I hold up the camera in front of them, say masaya in a loud but kindly voice, while grinning as widely as possible like a psychopath on a roller-coaster.
The chances of them smiling back or are about 50/50.
Understand that sometimes, no matter what Bozo-the-Clown moves you come up with, there will NOT be a smile happening any time soon...
Often, this turns out to be the result of embarrassment over problems with their teeth.
At that point, without someone to translate or you having a real good ability to act out what you want to happen, you are out of luck in the smile department.
I always try to get them to smile without opening their mouths, which then gives them that automatic happy-eyes look that I so cherish.
The best thing, though, is to make gentle fun of one, while the other laughs - this is how they communicate all the time, through humor and oblique reference, in order not to insult anyone.
So if you have gathered together a group of 3 or more - and sometimes, they come rushing from all over to join the photo - best thing is to take a picture, point to let's say 3 out of 4, and make the signal for "beautiful" - make a pistol with your thumb and fore-finger and hold it under your chin - and then point to the last one and make a twisted up ugly face, they will ALL laugh at the one you point out...as will she, but only out of embarrassment and suddenly you have a total, happy, laughing, and most important COMFORTABLE group of women who WANT you to take their picture.
Spontaneity is your friend.
