Learn Hardcore Dutch: De fotograaf laat ons lachen, zodat de foto natuurlijker wordt. - The photographer makes us laugh so that the photo becomes more natural.

You can say maakt ons aan het lachen, but laten + infinitive is the standard, natural way to say “make someone do something” in Dutch. So laat ons lachen is exactly “makes us laugh”.

Why is it laten + lachen and not something like laten lachen with an extra word or a different verb form?

In Dutch causative sentences, the verb after laten is always the infinitive (the dictionary form):

laten lachen (to make [someone] laugh)
laten werken (to make/let [someone] work)
laten zitten (to leave [something] as it is / let [someone] sit)

The pattern is:

subject + laten + object (person) + infinitive

So in the example:

De fotograaf (subject)
laat (conjugated form of laten)
ons (object: “us”)
lachen (infinitive)

You cannot conjugate lachen here (laat ons lacht is wrong); it must be the infinitive lachen.

Why is it ons and not wij after laat?

Wij is a subject pronoun (“we”).
Ons is an object pronoun (“us”).

In this sentence, de fotograaf is the one doing the action of laten (the subject), and ons is the group being made to laugh (the object):

De fotograaf = subject (who causes the action)
laat = verb
ons = object (who is caused to do something)
lachen = infinitive (what the object is made to do)

If wij were the subject, the sentence would look like:

Wij lachen. – We laugh.
Wij laten hem lachen. – We make him laugh.

But here it’s the photographer doing the causing, so we must use ons.

Why does the verb come at the end in zodat de foto natuurlijker wordt?

Zodat introduces a subordinate clause (a dependent clause). In Dutch subordinate clauses, the conjugated verb goes to the end of the clause.

So:

De foto wordt natuurlijker. (main clause: verb in second position)
…zodat de foto natuurlijker wordt. (subordinate clause: verb at the end)

General rule:

Main clause: Subject + Verb + …
Subordinate clause (after omdat, omdat, zodat, dat, als, wanneer, etc.): [subordinator] + Subject + … + Verb

Examples:

Ik ga weg omdat ik moe ben. – I leave because I am tired.
Hij fluistert zodat niemand hem hoort. – He whispers so that no one hears him.

Is the comma before zodat required in Dutch?

In standard written Dutch, you usually do place a comma before a clause starting with zodat:

De fotograaf laat ons lachen, zodat de foto natuurlijker wordt.

The comma marks the separation between the main clause and the subordinate clause.
In informal writing you may sometimes see it omitted, but in careful, correct Dutch, the comma is recommended here.

Why is it natuurlijker and not meer natuurlijk?

Dutch typically forms comparatives with -er (just like English often uses -er: bigger, smaller).

natuurlijk → natuurlijker (more natural)
mooi → mooier (more beautiful)
snel → sneller (faster)

Meer natuurlijk is not wrong grammatically, but it is unusual and sounds clumsy here. For most normal adjectives, the comparative in everyday Dutch is:

adjective + -er

So natuurlijker is the normal, idiomatic form.

Why is it de foto and not het foto?

In Dutch, every noun is either de-word (common gender) or het-word (neuter gender).

foto is a de-word, so you say de foto.

There’s no simple rule you can always apply; you generally have to learn the article with the noun:

de foto – the photo
de tafel – the table
het huis – the house
het kind – the child

So you must memorize de foto as a unit.

Can you also say zodat de foto natuurlijker is instead of wordt?

You could say:

De fotograaf laat ons lachen, zodat de foto natuurlijker is.

It is grammatically possible and understandable, but wordt fits better because it expresses a change or result:

wordt = becomes (focus on the photo changing / becoming more natural)
is = is (focus on its state, not the change)

Since the laughing is meant to make the photo look more natural, wordt matches that idea of a resulting change more naturally.

What is exactly the meaning and use of zodat here? Is it more like “so that” or like “so / therefore”?

Zodat usually expresses purpose or intended result, and is best translated as “so that”:

De fotograaf laat ons lachen, zodat de foto natuurlijker wordt.
→ The photographer makes us laugh so that the photo becomes more natural.

Compare with:

dus = “so / therefore” (logical consequence)
- Ik ben moe, dus ik ga naar bed. – I’m tired, so I’m going to bed.
zodat = “so that / in order that” (goal, intention)
- Ik ga vroeg naar bed, zodat ik morgen fit ben. – I go to bed early so that I’ll be fit tomorrow.

Here, the photographer intentionally makes you laugh in order to improve the photo, so zodat is the correct conjunction.

Can you leave out de and say zodat foto natuurlijker wordt?

No. In Dutch, singular countable nouns almost always need an article (or a determiner like mijn, die, etc.).

So you must say:

zodat de foto natuurlijker wordt (the photo)
or, in another context,
zodat een foto natuurlijker wordt (a photo)
zodat deze foto natuurlijker wordt (this photo)

zodat foto natuurlijker wordt sounds ungrammatical and incomplete.

Is there a more idiomatic alternative way to say the same thing in Dutch?

Yes, a very natural alternative is:

De fotograaf laat ons lachen, zodat we natuurlijker op de foto staan.
→ The photographer makes us laugh so that we look more natural in the photo.

Here, the focus is on us looking natural (we natuurlijker op de foto staan), instead of on the photo itself becoming more natural. Both versions are correct; they just highlight slightly different things:

de foto wordt natuurlijker – the photo becomes more natural
we staan natuurlijker op de foto – we look more natural in the photo