Mumsnet Talk

The two images, the one in my head, and the one documented photographically are so wildly at odds with eachother.

Have name-changed because I'm embarrassed about possibly appearing self-absorbed. I'm not. I only ever feel this after I've seen photos of myself. The rest of the time I feel relatively good about myself. I mean, I know I'm not gorgeous, but I don't dislike my looks.

Anyone else suffer from this mysterious syndrome?

I get that. In photos I have a huge, doughy moon-face but in the mirror I have at least a glimmer of cheekbones. I suspect the lighting in my bathroom and hall is very kind and I should make sure to only be photographed in half-light, eg at dusk.

Yes, I do. My brother and DH are both on Missions From God to take a good photo of me - it's just not possible, but they won't give up. I just look weirdy and odd and gammy in photos.

The less bad ones that exist are the ones I took of myself in the bathroom mirror - I'm sure a lot of the weirdness is self-consciousness frozen onto my face.

yes i'm just glad camera phones weren't around when i was 15

I know I'm the same not just you.

OMG are you me??
It is a running family joke that I look either
a, gormless.
b, fat.
c, like I have 10 chins.
d, like a feature from Horse and Hound magazine.

I have no solutions.

Camera phones always make my nose look enormous ...my dimly lit bathroom mirror is very kind

Yep, I look awful in photos

Me too

And I have even asked very good friends who also agree with me (that is what makes them very good friends I suppose )

I always look like a blobby idiot in pics but obviously in rl I am lovely looking , and very modest .

me too

I am sure I am very nice in the mirror

In photos, I look like an alien is using my body as a host vessel

I worked this one out.

When you look in the mirror you see a mirror image of yourself (clearly!)

A photo isn't a mirror image (again, clearly!)

Unless you have an exactly symetrical face, then the two images are going to be different.

Yes same here.

According to a good source - If you have any roundness in your cheeks, it will be amplified through a camera lens. Bony faces tend to photograph better.

Photos are a split second frame of your face, they are not really a good representation of your real appearance.

Guys

has anyone ever pointed out that a mirror shows you backwards? This is bad news I know, because I too look O.K. in a mirror and SHITEOLA in photos

some people look nicer backwards, that's all

there are a lot of these hound-like creatures. My mother says she looks like colonel klegg in photos (?)

Camera phones make me look bloated and puffy. My eyes also look very poppy in a photo and normal in the mirror.

LOl same here. I have figured out though that I look better in pics if I slightly raise my eyebrows

If I don't i constantly look like I am frowning.

Ah
Giddy has it

My xmil used to tell me I was photogenic, which I certainly was not. THe camera HATES me. She would find the ugliest, puffiest, chinniest, poppy-eyed photo of me and say "oh this is a really good one of you, really FLATTERS you."

you see the opposite image of yourself in real life all the time

But this can't be true because it means what I look like in photos is what other people actually see all the time.

But everyone agrees I look weirdy and odd in photos and not like I actually look (or are they all just humouring me ? I still reckon that what's photographed is actually fear itself.

oh graet so the mirror theory means that we are basically MOOSES in real life then, and only TASTY in mirror-land

fecking brilliant

Something's wrong with the mirror in the lift at work. When I leave the house think I look pretty good, then by the time I get to work and get in the lift my face has put on 2 stone, and actually the bathroom mirror at work is faulty too as are all cameras that have taken photos of me after age 18. Perhaps we should all just sit in front of the mirrors we think we look good in and save all this angst

I'm the opposite, I appear to be very photogenic but an old hag in RL. I might blow up a photo and wear it as a mask.

I have about 2 nice pic of myslef, taken in a mirror with the flash turned off.

Oh well.

Maybe, if we got used to our backwards faces, there are special types of mirrors I think, then we wouldn't all get such horrible shocks when we see photos.

I have to admit, sometimes when friends cringe over photos of themselves, I mutter, yes it's not the best shot of you, doesn't do you justice, but I'm quietly thinking, um, that looks exactly like you.

[moose]