Why do I always look so ghastly in photos?

[catdrugs]

Vain I know, it doesn't really depress me or anything, there are more important things. But I'm curious because I never photograph how I think I look.
For example I'm a size 10/12 but always seem to look twice that size. My face isn't fat but a double chin seems to appear in photos.
I'm not a stunner by any means but my face looks so damn pig ugly in photos.
Does the camera tell the truth?!

No - I know loads of people who look awful in photos but are lovely in real life. You just need to learn how to pose. Google how to look good in photos

My kids always laugh at my photos which is actually reassuring that they don’t see me as a double chinned ghost in real life. No idea but I take an awful photo.

Some people are just randomly photogenic! So I wouldnt beat yourself up about it... doesnt always mean they look good in real life either.

But if it really matters to you you should google it... celebrities do special poses and angles on the red carpet to look their best... for example men always space their legs apart at shoulder width and women always tilt slightly away or place one leg in front of the other.

There is lots of stuff you can do if you can really be arsed!

Also practice facial expressions in the mirror haha
My nanna was one for all this type of thing and she used to say to me that you look more beautiful if you are thinking of beautiful images.... which sounds batshit and she was indeed quite batshit... but I swear to god that tip does work! Makes your eyes look less dead... which I need because I have a newborn and am running on two hours sleep a night!

OP I could have written your post, in RL people often say I look decent for my age, don't have wrinkles etc yet a photo instantly turns me into a haggard old crone. Then you get those folk that look 10 years younger in their photos. It really gets my goat

One of the biggest compliments I consider myself to have had is that I take a terrible, terrible picture. If I looked all the time as I do in photos I’d have many more issues by now.

I am also deeply unphotogenic. I go to great lengths to avoid a camera. You have as much chance of getting me to take a selfie than you would have of winning the National Lottery.

If I really do look like my photos how I dare venture outside is a mystery.

I have also known quite plain people take a stunning photo.

That camera does fucking lie. The bastard.

It's a strange thing.

Because everyone else is using a filter so we’ve forgotten how awful normal photos look. Took me ages to work that out!

I take awful photos as well. It's really bad. I'm a proper ugly sod. In real life I'm commonly perceived as attractive and pretty (not being arrogant before anyone gets their arse in their hands) and I know I'm ok. Comfortable in my own skin, I don't look in the mirror and weep or crow. In pictures I look like proper shite. And I mean proper. As in I don't look like that in any mirror anywhere.

I think it's something to do with the way light reflects and movement in real life and pics being flat so the shadows are removed.

Some folks are very photogenic, others simply aren't.

Well I do a sport and the coach is always posting vids and pictures. Not mine surprisingly

Ooh I’m soooooo unphotogenic .
My very generous grand mother would tell me that The camera never did me justice.

Very, very occasionally by sheer luck I'm captured in a photo without looking like the hunchback of Notre Dame. It's emotional...

Me too. I can manage a reasonable selfie, with the right lighting, a following wind and about forty to choose from. But a candid photo? I look like a round moon-faced weirdo.

I'm not and never have been pretty but I've always taken a terrible photo.

I also know people who are perfectly pleasant to look at irl but look awful in photos.

And one or two unfortunate looking people who look a good deal better in photos than they actually do.

The camera most definitely doesn't tell the truth

@Trialsmum - My ugliness on camera predates filters so I don’t have that as an excuse!

In real life, I am passable, and am told I look a few years younger than my actual age.
In photographs I'm a gurning, double-chinned whale-woman with either a manic or vacant look in my eye. If I try to strike a pose it looks as though I have either developed a sudden hernia, or am trying to hold back a bad attack of wind.
The camera hates me.

I bet you cringe and hide when the camera comes out. You've got to OWN it. Much better if you look at the camera confidently (and I'm minging in pics and real life).

I take a hideous photo and I always look white as a sheet.

I found out it's my foundation (Estee Lauder) it has SPF in it and it causes flashback in the photo.

I use a different one at night now when photos maybe taken, and no more flashback!

I always think I look shit in photos, then 5 years later I realise I looked great

I know someone who is ridiculously photogenic, but doesn’t look the same irl. So it works both ways.

I have the opposite problem, really photogenic but don't look as good in person!

I've read those posing tips but I'd feel like a right muppet doing them!

I'm the same. But then I'd rather look OK in real life and take a bad photo,than vice versa!

I hate having my photo taken I look really ugly, in RL I am not that bad, but does the camera really lie? when I had my photo taken with my sister (under fucking protest) SHE looked the same, I looked awful so if my sister looks like her photo then surely I must look like mine - if that makes sense.

Snapchat beauty filter does the trick