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?!

I'm the same, glad it's not just me.

I look fat and rosy in just about every photo ever taken of me and I've spent hours looking in a mirror and I just can't see what the camera appears to see .

I’ve been told many times that I’m photogenic. The first time (my wedding day pictures) I took it as a compliment. By the 3rd,4th,5th time I thought hang on,this means that I look way better in photos than I do in real life! Weird! I must know how to get the best angle or something.

I look terrible in photos. Im not that ugly in real life but in a photo jeez.

My other half also looks terrible in photos, completely different to how he looks in real life, but when he smiles he looks more like himself..we make a right pair

I'm very unphotogenic. One day, I looked in the bathroom mirror and thought I somehow looked at my best, so I held my mobile next to the mirror to take a photo. I was able to look at both images simultaneously, and the two versions of me were completely different. In the mirror, my skin looked good and on my mobile screen, it looked red, blotchy and wrinkly. I've no idea how that works, but it proved what I always suspected - I really do look better in the mirror than I do in photos. Which is just as well, to be honest.

Cattenberg That's a brilliant idea. I always think I look reasonably ok in my bathroom mirror, even without make up. But I look like a crack addict on my phone camera.

I don't understand Snapchat, but I reckon I'm going to find out, purely for the beauty filter thing.

I have a wonky face in photos. Like real wonky, eye half closed, drooping mouth. I've recently become quite obsessed with my wonky face, to the point I've considered going to the Dr to ask why the left side of my face is collapsing. But it honestly doesn't look that way in the mirror
I also look shiny (despite using decent makeup & being quite good at applying it) and my smile looks as though I've smelt someone else's fart
Apparently I'm attractive IRL
I hate the camera as much as it hates me!

This makes me feel better
I get compliments IRL so I don't believe I'm a total minger but my photos make me feel embarrassed!

Practice with selfies?

I do the Chandler Bing scrunch up my face thing in photos. In candida I look fine.

Yep, another one who relates!

In the flesh I get quite a lot of compliments, but in photos I look like a Care Bear with hair

In candids 😂

Thanks autocorrect!

A guy I used to date, way back, dated another woman after me who looked amazing in the photos he showed me. I said she's really pretty and he said, well, she's not as pretty as you.....(he wasn't being mean, honest) she just takes a good photo.

I tend to think my character and looks are all tied up in my animation, so that's why I look dire in photos.

Posing is a massive thing
I can look like this or this (and no, it's not photoshopped!)
For a double chin avoidance, don't suck your head back, push it forward and tilt chin slightly down, you feel like an uncomfortable turkey but it works
Take photos from high up, never low down or you get a nostril shot as well as a double chin

glad it's not just me. even with beauty face filter (which I would never use!) I look like an airbrushed potato.

Does anyone else’s make up completely disappear in photos no matter how much you've trowelled on and how well you’ve applied it? (This is in additions to being generally ugly in photos. I am always horrified by how I look in them) I wear moremake up than most of my friends on nights iuyand I know how to apply it well. Yet in photos they have flawless skin and their little bit of mascara looks like full on celebrity slap, whereas my skin is shiny and patchy and my features disappear into my face. How is this possible? It is because I have pale skin and they fake tan?

*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.*

^ Totally agree

That camera does fucking lie. The bastard.

Angle of the photo? I have some wedding ones ,where I look like a hippo (face-wise and crap photographer).
Also you need to remember that you are seeing yourself as others see you, not how you see yourself in a mirror.

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 agree! I am pale and soft featured; I think that’s a bad combo for the camera; tanned, more angular people tend to photograph better. Or that’s what I like to tell myself....😂

The only thing worse than a photograph is a video, they are both really shit but a video even more so.

I have the opposite problem. I'm very photogenic but not half as beautiful in the flesh

Ollivander has anyone ever told you that you look like Melissa Gilbert (younger version obviously)?

Posture? Clearly when I’m looking ij the mirror I’m standing upright, and then I slump like nobody’s business and look three times the size in photos

Jane - nope! But in RL I generally look like the squashed face photo

I once met Princess Diana - she had a big nose, heavy eyes and was quite angular in the face. You'd never call her beautiful, nor pretty.

But - photogenic, for whatever reason (practice, or whatever).

Alas I look monstrous both in real life and in photos.

I used to see Princess Di on High St Kensington a lot and agree that in RL she was attractive. In photos she was stunningly beautiful. She took a good photo!