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 have the opposite problem, i am very photogenic and seem to look lovely in s picture. If ever I went OLD the potential date could be very very disappointed😂

While I'm not Marilyn Monroe reincarnated, I like to think I'm reasonably attractive. I say 'like to think' because I reckon that in about 9 out of 10 photos, I look awful! Pale, thin lipped and sharp featured! That's got worse as I've aged - I'm now late 40s - but even when I was in my 'prime' I almost always cringed when I saw myself in photos.

And while again I'd like to think that it just means I'm not photogenic, part of me realises that the truth is probably harsher..... maybe I'm simply not as attractive as I like to think lol!

Related to the above, is there anyone here who doesn't hate the sound of their voice when they hear it played back to them? Do I really sound like that? Eh... yeah, you do.

Maybe photos are the same. We all have this idea of what we think we look like, just like we have an idea of how our voices sound. Yet when we hear/see them in the same way that others hear and see them, we're shocked!

My niece, her mother look ordinary in real life but they glow behind a camera. They do nothing to be like that. Niece had the glow from age 2 if not younger. It's very confusing.

I look terrible in photos coz I don't look at myself IRL so only in photos am I reminded of reality.

I have always looked terrible in photos. Really angry looking and fat chubby face.

Just had to have a photo taken for work id badge, the lady even took it again but there wasnt any improvement, i look awful, really fat round face, small eyes and hair all spiked up, i am dreading having to wear this badge, i look like a fat, demented Arnie

Same with me. I can take an ok selfie but it's rare that I see a photo of me taken by someone else and think I look pretty in it. Even my sister's wedding when I had my hair and makeup professionally done, I still looked like I had a double chin. I have hooded eyes as well which probably doesn't help unless I am looking up at the camera selfie style.

I look fat, pale and horrendously ugly in pictures. It's why I dont do online dating. I havent got a picture that doesnt make me look like Jabba the Hutt's twin sister.

Just to add, the one time I really did look at myself and think I was beautiful is when my boyfriend filmed me as he was making me laugh. So animated I'm probably fine. If only we had moving photographs like in Harry Potter.

I recently read that it was to do with the symmetry of your face or in most people's case - our faces are asymmetrical. When we look in the mirror we are used to seeing our face every day but it's the opposite way we would view it in a picture.

So therefore we are less familiar with our actual face. The majority of people don't have a symmetrical face so it's probably the reason a lot of us cringe at the photo's of ourselves. Myself included.

@IcedPurple - yes to the voice thing. I cringe when I hear myself. I cringe when I see myself in photos. I sound common, I look like a troll.

The symmetry thing makes sense. We think we know what we look like, but we really only know a mirror image.

I also think that photos show us at angles we don't normally see in our reflections. Even without being aware of it, we sort of 'pose' when looking in the mirror. I often find that even if I think I look OK when I deliberately look in the mirror, if I accidently catch a reflection of myself in say, a shop window, I'm horrified!

Noooo! Don’t tell me that the camera is the real me and the mirror isn’t!! I was happy blaming it on the fact that the camera hates me!! I don’t wanna have to admit that I’m delusional

I still cling to the illusion that I'm just simply not photogenic but honestly I'm gorgeous in real life..... but I fear it is just that, an illusion. Once or twice I've plucked up the courage to ask people if I really look like I do in photos and they look at me funny and say.... yeah, of course you do!

Maybe the camera really doesn't lie!

Here’s me and my best friend earlier today.

I've noticed that people I know well tend to look better in person than in a mirror. Maybe we stop noticing any asymmetry?

The most striking example wasn't actually a person, but my parents' black and white cat. I walked past a mirror while holding her, and was amazed by how asymetrical her markings looked in the reflection. If you'd asked me to draw her from memory before that, I'd have drawn her as having an even black mask around her eyes, like Batman.

Lol at the "that's what you look like, you just don't know it you ugly toads",🤣

I'm going with the shadows, and photos flattening the normal angles of your face. In addition humans have two eyes, each eye sees an image and merges them to one image, which is slightly different to the indivisible, a camera has one lens, which is then viewed by two eyes, changing the final view again. Hence why the two images differ. What you see in reality versus what you see in a photo,

But you can do selfies that do mirror image photos now too.

I pointed out a ghastly photo of me to my sister and she said well, you don't look like that. So I'm sticking with not being photogenic.

I don’t wanna have to admit that I’m delusional

A touch pedantic perhaps but shouldn't that be illusional? 😁

I take an awful photo too and if ever I look ‘reasonably attractive’ in one, I’m over the moon!!
My DD on the other hand, who is by the way pretty of course...always manages to look even better in photos than she really is, she just takes a fantastic photo...I think I try too hard and I think that’s it, it just shows when your face tenses!! Oh dear

I hate it when people take deeply unflattering photos with me in and then put them on Facebook. They always say it's a nice picture when it's not. I am really unphotogenic and identify with the pp who mentioned facial asymmetry and looking like half your face is drooping. I also look fat and pig like and shiny. When I got married I warned the photographer to take literally hundreds of pictures to get enough to populate the album. It was still a struggle to find some and most are tolerable rather than good. I just always look drunk or not quite ok.

I've learnt that my left side is my 'best' side
,if I have photos took from the right I look fucking awful

I hate it when people take deeply unflattering photos with me in and then put them on Facebook.

You can't stop people posting these photos (the bastards!) but you can change your settings so they can't tag you or post anything on your timeline without your consent.