Can mirrors be THAT slimming and cameras THAT unflattering??

[honeyytoast]

Really struggling with body dysmorphia recently. I know mirror reflections are generally more flattering to your own eye and camera adds 10 pounds and all that, but I’m looking at two pictures of me within days of each other. One is taken of me from a few metres away and I look huge, and one is in a mirror, same distance away and I look great (how I’d like to think I look like). Is the truth somewhere in between??

Yes I think it’s inbetween. I have a very poor sense of my own size as well and body dysmorphia

I look fucking gorgeous last thing at night in my bathroom mirror.

Daytime, cameras, other mirrors, not so much. I get that daylight is less flattering but even my hair looks better.

I always look enormous in photos yet when I saw myself accidentally caught on video I didn't look nearly as big. Yet still a bit worse than in a mirror.

I think THAT was the truth.

Phone cameras are hideous, I'm pretty sure they distort your face..

Also, all mirrors are different. Some are your friends, and some definitely....not.

They do. It's well established. Like the mirrors in the hairdressers 😂

I like how I look on my ring doorbell camera, I’m not as big as I thought! 🤣
does anyone know if they’re slimming?

I'm another one who thinks I look OK in a mirror but a lot worse (how many chins?) in photographs.

Lol good to know it’s definitely not just me. I go from thinking okay I still want to lose a few pounds just to slim down my waist area but I can work with this, to Christ I need to lose at least a stone.

and I quite like how I look in hairdressers mirrors - most mirrors in fact but any camera is my enemy. Maybe I’m just particularly unphotogenic?

Part of it is definitely psychological. I got very fat as a teenager and then slimmed right down - several stone - and in my mind and in the mirror I felt no different. I would look at photos and think "Oh great I got a flattering angle there, I don't look huge!" In fact those photos were accurate and I wasn't huge, but it never occurred to me because my perception was so warped.

We all know there's a way to take selfies to make yourself look more flattering, so photos definitely don't always tell the truth. But nor do our eyes!

Yes! Why is this?! I look at my best when I've had an evening shower and blow dried my hair. A morning shower and blow dry never looks as good.

They both lie 🤣

I went out Saturday. Mirror said great. My photos said hell....you're 50 and fat (I'm neither)
My friends photos had me bang on - perfectly normal and average.

However, I generally turn into a potato in all photos.

Outing, but my driver's license makes me look like Rose West ...I really don't in real life.

Started. New job this week. Had to have photo taken for I.D. after much laughing from all involved, we agreed to just use my LinkedIn one...as not one photo they took managed to make me look like me, And I managed to gurn/close my eyes/both.

My friend used to have a mirror that made us both look taller and slimmer. Wasn't deliberate though just a crap mirror. I kept forgetting but when I look in other mirrors wondered why I now looked fat and stumpy!

Mirrors are kinder ime

Photos can be tougher

No idea where I actually fit between the two, I think many feel like that surely