Do you look the same in photos as you do in the mirror?

[clodethewindie]

So I think I look ok in the mirror and then I’ll take a photo on my phone and woah … I look a stone heavier, my eyebrows look huge

Anyone else?

Great idea. I'll try it and let you know.

Yes, and photo me looks nothing like mirror me.

If I thought I looked like I do in most pics I'd barely leave the house! 🤣
But the mirror suggests I look a lot better!

I also look hideous in Teams calls. I hardly ever put my camera on.

I look ok in the mirror, pretty decent for 56 but in photos I look like a tired earthworm. So my FB profile pic is one of my cats.

I think I look ok in the mirror. I get lots of compliments on my looks day to day, but in photos, OMG, I look terrible. I must be very unphotogenic.

Yes I swear my forehead expand rapidly at the start of the call.

Mirror...gorgeous.
Photo....gargoyle with tortoise neck.

Yeah totally different, I think. If the iPhone camera hadn’t been invented I think I’d have a much healthier self-image.

Same person, same lighting, changing the focal length whilst keeping the overall size of the head the same. As a consequence the camera has to be brought closer. The focal length determines the closeness, the closeness makes the distortion

Your phone camera is closer to 24/21mm effective focal length. Your eye is closer to 50mm focal length. Flattering portraits start around 85mm. Everybody looks bad in selfies. It's physics and the way a camera phone has to be designed to fit inside a phone.

It's also true that confidence makes for a better portrait. If you know you look bad in camera you tend to make adjustments to how you pose. You defensively tuck your chin in, which exaggerates even the slightest tendency to double-chinness, you tense facial muscles, and you tend to do odd things with weight distribution and balance. This is why photographers are always trying to get you to relax.

@Foxblue @VivienneDelacroix It maybe the more modern android and iphone, I have to say I don't like it one bit.. my friend looks weirdly smooth on his photos and this is a craggy skinned man. It's not right that they are automatically putting it on, assuming people want it and then getting people hooked on filters.

Yes! So many times I've checked myself in the mirror and thought I looked really nice and have then seen photos where I look hideous.

These days I always look better in photos than in real life as I make sure I'm wearing sunglasses and smile, that takes care of most of the wrinkles. No photos allowed if it's very windy as my high forehead is at risk of being completely exposed and I look hideous.

I try not to look in the mirror too often.

I agree, with the in motion bit. I have no idea what your dp looks like 😉

I think that's why candid photos look so much better. I try to take several photos in a row and then get to pick the best of the bunch.

In the mirror I look ok but my eyesight is not very good. In photos I look like an old, cranky witch.

I look like a beast in both at least most people good in one or the other 🤷🏾‍♀️

My face looks normal in the mirror ( to me) slightly lopsided in photos. I had Bell’s palsy a few years back and I think I only regained 90% of control back. It’s worst when I’m tired .

I’ve actually held my phone up next to the bathroom mirror and seen two very different images, simultaneously. In the mirror, I look OK for someone my age. In the phone camera, I have squinty eyes and a red, shiny face with more and deeper wrinkles than I ever knew I had.

Ah, so that’s why. It’s nice to know that the mirror is honest (albeit laterally-inverted), whereas the phone camera is lying.

Sorry to keep posting, but I’ve found this effect to be very striking with some of our cats over the years (the ones with two or three colours on their faces). My mental image of them was that they all had rather symmetrical markings. In the mirror, they obviously did not and they looked very different from “normal”.