Not photogenic

[Bubblylikechampers]

Not AIBU but it really does piss me off!!

I'd consider myself fairly attractive. Not pretty, but definitely 'ok' looking.

I could take a thousand pics and I look absolutely awful. Yet most people no matter what are so photogenic.

Why is this? My holiday pics at the moment are depressing as hell.

Any one else find this??

If it's any comfort, I can see the transformation happening when I take pictures. The image I have in the lens often somehow uglifies the person I can see right in front of me looking perfectly nice. It's quite a gift I have. I blame digital cameras. I used to be able to take lovely pictures.

I'm ridiculously unphotogenic. It's a family/friend in joke.

A FB acquaintance always took great selfies so I asked for tips. When on holiday, after getting ready for dinner/night out I looked at myself in the mirror. Hmm, not too shabby, scrubbed up well, hair and make up both decent for once.

Hold camera in an up stretched arm for an angled photo- check.

Chin up, ever so slight pout (thin lip syndrome- check.

Check lighting- check

Click.

Check photo.

Fucking ridiculous! In fact, it was hideous!! So hideous I knew it would amuse my subtle as a brick friend.

Showed him and after convulsive laughing said-

"Dhalink, that is a photo only Picasso could love"

I think you look great OP. But we don’t know what you look like in RL, so maybe you’re just too drop dead gorgeous.

I have a friend who is fairly average looking in RL but in photos, she has this lovely smile that she does and she always looks proper stunning.

I

I think most of people don’t always like photos of themselves, we are our own biggest critics and more attuned to things we don’t like - so more likely to spot them in pics.

I have had photos from when when i was younger where I thought I looked fat/unattractive etc at the time - but I look at them now and think actually you were prettier than you thought!! It’s funny how your perspective changes.

I rarely look good in a photo but think I am rather I was pretty (not now)

Only good photos are when I am not aware they are being taken. I don’t like my photo taken I feel I comfortable and on film I do a Victoria Beckham smile I look more like I’m snarling

My friend lights up in a photo she is nice looking but she certainly looks better in photos and younger

My sister was a model. Looks superb in photos - she's a very attractive woman but the camera really flatters her. I look like a complete troll and yet, in real life, we could be twins

I look terrible in photos - truly awful but I don't think I look that bad in person. It's annoying as a couple of my friends look genuinely stunning in photos - but I don't think we look that different on a day to day basis.

I can see it with my children though - DD1 and DS are both pretty photogenic whereas DD2 just isn't as much and it is much harder to get a nice shot of her.

I am the same xx in my younger days I won a few beauty competitions (my late mum used to make me enter and I did because it used to make her happy and it was a nice day/night out for her and me 😁) I look in on the mirror but not so good on photos 😕

In -ok bloody phone

FucK me. If I look a fraction as bad IRL as I do on camera. Hell I'm not going out the door again

I'm exactly the same. Fat cheeks, double chin, wonky tooth, bags under eyes etc.
I actually like your second photo more, you look more relaxed and natural. It's annoying because my best friend is so photogenic it's not fair!

I guessed 35 so wasn't far off. I think you look great :)

I once said to a boyfriend back in the day about how horrified I was at a photo he had of me (I genuinely looked terrible in it ). His response? "Well that's just what you look like"

I also have a bit of a benchmark for friends - true loyalty is evident by not posting a photo on social media where they look good and I look terrible. One friend posted a photo all over social media in which I was bright red, bulbous and gurning, whilst she looked stunning and natural. Fastest fingers first on the untagging

Peakpants makes an interesting point about our perception of how we look. One thing that makes me wonder if my perception may be out, bearing in mind I think I look monstrous in most photos, is that my late DM couldn’t bear herself in photos either and avoided having them taken at all costs. Everyone thought she was gorgeous both in RL and in pics. I honestly couldn’t understand how she thought she was so vile. She was always made to feel like the ugly child growing up and her olivey skin, dark hair and big brown eyes were always compared unfavourably in her parents eyes, against her younger fair skinned, auburn ringletted Shirley Temple like sister. So she had good reason to feel she looked awful I guess, even though she was equally as beautiful as her sister but very different to her.

I have two DDs and one is objectively a little prettier in RL (although of course they are both beautiful ) but the other always looks better in photos. So that kind of proves it isn't related to RL looks. I think it's because DD2 has bigger eyes and stronger colouring which show up better.

Me, I'm a strange person who looks decent in passport photos and no good in normal photos. What's that about?

yes!! I feel the same! I look in the mirror and don't mind what I see.....take a picture and think oh Christ. Even my husband admits I don't take a good photo.

I am definitely not photogenic! I joke that in years to come people will say Wobblybits? Why aren’t there any photos of her.

I feel awkward and uncomfortable having my photo taken and that shows I guess

I find this fascinating. I don't photograph that well but put it down to having small features. I don't think the camera captures charisma and natural energy either, which is why some people look so different IRL than on the screen.

BUT I've decided being photogenic is better than the opposite - looking better in photos than in real life. I knew a girl once who was very vain to the point of being ridiculous, and photographed very well indeed - but the static photos didn't capture her odd mannerisms and facial tics. She wasn't very nice anyway but I did feel bad for her as she thought she was so much better looking than she was which caused her to seem very deluded in conversations about looks and attracting men and other such things.

When you meet models in real life they’re often a bit funny-looking in my experience. But good on camera, obvs.

I am fairly hideous in real life and much, much worse in photos. I work in media and often need to send out pics of myself. I have one taken four years ago that is acceptable. One pigging photo.

I also have actively avoided doing any TV stuff because I know they always want a photo of you first and I know they would say no when they saw me! Radio is my friend.

I can see both photos and you look ok, but you have that "I hate having my photo taken" look on your face. You are obviously a very attractive woman by the way, just not comfortable with the camera.

My partner always looked awkward or frozen, so my daughter started saying really rude or outrageous things to him to make him laugh/smile naturally. Now we get some nice ones and if we're in polite company I just have to say something silly like "smile now or I'll do that thing" and he grins and it's 100% better.

Of course that only works if the photographer knows him and knows what he's like!

I think photos are the realistic versions of ourselves - mirrors/selfies are not. I think if you ask others, they would tell you that’s how they see you. I look ok in some photos and hideous in others! I suppose that’s life!

OP, having seen your photos you just look massively uncomfortable with the camera and seem to pull a weird face, like Chandler Bing! I bet you would look lovely in none-posed photos.

I get chandler face in photos. I didn't used to but I've put on a bit of weight (not loads) and now somehow my face looks like the moon yet also pointy somehow and my smile looks crooked and bizarre.

I think photos are the realistic versions of ourselves - mirrors/selfies are not.

I don't think they are at all. They are 2 dimensional and cannot capture how someone comes across in reality. I have seen very attractive people look really bad in photos and I can categorically say that is NOT how I perceive them in real life. If I wanted to catch even the most beautiful person in the world at a crappy unflattering angle, I could, and then it would be cemented forever in a photo, whereas in real life, the unflattering part would be just one of many many moments and would not have the same impact.

I've always looked awful in photos. Something comes over my face and I look both dreadful and nothing like me. Recently someone took loads of them where I felt truely happy, it shows. In some of them I even look like me as well as not shit... I think it was a combination of forgetting the camera where so many had been taken and feeling really relaxed. Don't know how to replicate that for other pictures though.