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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to wonder why there is no camera in the world that can capture my beauty?

96 replies

WhiffofSnell · 09/12/2018 08:11

Honestly! I look shit in just about every photo taken of me!
My DSis and SiLs are no better looking than me ok my DSis is but they always look acceptable in photos. My teenage DDs are both averagely attractive (obviously I don't tell them that) but the camera loves them. Why doesn't it love, or even quite like, me?

OP posts:
Balaboosteh · 09/12/2018 08:32

I could have written your post!! I have great cheekbones (well I think I do and people have told me so) but they look like mis-shapen lumps in photos. Ah well, it’s hard being me...Grin

SauvingnonBlanketyBlanc · 09/12/2018 08:33

I'm rarely happy with photos as I am very self critical but I've learnt that face on or taken slightly from the left of my face is when I look my best.I won't allow photos from my right I look awful lol

Oysterbabe · 09/12/2018 08:36

I forget how to smile when a camera is on me. Too much teeth so I look deranged, no teeth and I look like I'm fake smiling. I always blink at the critical moment or I'm caught between expressions so I look like I've had a stroke. I can't take the pressure and go to pieces.

WonderTweek · 09/12/2018 08:36

Ahh I'm the same! My mum always used to say that we were both just too lively for photos. Grin I have made my peace with it but it is sometimes a bit annoying when you would like a nice memory of an event (think a photo of you and your best friend at their wedding) and the photos just end up looking ridiculous. Confused

Oh well. Weirdly enough, I've noticed that I look ok on film. Is that really to do with dimensions? Because that would make me feel better sense.

BeFire · 09/12/2018 08:42

I've passed on my smooth moon face in photos to DD, oh the guilt. She's too young to realise...but I know Grin .

tillytrotter1 · 09/12/2018 08:47

What you see in your head and what the camera or mirror sees are two different things. My 70 year old self still expects to see my 30 year old self!

strawberryalarmclock · 09/12/2018 08:48

I have the opposite problem, I'm really photogenic, I look better in photos than in real life. I'd much prefer it the other way round!

Bluesheep8 · 09/12/2018 08:50

Yep I look awful in photos. I look fine in real life but dreadful in pics and avoid having my pic taken wherever possible.

tillytrotter1 · 09/12/2018 08:50

I actually hate with a passion any photo of myself, I don't have a single photo with my grandchildren nor at my daughter's wedding, I still have nightmares about that event and I know I look like a frightened rabbit on any photos that exist.

SleepySofa · 09/12/2018 08:52

I’m the same. I remember the first time I saw myself moving on film (aged maybe 17 when my dad got a camcorder) and realised that I wasn’t in fact hideous. I need to be moving to look ok, apparently - it must be my sparking personality showing through! On photos I look pale and drawn and just not good.

Idontbelieveinthemoon · 09/12/2018 08:53

I'm rarely happy with photos as I am very self critical but I've learnt that face on or taken slightly from the left of my face is when I look my best.I won't allow photos from my right I look awful lol

And now we have proof that Mariah Carey is on Mumsnet!

FastnetLundyRockall · 09/12/2018 08:56

I have the opposite problem - people are always amazed by how I look in photos so I must actually look a bit shit in the flesh Smile

popcornwizard · 09/12/2018 08:57

I look drunk in all of my childhood school photographs, and in most of the college ones I probably was. I take the family pics, so very few of me from recent years. I have however recently learned that if I 'roar' instead of 'smile' it looks better - ok in a noisy pub, but would stand out a bit at a wedding.

Dash38 · 09/12/2018 08:57

I thought it was just me. I think this craze for photographing every event just makes it worse. I am always the one shouting don't get me on it!
I never realised how ugly I was but I think that's because we didn't take photos all the time when I was younger. Now we don't have any photos with me on them as I have become paranoid. If I disappeared tomorrow they wouldn't have a picture for the police!!

Melfish · 09/12/2018 08:58

I look marginally less crap using a samsung phone as it seems have more filters and special effects. However in normal photos I look pants. I agree about the smile thing- I look like a deranged chipmunk with washed out skin and very wobbly jaw line.

Firefliess · 09/12/2018 08:59

Same here!

But mainly it's to do with me putting a stupid forced smile when anyone points a camera at me. People have occasionally taken nice photos of me when I didn't know they were taking them. Does that work for you?

Beyond that I guess it's some kind of quirk when you make a 3 dimensional person 2d.

I'm just glad I was born 20 years too early to be in the Instagram generation Smile

cinnabarmoth · 09/12/2018 09:00

I consider myself fairly attractive IRL but look rubbish in photos. I have always put it down to being someone with quite expressive features, and a still camera doesn't quite capture that - I tend to look a lot better in videos than I do photos.

Original poster
WhiffofSnell · 09/12/2018 09:01

Yes, I look ok on film, too! I think it manages to capture my energy, vibrancy and beauty better than the bastard camera!

OP posts:
cinnabarmoth · 09/12/2018 09:02

But a lot of people do practice a 'look' though - have a flick through Facebook of whatever and see how many people always have shots taken from the same angle.

bringbackthestripes · 09/12/2018 09:02

DH just took photos before I went out for the night, my outfit looked ok in the mirror and I thought I’d scrubbed up well. In the photos I am a total ogre who looks like I’ve fallen over in a charity shop Confused
Also the camera doesn’t just add 10llbs, IME it adds a few stone!

TestingTestingWonTooFree · 09/12/2018 09:07

When DH and I had been going out, he said how he had no photos of me. I said I didn’t photograph well. When he took some, he understood. My sister on the other hand is very attractive. Dammit.

GoblinsAndGhouls · 09/12/2018 09:07

Same here!

Mirror - reasonable looking human.
Photo - troll

I've even tried looking at myself in the mirror and then taking a photo without moving position - lighting/angle all maintained.

Mirror - reasonable looking human
Photo - troll.

Footballfever4 · 09/12/2018 09:09

A great thread title OP 👏

ScrambledSmegs · 09/12/2018 09:12

I look shit in photos too. Even in most of my primary school photos when by definition you're meant to look cute enough to pull off a daft expression, I look drunk. Alcoholic 6 year old is not a good look.

DisrespectfulAdultFemale · 09/12/2018 09:13

OP, if it helps: I am a normal-looking person but in photographs I look like something from Notre Dame cathedral.