Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4

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:

SmiledWithTheRisingSun · 09/12/2018 10:26

Oh god don't use contouring it looks ridiculous!

cigarettessuffragettesandboys · 09/12/2018 10:26

I wonder if a lot of people on here think they look awful in photos but will look back at them in the future and realise they were being a bit hard on themselves?

Oysterbabe · 09/12/2018 10:28

yellowtipped · 09/12/2018 10:30

I've got this issue too. I only look "good" in photos where I'm looking all pensive and thoughtful.

I had to get a headshot for work and everything I sent to my boss she said was too serious. I sent her one where I was doing a fake tinkly laugh (and tbh I hated) and she said it was wonderful and so natural. I think it's all about perception.

MorningsEleven · 09/12/2018 10:32

I look like a gurning, bald hamster that's just eaten a turnip.

StrawberrySquash · 09/12/2018 10:34

I prefer myself in the mirror to in photos. Even if I flip the photo around so it's not the left to right thing. But I have a friend who looks really good in them. My theory is the camera distorts. That's scientific fact, the lens bends the light differently in different parts of the photo. That bending must move her features into a 'better' alignment and mine into a worse one.

formerbabe · 09/12/2018 10:36

I'm the same op. I look hideous in photos. I die inside when I see someone approach me with a camera. There's virtually no photos of me anywhere.

In real life I look like a cross between J Lo and Kim Kardashian...for some reason though this doesn't come across in photos...

TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince · 09/12/2018 10:38

I was a model when l was younger and very very photogenic.

Now l look like part simple and part witch. A hefty witch. I don’t know what happened😭

Wetdressinggownsleeve · 09/12/2018 10:38

At least people will be pleasantly surprised when they see you in real life!

I'm the opposite, a new girl at work tried to add me on Facebook, and actually brought her phone over to check the person in my profile pic was me . It must be nice to be a natural beauty, but profile pic me takes about an hour of prepping, and that ain't happening Monday-Friday!

FunkyKingston · 09/12/2018 10:42

I too look terrible in pictures, but there's a scientific explanation for why I look so hideous. On my case it is apparently a trick of the light known as 'having a face like a blind cobbler's thumb'

Oysterbabe · 09/12/2018 10:45

I have similar Funky but I'd describe mine more like a dropped pie.

Pfingstrose · 09/12/2018 10:49

So many photos out there have been filtered and edited beyond recognition these days.

I'd much rather look like an authentic tired old hag in my FB profile pic than dedicate hours to posing for 1000 selfies to spend a further few hours editing. A few of my friends seem to invest huge amounts of time doing just that.

Embrace the natural!

LoubyLou1234 · 09/12/2018 10:51

Some of the replies in this have made me giggle. I'm not confident in my looks at all and the camera hates me, I always look odd in pictures. I do take some tho cos I'm hoping when I'm older I'll appreciate them and not be so down and judgemental on myself!

However saying that my partner loves me so that's enough for me!

SouthWestmom · 09/12/2018 11:05

I'm the opposite, I look amazing in photos, ten years younger fab skin and cheekbones and am a massive disappointment when people meet me in real life.

It's quite embarrassing and I may invent a twin.

OldGrinch · 09/12/2018 11:07

What really annoys me us that in my 50s now and have always taken care of my skin religiously and get a lot of compliments on looking good for my age, but in photos I instantly look at least 10 years older, I think it's because I have a very small and slim face and without the right lighting photos make me look haggard. However I have friends who never bother with their skin and then the camera takes 10 years off! It's very frustrating and quite difficult to know you are always going to look shit in photos, when I send my parents pictures of me and the kids they are always concerns how tired I look and I don't actually look like that!

OldGrinch · 09/12/2018 11:12

Mornings!

Yulebealrite · 09/12/2018 11:20

I prefer to believe that I actually look like the odd decent photo that occasionally appears. I refuse to believe that I look like the other 98% photos.

Foofer · 09/12/2018 11:37

I'm not a photogenic person either. Average to fair in the mirror, potato face in photos.

It's tempting to avoid cameras but I try not to as I'll be glad of photos in the future. They're capturing memories and... I'll probably find I look fucking worse. I'll long to just have a potato face and wonder what I was so worried about

CookPassBabtridge · 09/12/2018 12:09

I look shit too, I have a strong face/big cheekbones/bigs eyes/ that works well when it's moving but on still photos it looks like a moonface. It's all merges into one mass with piggy eyes!

brizzledrizzle · 09/12/2018 12:30

It's not the camera, it's the photographer. Get a decent photographer and you'll get a decent photo.

Racecardriver · 09/12/2018 12:33

I have this. One out of every 100 photos I look amazing and in the rest I look shit. It’s just a combination of an awkward face which only works at certain angles and colouring that looks washed out in the wrong light.

Flip

1 2 3 4