To wonder why I always look awful in photographs?

[WillGymForPizza]

Just that really.

When I look in the mirror I don't think I look all that bad, but if someone takes a photo of me I can guarantee I will look at hot mess. In fact I don't think there is a single photo of me in existence where I look ok. I have an awful smile, but then if I don't smile and try to go all Victoria Beckham I look miserable and my jaw and cheeks look strange.

Candid photos are even worse. I nearly always seem to be pulling odd strange facial expressions, standing weirdly and my eyes always look small and piggy.

I know it's a first world problem really. But can anyone offer advice on how to look a bit more human in photos?

I look shit in them too, My niece's always look great in photos big pout eyes etc but in RL they look like they have to much makeup lots of contouring,along with massive eyebrows.

Well actually phone cameras do lie as they distort the face a bit, especially if it's quite close-up. That's why the poster below gets better results with an SLR.

Also there are other issues like feeling uncomfortable being photographed that can make you look bad in photos.

After all this thread is not just about how people see themselves - several posters have described others they know who look different in photos from in RL.

I had a friend who was slightly overweight but always looked very, very overweight in photos. I have no idea why! The effect was really pronounced. When I saw photos of her I would be going "that CAN'T be you!" and she would sadly assure me it was. It happens!

I'm ok looking in RL but highly unphotogenic. My daughter came out a born poser and unwittingly taught ne a few things at the age of 2 now i can do a pleasant enough photo but i'll never be kate moss!

I have watched far too much america's next top model and its really intetesting how very plain girls can come out 'wow' in photos and some very pretty ones look flat, cant pose etc

Tawdry, that's not true. I can take a good photo, it depends on angles and lighting and normally has to be taken while I'm not aware. Then I look like me. But when I am aware of the camera I go stiff and pull an odd expression and look terrible. Everyone agrees, they don't say "that just is just you look like". I need to learn what to do erith my face to get the good ones more often!

If I'm looking at a photo of me and I don't like it I'm going to flip it and look again

I have just done this with 4 photos and actually foundthe flipped version 'acceptable' so I think it is the mirror thing for me at least

Mind you my situation isn't helped by the fact DH & DD are both gorgeous and very photographic!!

Plus, tbh, I think I have become better looking (or more 'together') as I have got older

'Camera doesnt lie' is balls - all sorts of technical tricks with lenses and lighting produce very different effects, all cameras do is lie!?

I get married in 2 weeks. The photos are the bit I’m most worried about. Everyone says how important it is to have a photographer so you can remember the day, but if I don’t like how I look in photos, it isn’t really helping me remember the day fondly 🙈

Need to figure out my best side and how to pose so I don’t look like a dressed up sack of spuds 😂🙈😫😂

Best advice I ever got was to shut up.

I usually start talking, as I get nervous and have horrid photos. I have to just be quiet, smile + photos are so much better. Try it! It won't turn you into a supermodel but you will have photos you can show people without them running a mile.

🙋‍♀️In every.single.photo....... except one!

It was a photo someone caught of me and I am standing sideways. They put it on facebook with a collection of others. All my comments were:-
OMG look how slim you are
Look how big and pert your boobs are
Look at those legs!! They go to your armpits
Your hair looks so gorgeous and long

There were over 140 comments and more likes on this picture. I actually messaged the person who took it and asked ‘how did you photo shop it?’ They said they didn’t. I was a size 12 with 32H boobs. (I was in a tight dress with spandex!!)

But for love nor money have I ever had a photo like it since. Every photo has my chubby arms, my pot belly as I’m sat down, a close up of my wonky conky nose, has me pulling a weird face, I’m like a witch cackling, I’m pulling my head back so I have 3 chins, I’m wearing my glasses so lights reflecting off them at an odd angle, I have my mouth wide open laughing and it goes on.

I seriously need make up lessons for selfies, and then how to take a good flattering photo. New business idea anyone? I’ll be your first customer!!

Me too. I look all puffy and swollen.
And as for selfies, ffs I look like I'm being looked at through a door security view hole 🙄

Me too. My parents have one of me as an adult that is nice but everything else from about 12 onwards is just cringy. I honestly do open my eyes fully in real life but I'm not sure it's ever been captured in a photo.

I refuse to have any photo taken, I sadly have no photos with my grandchildren and all those from my daughter's wedding a deleted from the various CDs people gave us. If I think of the wedding, being bullied into being in photos. my heart goes mad, especially the 'papparazzi' shots after the official ones, I was prevented from walking away and consequently have no happy memories of that day. I do wish that people would be more thoughtful about snapping away, more than one person has come close to having their camera on the floor when they've tried to take a picture, despite my protestations, it's a form of abuse for me.

I'm with you in this. I never do selfies and loath anyone who does 😂

My whole family are really not photogenic. We all get awkward and look pained, unnatural, uncomfortable. We take so few photos when together, as soon as a camera comes out everyone dives for cover. I'm trying really hard to tough it out and let people take pictures of me with the kids, there are still very few. My mum died suddenly last year and I have about 5 photos of her and only 1 of the two of us together.

I think we are our own worst critics. I have always felt I wasn't photogenic but when I look back at pictures from years ago, I think I look good, I would have criticised the same photo back then.

I look relentlessly terrible in photos, I’m always vastly relieved when someone else looks at a shot and says ‘that looks nothing like you’

I'm actually passable in real life but in photos I look like Princess Fiona's much uglier sister, absolutely vile. I'm 49 now and I can count on one hand the amount of photos I've liked if myself since I was an adult.
I'm a size 16 now but even at a size 8 I looked like a chipmunk; small eyes, fat cheeks and sticky out teeth.

I’m not bad looking in RL but photos! Dear God, I hate having them taken. I actually have good cheekbones and quite big eyes but photos always seem to flatten my face so I just look like a pale, shapeless, potato-like blob, with mean little eyes like piss-holes in the snow. How? Why?

I think we are our own worst critics. I have always felt I wasn't photogenic but when I look back at pictures from years ago, I think I look good, I would have criticised the same photo back then.

Exactly - and if you hadn't let that picture be taken, you wouldn't know that, and you wouldn't have that nice record of what you really looked like 10 years ago, for you and your children.

I look weirdly lopsided. It's strange because in the mirror I look straight. I'm hoping that when people look at me they see my mirror reflection rather than a really wonky face. It really does droop on one side. Bizarre.

LadyRannaldini, we have several children at my school who have a ‘no photographs’ restriction- not for safeguarding per se, but because they find it so upsetting. They are normal, attractive kids with no obvious reason to avoid photos.
I think it’s connected to body dysmorphia.
I feel your pain; I also detest being photographed.

Some very photogenic people arwnt all that to look at in person and vice versa. My friend is a professional model and I'vepicked up some tips from her, i used to be awful at photos. I can stand next to someone much larger than me, and look like the fatter one. I sometimes look very old in photos, yet people tell me I look younger than my years. I think bone structure plays a part but I agree with a pp who said it can be changed with practice.

I think it's partly perception as I have always thought this about myself but I look at old photos of when I was young and wonder what I was worrying about. But I do have plenty of hideous more recent ones.

I also think some features just photograph better, DS1 is very good looking in RL but it just doesn't translate to photos apart from the odd one.

I think it’s about angles and lighting
As a darker skinned black woman I find the lighting makes a HUGE difference to my pictures... also close up pics of my face are soooo much better for me

"I can stand next to someone much larger than me, and look like the fatter one."

That can be things like your coat being open and hands in pocket.