Why do I look weird on camera???

[Fruity1112]

Hello,
I'm mid 20s. My boyfriend is extremely photogenic, like very! Every photo looks like him.
Me? Not so much.

It's like the camera distorts my face. I think I look lovely in the mirror and then someone takes a picture and my face looks all squashed and double chinny.

It happens so often that there is a joke in my friendship group about me being unphotogenic.

I havent thought about it until today when boyfriend jokingly filmed me tidying without me knowing and I was chatting to him. He showed me the video and I looked horrendous!!! My face was so round with a double chin, my makeup looked cake, my face once again looked squashed.

But I don't get it because in real life I'd say i'm fairly attractive. I don't get why i always have a massive double chin on camera as that double chin is not there when I look in the mirror and I am not overweight at all!

I'm just disappointed by the video as I didnt even know I was being filmed so that was me in ny natural state and I still look awful:(

I’m pretty photogenic. I think that might be worse really. People are disappointed when they see me IRL

I'm the same
I will look in The mirror when all done up and think ooh yeah I look good
Then I will see a photo of me from the side or something and I look awful
I actually think 'fuck that's the real me, that's the me that everyone else sees'
Bad posture, weird face shape, just different
And then I feel sad

No advice but you're not alone!

I'm sure I've read it's something to do with it's a reverse of of face we see in mirrors so not really us?

I felt the same after that video,
I have a good self-esteem - not majorly high but i'm quite happy with the way I look but that video knocked me down some pegs :( my eyes looked droopy, genuinely it shocked me

@GreyishDays i'd rather be photogenic as it feels these days people take photos all the time so I see my unphotogenic face so much 😂

@TitianaTitsling yes i've heard that too but I dont understand hiw anyone can find me pretty or attractive if I look like I do on that video - literally I looked like the hunchback of notre damn

Try a different camera app like snapchat, if you use an iPhone the camera swaps your face around so it looks weird but on Snapchat it’s like a mirror reflection if that makes sense (try it and you’ll see what I mean)

Well I think it's a mixture of when you look in the mirror you tend to subconsciously pose and angle your face in a way that looks good to you, but with a camera it captures all sorts of weird angles. Also with a photo it's the reverse of what you normally look at, so anything unsymmetrical features are heightened. If your DP looked at your reflection in the mirror, he would probably think that looks weird too

I'm the same and have no advice 😂 sorry OP. My sister is stunning and can take amazing photos that look very instagrammy/do fantastic contour but as soon as she tries to do it to me it's frightening and doesn't translate the same. Very annoying.

I'm the same, I don't think a round face helps but it doubles my weight, my oh and his family are all quite pointy faced, but actually look better on camera!

I'm with you OP, I also look really bad in photos. My issue sounds the opposite to yours, I look gaunt and like I have really harsh features. I'm also not good at posing for a photo without looking really awkward. I'm in my thirties now and it's been like this since I was a teenager. Fortunately for me my boyfriend is even worse in photos so we just don't take any!

Yep! I always think this. Look in the mirror and think 'yep, look okay today. Hair looks good, make up is fine' and then someone takes photo and I don't recognise myself. I look nothing like I do in the mirror.my nose looks bigger and my face seems to change shape completely. Bizarrely though, in professional photos I look pretty much how I look in the mirror which confuses me even more!

It's not just that your face in a mirror is reversed. It's more than that. I think. My face is asymmetrical. Not terribly but it is a bit. I'm so used to what I see in the mirror that I think I look attractive in the mirror and then when I look at a photo, I am brought up short by seeing the asymmetry that the I'm inured to when I just look in the mirror.

I have had people say ''oh that's a lovely one of you'' and I am looking at an image that looks AWFUL.

Have you seen the episode of friends where Chandler and Monica get engagement photos? I'm Chandler.

I hate myself in pics as well. Never look the way I feel.

I suffer from that too, I can't smile on command - if I try I end up looking like a grinning imbecile.
Oddly enough one of the teachers put that on an old school report, I think.

I’m exactly the same. Me and DP have a running joke about my ugly camera face. It is genuinely funny just how terrible I look. Even he admits it. My theory is I have a weak face. Poor bone structure basically. DP is exceptionally photogenic as he has strong features.

Camera phones are the work of the devil too, they enlarge everything that's closest to them. Unless you've got arms like Mr Tickle they exaggerate the closest feature to the lens, thus I get paranoid about my nose and cheekbones. My DD gets stressed about her forehead and my DS literally looks lantern jawed.
It's a tricky one I hate having my picture taken, but equally a bit concerned that I'll look back when I'm old and realise there'll be hardly any evidence I actually existed! I think a PP above is right maybe get a professional photographer to take a handful of pictures every few years!

I look truly awful in photos - the public response is split between - 'you look terrible' and 'it doesn't look like you' - I cling to the latter. It was the same with all the Zoom meetings, literally looked like a potato in a wig.

God I have this but it’s to do with my eyes. I’ve been told I have big eyes but can’t see it myself (excuse the pun) and in my photos my eyes look like fish eyes and one always look lopsided . No one else sees it but me (or maybe they’re just being polite)!

I look truly horrendous in photos...I run every time anyone tries to take my photo. One side of my face hangs down in photos, so much so that I started to genuinely wonder if I had a medical condition or had had a mini stroke. I don't look like that in the mirror

It happens to me. The real reason is because my face is massively unsymmetrical, but I tell myself that I’m such an animated and lively person that my beauty can’t be captured in a still image 😆

Yep and me. I avoid photos it stresses me and most of the time I'm not that self possessed.

The Snapchat thing is true too.

Also iPhone cameras are horrid. Android pics of me are weirdly lovely no issues at all!

Me too OP.

I looked fabulous in my wedding photos, one when expecting my second son and one at my sister's wedding.
In every other photo, as an adult, I look horrendous. (NB before the menopause I was, in the flesh, a good looking woman.)

I hate it and will turn my back/run off if anyone wields a camera near me these days.

I know the feeling, I’m Chandler in the engagement photos, my boyfriend however is Barney Stinson in all photos.

I always ask boyfriend "do i actually look like this???" And he always says "no" and laughs and tells me i'm stunning,
But I look at the photos/videos with disgust,
Sometimes I will have lobsided eyes, my hair looks super thin, double chin and round face and boyfriend will say "wow that's a great picture! You look lovely" and i'm like "what?????!!!!"