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 think it is more to do with a pointy versus flat face.

Not sure about the 'features are reversed in the mirror' theory because once I held up a mirror in front of a mirror, so that I could see the reflection of my reflection in it, if that makes sense. And the reflection of my reflection looked just as good as my reflection, if that makes sense.

Whereas in photos, I tend to look terrible.

I don’t look like me in photos, but I never considered that it’s because I’m used to seeing my face in reverse. I think I look alright in real life, obviously not.

I’ve never got the hang of taking decent selfies, I know it’s all about angles and lighting, but I look ridiculous. All this zooming has brought into sharp focus that I’m-getting a bit jowly too.

oh god I am the same. I'm not gonna lie I thought I looked flawless the other day.. and my sister took a picture of me, I had to double check it was me.. my hair looked dreadful and almost sparse and separated not thick at all like I saw in the mirror, my ears looked huge, I had a double chin from laughing which made my nose flare and I looked about 20 sizes bigger than I actually am. I honestly prefer going out and having my picture taken with a facemask on now

Death to this horrible phenomenon of women being afraid of liking how they look or appearing vain

TBF at the time I spent some time saying how great I looked in the pic and asked for a copy. Just wasn’t sure if 6 months on it wouldn’t be a bit much to ask. But you’re right, I’m gonna do it. I’ve narrowed it down to being one of two people who took it.

You may be able to glean that I was drunk when said photo was taken. It may turn out to be a bitter disappointment 😂

@Binkybix

You may be able to glean that I was drunk when said photo was taken. It may turn out to be a bitter disappointment 😂

Only one way to find out.

But for most, we never look at a photo and think it doesn’t look like the person or they look like someone else. But we think it about ourselves.

I just don't think we study other people's faces in photos the way we pore over the details of our own face. And no-one else is studying us. Thankfully.

I’m so glad I’m not alone! I already have awful self esteem and body dysmorphia.
I genuinely hate my face, I feel so hideous yet I get a lot of compliments but I just don’t see what they see?
How can I be attractive when in photographs my face is asymmetrical, weirdly shaped, my nose is huge, my eyes look tiny, I just hate it so much!
I think I look ok in the mirror, my right side is awful due to my nose being broken, it curves to the left and I just can’t understand how anyone would find me attractive, it’s a daily struggle and I cry an awful lot over it.

@empresssuiko my nose curves to the left as well. Like my political beliefs :) I used to hate it until I had my son who also has a left leaning nose and hes gorgeous.

Also EVERYONEs face is asymmetrical. Its just a matter of degree...

@namitynamechange mines quite bad (at least I think it is) and I’m looking to get rhinoplasty.
My nose curves to the left and my lips lean towards the right but if I ever can afford the surgery it should help with the asymmetry.
My DH wants to be go back for more therapy regarding how I see myself but I keep telling him that my biggest problem is that fact I look hideous in photos and if that’s how I actually look then I’m absolutely disgusting to look at. I can’t wrap my head around it.

Are you taller or shorter than the photographer? That can have a big effect. I'm shorter than most people so I have this too!!

I had a BF once who, when I complained that I never look good in photos, told me that cameras show what you really look like... he was trying to be supportive but just made me never want to leave the house!!

It me.

@EmpressSuiko I think I am the same - in photos theres a sort of s shape as my nose curves left and then my filtrum (or whatever its called) curves right. I actually properly researched nose jobs but the thing is in every single one of the before and after pictures the (various) plastic surgeons had on their websites I thought the people looked better in the before picture. So I reconsidered, although Im not saying you should if you feel different. Everyone I know swears blind that they have never noticed the nose thing even though it seems really obvious to me (in the mirror as well as photos) so hopefully it isnt as obvious as I think but who knows...

@itssquidstella

It me.

That's brilliant. But I don't think many people look good with a lens about five inches from their nose...

Have you asked your partner is he thinks the photos look like you? Obv don't say "omg I look videos, does it look like me?" cos you're loading the qn bit find one he's not seen and ask for an honest answer.

Oh this is me. Selfies are the worst!

I've a pointy chin and nose and always look like a double chinned story book witch in photos - dark hair too.
I must be the target market for the selfie stick 😂. Irl I look better - not so good in these digital days of video calls and work meetings from home!

A friend always looks stunning in photos, she's pretty, but photographs really well too.

I have chip shop eyes in almost every photo (despite wearing glasses).

What are chip shop eyes???

@namitynamechange

What are chip shop eyes???

One eye on the fryer and one eye on the queue.

Yes I look good in a mirror, but photos are awful

Nooo redcrayons it doesn’t work that way! It’s not that you look bad in real life. It’s simply the cognitive dissonance of seeing your asymmetry (which everyone has) highlighted because the image is reversed.

To put it another way: do you see the asymmetry in other people’s faces? Probably not, right? And yet everyone else is looking at photos of themselves and thinking the same thing. “Is my nose really that wonky? Why are my eyes uneven?”

You can see this effect in real time by standing next to a friend in front of a mirror. You will see your face as you normally do. They will see THEIR face the same way they normally do. But YOU will see their “mirror face” - and that is when you will notice any facial asymmetry they have. It will jump out at you because the effect is doubled by the mirror.

Me too. Smartphone cameras don't help, fixed wide angle lenses. Flash photography, illuminates both sides of face equally hence ballooning effect. Plus I have a down-turned mouth shape, RBF if you like but I dislike that phrase. When I try to smile, I just look idiotic. So, I think it's something to do with the situations in which photos get taken. Night out somewhere? People get their phones out & start snapping pics, and you're supposed to look happy, right? But what if the way you look best is a bit downbeat, what used to be called 'grave'? Serious, earnest. No-one's photographing you looking serious and lovely in a shady bower; that went out with the Victorians. Now you're expected to look smiley all the time, with a row of about a hundred teeth.

This won't help but how you look on camera is how you look to others

How you look in the mirror is distorted since it's a reflection

Some people are just weird looking

we never look at a photo and think it doesn’t look like the person

I do! I know a couple of extremely photogenic people who always look fantastic in photos but really unremarkable in real life.

I also look at photos of 19yo DD’s friends and struggle to reconcile the photos with the young women I know. But that’s probably because of filters and whatnot.