When I look in the mirror I see an attractive normal face, when I look at a photo of me, I see a weird, hound-like creature

[FoxandHound]

The two images, the one in my head, and the one documented photographically are so wildly at odds with eachother.

Have name-changed because I'm embarrassed about possibly appearing self-absorbed. I'm not. I only ever feel this after I've seen photos of myself. The rest of the time I feel relatively good about myself. I mean, I know I'm not gorgeous, but I don't dislike my looks.

Anyone else suffer from this mysterious syndrome?

puzzlerocks seriously if you feel decent you'll look decent.

DD thinks I look like a "pwincess" and I am taking a leaf out of her book.

I honestly think I look pretty good in 8/10 photos, big smile/happy vibes and that's all people see. I used to look scared/trying to hide from camera but now embrace it and grin like the twat that I am a simpleton

it has all got a lot better for me since i started taking glasses off for pics.

i don't believe either of you dog and cat, i have a fairly symmetrical face and still look like jowly mcchin in pics but not rl.

oh go on mumcentreplus I bet you look lovely.

I'm going to try that later, hold a photo of me that I don't like up to the mirror and see if it becomes more acceptable!

Noooooooo you are all wrong, you are all just suffering from camera face, you believe you look shit in photos so you either pull a silly face, panic, try to hide, gurn or something, when you look in the mirror you tend to unconciously pout a liitle, smile a touch etc, you can see the effect that it is having and what improves the way you look.

This is so hard to do in front of the lens without feeling like a vain twat, models do it well, they look good in front of a camera because they have learnt how to. You need to have someone you really trust take your picture and think nice thoughts, relax, and pull your mirror face, and hey presto, you will look like you think you do.

Ok that took me a long time to type, happilyeverafter has got ti just right and much shorter and sweeter than me.

I think that when you take a picture of yourself you are getting a flat 2D image.

Looking at yourself in the mirror is more 3D

Lighting is key!

I too am puzzled how my face looks vastly different if I take a photo of the mirror image. AND flipping the picture in photoshop does not make it look normal

I just tried it. Took a picture of myself front on with my mobile. Looked shit and a bit googly eyed with a small mealy mouth and a nose that just looked shapeless and wide.

Held it up to the mirror and it still looked googley-eyed, mealy mouthed etc...

Think wherethewildthingswere must be right.. If I looked as bad as i look in photos, people would recoil a bit when I walked into a bar or restaurant or school gates etc!!

I also read somwhere that it is about 2D images and 3D images.

Some people look really good in photos but not in real life (Kate Moss was the example given, but I've never seen her in RL so don't know if it's true. OTOH, I don't think she's very attractive in photos either, but judgfing by the vast success she's had, I accept I must be in a minority with that view. But I digress...)

Anyway, other people look good in RL, but not so good in photos. Maybe most of us.

I don't get upset by bad photos because I know that anyone who actually knows me knows what I really look like.

I feel like this too sometimes.
What makes it worse is when i see a group photo with myself in it, i look stupid and everyone else looks just how i see them.
I just tried taking a photo of myself on my phone and digi cam, still looks the same when i hold it up to a mirror.

Oh, I have this as well. Almost like the opposite of body dismorphia. Am quite confident in RL about what I look like but am horrified when see the photos.

I don't think it's the mirror image thing but because you focus on your good points when looking in the mirror and hold your face in a particular pose. Which is more depressing really.

That's it! the opposite of body dismorphia.. I have more confidence than I deserve to have.

My mother once picked up a staff photo ID I'd left on my desk at home and said 'who's this?'.

Since then, I've been working on it. What does seem to make a difference is putting your shoulders back a bit, and moving your face forward while keeping your chin down - creates a bit more definition for your face, poss in the same way that the head at 90 degrees to the body would (but without the twist lines on your neck!). Does that make sense? The biggest trick is to do it without people noticing what you're up to...

I have inverse dysmorphia at home!
In my mirrors at home i think I look pretty good.
When I look in mirrors eslewhere I seem to have aged 10 yrs and gained 2 stone.
In photos I gorw an enormous chin and my cheekbones disappear behind a big red puufy layer, my hair turns to straw, and my big brown eyes turn into pissholes in the snow.

All I know is that every photo of me (apart from ones DP takes) I have always loathed, and yet, oddly, after about five years I find myself wishing I looked that good, and wonder what I was making a fuss about...

5 years ago I had a two year old and I was pregnant!! I look MUCH younger now than I did then!

I think scarlet is right - it's because the photos aren't 3D they're flat images.

I suffer from this too - I've lost about 16kg this year yet in pics my face still looks really fat.

I do that thing of turning sideways and trying to pull a mirror face but the minute the camera clicks I'm gurning like a good 'un.

And my hands always look really awkward and clawlike too.

In photos I look a stone heavier than I am and like I am wearing loads of Aunty-Sally style make up (even when totally bare-faced). Bizarre.

Me too Sixty Foot Doll - I have inverse Body dismorphia - presumably Body Eu-morphia??!

It's something to do with camera lenses distorting horizontally, isn't it - i.e. they make you look fatter.

My sister actually looks better in photos than in real life, as her face looks less long and bony and like she hasn't eaten for a week, and more perfectly formed oval.

I saw a whole load of photos of my gran when young (the first time I've seen photos of her, I think), and honestly didn't recognise them - I was saying "well, it looks a bit like gran, but she's got a much, much fatter face - it must be my great-aunt instead"

oh thank god its not just me. DH has told me I look nothinglike the photos of me where I have a weird face.
So I never allow photos.

I have this too, although I've discovered that if I pose in a highly unnatural way which feels forced and unnatural and I would never actually do in real life, I appear in photos similar to how I appear in the mirror. I basically have to smile the biggest, fakest, cheesiest grin, which makes the rest of my face feel kind of scowly, and then I tilt my chin downwards and look upwards... and somehow I look the same as I do standing naturally in the mirror.

Offguard photos revert me back to horrific wonky-featured creature.

Yep. Mirror - OK, not perfect but OK. Photos are just scary.

I never used to mind getting my photo taken(I was young) now at 36, I seem to be much more critical and self conscious, I hate getting my photo taken.

My ds thinks I am beautiful!

Sometimes handsome young men fancy me - weird experience being chatted up by someone half my age... but when I see a photo of myself I think the camera never lies?

I do need to let myself be photographed more, so my dc have some photos in the future, I am a bit ashamed of my own vanity for avoiding the camera! I wonder if 35mm cameras were more flattering - or was it just I was much less wrinkly looking when we used 35mm?...digital photos are so much easier to delete, then when I need a photo of myself I can only every find one or two a year - no close ups or head shots.