There are several reasons you might dislike looking at photographs of yourself. For starters, we perceive ourselves from one perspective and everyone else from another. Another reason that's more common than you might think is the mere exposure effect, a psychological phenomenon in which familiarity breeds attraction.
Perception and the Mirror Image Effect
One of the primary reasons we feel like we look worse in photos is because we're used to seeing ourselves in the mirror. This reversed image of ourselves is how we've come to recognise our appearance, and when we see a photograph, the differences can be jarring.
This is because the reflection you see every day in the mirror is the one you perceive to be original and hence a better-looking version of yourself. So, when you look at a photo of yourself, your face seems to be the wrong way as it is reversed than how you are used to seeing it.
REASON #1: YOU'RE A REVERSE VERSION OF THE SELF YOU SEE IN THE MIRROR. No human face or body is perfectly symmetrical. Although we often think we're surrounded by symmetrical people, this is only because our brains “correct” what we see within just seconds of meeting a new person.
Selfies sometimes look strange to their subjects because of how we see ourselves in the mirror, how we perceive our own attractiveness, and the technical details of how we take them on camera phones. Whether or not a selfie is reversed after being shot is a major factor.
The mirror is a reflection.
It's a reflection, so it shows how we look like in reverse. Because we're so used to seeing the reverse version of ourselves, seeing how we look in pictures can be jarring. And unless you're blessed with a perfectly symmetrical face, the photo version of yourself can be even more wonky.
Hold two hand mirrors in front of you with their edges touching and a right angle between them like the two covers of a book when you're reading. With a little adjustment you can get a complete reflection of your face as others see it. Wink with your right eye. The person in the mirror winks his or her right eye.
The most common cause of camera distortion is that the subject is too close to the lens. Most photographers say that the type of lens used also has a lot to do with it, and wide-angle lenses (like the ones in our camera phones) are big offenders.
“According to the mere-exposure effect, when your slight facial asymmetries are left unflipped by the camera, you see an unappealing, alien version of yourself,” Wired explained. In other words, the camera version is like an unfamiliar portrait of ourselves that we neither recognize nor care to.
However getting to the question, it is technically very possible for a person to have an attractive face but not be photogenic. The problem is that the camera captures the face in 2D as opposed to our 3D vision. As the face appears to be flat, details like chin and nose are flattened on the face.
If you think you look better in person than in photographs, you're probably right. According to new research by psychologists at the Universities of California and Harvard, most of us succumb to the “frozen face effect” in still photos — and it's not very flattering.
Many people complain that they do not photograph well. In the present study, we hypothesised that the self-face is memorized more beautifully than reality, which may result in reports of being not photogenic.
This is because the camera technically only has one eye, it takes our two-eyed 3D world and freezes it in a one eyed 2D image. Another factor creating your photo self is lens distortion. If I shoot you with a fisheye lens, your nose and forehead will appear larger.
Yes, it's a mirror image. Keep up. The back camera has your features the, err, 'right way around'. The writing on your t-shirt will be readable, just like when other people look at your shirt.
The problem is - we're not symmetrical. Your mirror image looks different to how everyone else sees you, it's the image of you that's the most imprinted on your brain. So, you see a photo and everyone else looks fine, but you look somehow 'off'.
Specifically, science of the brain. We are used to identifying with our faces as they would appear in a mirror, but when we take a selfie, the camera captures our faces as strangers would see us from head on rather than we would see ourselves in a reflection.
Because of how close your face is to the camera's lens, certain of your features may appear exaggerated. Photos can only capture a two-dimensional image of our true self. If your face is naturally round and soft, the flattening effect of photographs may confuse people about who you really are.
The camera lens is not the human eye
That results in all sorts of weird idiosyncrasies. It's called lens distortion and it can render your nose, eyes, hips, head, chest, thighs and all the rest of it marginally bigger, smaller, wider or narrower than they really are.
There is no definitive answer to this question, as everyone perceives themselves differently. However, so far we've found that people generally perceive themselves as looking more like themselves in photographs than in mirrors.
The word photogenic describes looking attractive in photographs. If you are photogenic there are few, if any, terrible pictures of you out there. The word photogenic originally meant "produced or caused by light," and was first used to mean "photographing well" in 1928.
adjective. Definition of photogenic. as in beautiful. tending to look good in photographs She's a very photogenic child.
More often than not, we are used to viewing our faces as it would appear in a mirror, however, selfies tend to show us something else since they capture a still image of our faces as others see it, rather than how we would see it in a reflection.
The camera, however, uses processed light. It goes through many different stages, from the camera to the screen. Some people, however, like the processed light. Sometimes it makes them look better, but the mirror is always more accurate.
In short, what you see in the mirror is nothing but a reflection and that may just not be how people see you in real life. In real life, the picture may be completely different. All you have to do is stare at a selfie camera, flip and capture your photo. That's what you really look like.