Do you often check yourself out in a mirror and think that you look stunning but then, the camera spoils that perception of yours? Don’t worry because you’re not alone. Around 95% of people experience the same thing. While the others are lucky enough to have a photogenic face.
If you experience a difference in your appearance in the mirror and a picture, then you must have wondered what exactly your true appearance is. The one you see in the mirror or the picture? Well, most of us often brush that thought off of our minds and tend to believe what our eyes see in the mirror.
But what’s the truth? Does the camera lie or is the mirror shaping a false perception of your face in your mind? There are a lot of reasons why you don’t look as good in pictures as you do in the mirrors.
Camera Consciousness
One of the primary reasons you don’t look as gorgeous in pictures as you do in the mirror is because you do the conscious effort of looking beautiful in front of a camera. In doing so, you make yourself uncomfortable and tense. You put too much pressure on yourself to look a certain way and that shows on your face.
While standing in front of a mirror you are your true self. Totally relaxed and natural – you try out different poses in front of the mirror and you look at yourself from the best possible angle. You are comfortably posing around, naturally contouring your face, moving your face in different angles, therefore, you look your best in the mirror. On the contrary, the camera makes you shy and/or conscious because you don’t know what you’re looking like!
Your Brain Omits Certain Flaws
Your brain ignores a lot of things, it will always show you as you’re used to seeing yourself. It is highly likely that your face is asymmetrical unless you’re Brad Pitt or Kim Kardashian. There’s a very minor ratio of people who have a symmetrical face.
However, the lack of symmetry of your face is seldom noticeable in a mirror. But when it comes to a camera, it somehow manages to capture your worst angle. It shows every detail of your face that you do not notice every day. The asymmetry of your face is also relatively more visible in a picture and that might make one of your eyes look bigger, eyebrow more pointed, maybe lips falling more on one side, so and so. And hence, you don’t like the picture. Anyway, beauty is not proportional to a perfectly symmetrical face!
The Mirror Shows an Inverted Image
Another very common reason that you notice a striking change in your pictures and mirror image is because the mirror shows an inverted image which means what is actually on your right side appears on the left in a mirror. While the camera shows how you actually look to another person. You are familiar with seeing your face from that perspective – the inverted image while the angle of your face that you see in a picture is what others are familiar with.
You may notice that you often do not find any difference in the photos and real-life image of others because you’re used to seeing them from that perspective. Similarly, people taking your pictures are used to your face that way which is why they do not find any abnormalities in the picture while you could take out a hundred flaws from that very picture.
This is the reason why most people like their pictures better when inverted. You too can solve your problem this way. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes the camera is at fault too and inverting an image cannot solve the problem.
Poor Lens or Camera Quality
Your camera quality decides how close to reality your picture will look. And most of the time the camera quality is poor. Regular phone cameras or poor lens contribute a lot in making you look weird in pictures.
The problem with a bad camera is that it distorts images to a very great extent. It alters your facial features and often renders a poor color balance and hence, the final picture you see is usually not what you expect. A picture taken from an 85mm lens will be almost the same as reality, on the other hand, an 18mm lens will produce a crappy and distorted image. You can test this on your own. There’s a hundred and ten percent chance that you’ll like the picture taken with an 85mm.
What Happens If You Look Into A Mirror For Too Long
Pictures Are Two-Dimensional
A 2d picture cannot do justice to a three-dimensional reality. What our eyes see in 3d is opposite to what we see in pictures. The camera fills in the empty spaces that it couldn’t capture of the 3d object, which is why you notice visible changes in your pictures. And that leaves you wondering whether you’re actually that ugly.
In reality, you’re always in motion even when you’re the stillest, you’ll still be blinking your eyes. Reality is a series of moments, you may look your best at one moment while the other moment might not be that great. The camera captures a single moment and there’s a lot of chance, that moment was unfortunately not yours.
Conclusion
We believe that a mirror is your true self. It’s just the reflection of who you actually are. While a picture in a camera is affected by a lot of things – lighting, lens quality, the angle, the photographer, your comfort, and the list goes on. Stand in front of a mirror and ask someone else to observe your reflection, and ask them what you look like. Then, decide for yourself which one of them is a liar!
