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In a reply to a recent post of mine Melodee recollected a story about her experience with a sleeveless dress -- "I thought it looked fab...until I saw a photo of me in it". This was something that I had also noticed -- you look at yourself in a full-length mirror and quite like what you see and then you see a photo of yourself and you are horrified at the image. Now why is it that this can happen? Assuming the photo was taken at roughly the same time as you looked in the mirror, why can our perceptions of an image in a mirror look so different from a photo? There can be some real reasons such as lighting etc but I don't think this is the whole story although for the life of me I don't have a reasonable explanation. But I now trust photos more than my mirror when it comes to judging how successful a look is whether it's clothes, or makeup or hair.
Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon?
As someone who can't stand having their picture taken in any event, I know all too well what you mean. For me, though, the takeaway is different. If I look good in the mirror, I'm more likely to look that way to others, because life is dynamic; you're moving in subtle and not so subtle ways, an observer is also in motion and subject to dynamic changes of state and lighting. A photo is a single, frozen instant. I think it's incredibly difficult to get a representative photo because of how unforgiving a single instant can be. Our facial expressions are in flux, our body posture is changing, and light changes our appearance as we move... it's no wonder photographers have to take so many images of a subject to get the "right" one. The mirror doesn't lie; that's really what we look like from moment to moment, it's just that our impressions are softened by the dynamics of motion and lighting. No matter how good you look, it's remarkably easy to take a lousy picture, which makes it so fun when you get a good one.
Hi Veronica.
I do. It is a phenomenon that has been investigated and studied. They say that it obeys an automatic and involuntary process of perception added to psychological factors. Maybe it has an explanation from Optics.
Mirrors reflect virtual images. There are no rays of light coming from such images. The light we perceive is that which is reflected from such an opaque body with a smooth surface that we call a mirror.
The image in the reflection, which we unconsciously adjust to improve, is more similar to our positive perception of ourselves than to reality. We see the image we want to see. For example, I feel prettier than I really am. Sometimes I feel photogenic. Other times, it's just that, despite my insecurity, I have a huge ego.
Photos show us more who we are. Although I have found that makeup helps, especially if it has been done by a professional. And the clothes, of course.
Gisela
Right, Chanel. But I have learned that the most important thing is that you feel beautiful. The appearance changes depending on who perceives it.
Hiya Veronica! That story is mostly true in this context. When I first tried that dress on I was in guy mode - no makeup/hair, and in the mirror I felt it looked good and the GF agreed. Sidenote: although this is one reason I doll up completely to try things on now. Additionally, it wasn't a very good photo in general (and we all know bad photos are a thing), and lastly, in the photo I was standing next to a petite girl which visually exacerbated everything about my size.
Generally speaking I find that while in girl mode, photos do more or less accurately reflect what the mirror shows me. That said, I do find this phenomena 100% accurate in guy mode! I cannot take a single photo of me in guy mode that looks anything like what I see in the mirror and that rankles something fierce! lol
In the end, I think my conclusion is the opposite of yours though - I trust the mirror more than a camera. My eyes are better than a camera lens. But...could be backwards, I suppose. Some people have said I look good in that photo. I just thank them and donate to their upgraded vision prescription. lol
This is common, not just among us but among everyone. You can do a Google search for this question and come up with a lot of hits.
Here are a few points they make. When you look in the mirror, you are seeing the reverse of you. It is a continuous moving stream. Your brain views it in 3D. Angles and (to a lesser extent) lighting change as you move. Distance to the mirror changes your view.
The photo is a fixed momemt in time. It is not reversed, so asymmetries in you look different. The photo depends on the angle of the camera, and your facial expression at the moment the photo is snapped. The camera is rarely at eye level so it creates its own distortion (looking up or looking down). Maybe you were jutting out your chest, or letting your stomach hang out a bit too much. The photo is a 2D representation. It's harder to read non-verbal facial expressions from a moment in time than from viewing someone continuously. (Ooh, look, the baby's smiling. No, they're just passing gas.)
A good photographer knows about some of these things and work to minimize some of their effects. Hold your chin out. Tilt your head. Turn a little this way. Let me adjust the lighting, or the apature setting (which changes the depth of field). These are a few things they learn to take a better photo.
Definitely a few factors at play. As mentioned, lighting, angle, self consciousness in pose, unfortunate timing, being a mirror image of what we normally see so everything just looks a little wrong all change the way we "look". And there are some other technical issues too.
I am guessing most of us are using our phones for pics. From what I understand, they use a compression algorithm to format the image file limiting it's dynamic range. This can make things a little flat in general but there is also manipulations done to things like color, contrast, and white balance that greatly affect the image.
Another issue is focal length. We see in a sort of 50mm focal length perspective (like what a 50mm lens sees on a full frame camera, or an old 35mm film camera). A fairly standard focal length for portraits is 85mm. Now, your camera on your phone is going to probably be 24mm to 35mm. So what does that mean? Think about what a really wide lens like a fish eye lens does to images, how it distorts it...that is what is kind of happening with your phone camera, just not as dramatic.
Also, at least for me, there is a psychological thing at play. I am way too self conscious and critical of myself and I find I fall into that trap of letting my appearance sort of define my worth (I wish I could pass, I wish I was more femme, and so on). I know what I want to look like, and any deviation from that "stands out" in pics. (did you ever take a pic of yourself that you liked, then liked it less and less the more you looked at it, or is that just me?) In the end, really all I am doing is looking for those imperfections and focusing on them.
I have deleted more pictures than mirrors....
Mirror gives you a perceived three dimensional image. Photos are restricted to two dimensions.
Trust the mirror.
I believe the mirror is the truer image. I always look better there than in a photo.
In fact, mirrors and photos are merely references because my eyes have never seen my real face in front of them and they never will.
What an interesting topic! It made me realise that the new profile pic I added yesterday is a mirror image. I shall change it forthwith!
I suppose it's a bit like the voice we hear when we speak is never the same as when we hear it played back on a recording. Weirdly, I've never been keen on the sound of my own male voice, but I do like my female pitch voice.
I think perception of our image whether it's from a mirror or a photo is clouded by our self image. When we see something in the mirror or a photo that is different from how we feel about ourselves, sometimes more positive sometimes more negative, it can cause a touch of cognitive dissonance.
Personally, I can look at a picture of myself one day and think "hey, i'm kinda cute" then I'll look at the same picture the next day and think "wtf, I need to delete this before anyone see's it"
One thing I do know from observing others as well as feedback from other about me is that a genuine smile turns a 3 into an 8 (on the proverbial 1-10 scale). So girls, if you feel pretty and it makes you happy, Smile!
Hi Veronica, Sorry to be late to the discussion. My days are very busy so I sometimes have trouble allowing the time to do a proper pic. My best pics have always been spontaneous ones that someone else took. When I want to do a self-pic, I use this process. All of my pics are just from my iPhone (usually my old 5) set on a tripod. Then I just turn on the video and let it record while I get into the picture and try poses in front of a mirror. A lot of time I will talk to myself or make jokes or dance with imaginary friends just to try to get my mouth into a perfect smile and my eyes to be bright and my body to look natural. Then after 5 minutes, I turn the video off and pass it onto my Mac laptop. Next, I roll the video and then screen print parts that show an image that I really like. After you do this for a while you begin to find the timing mark that you think seems to be a good area and then you concentrate your selection there. Then I select the best one of the screen printed shots and use it. I only crop my shots and don’t enhance or Photoshop them since I think that defeats the learning purpose. If you use this video method, you will get a slight softening of the image which may be an advantage to your final look. Also, when someone takes my pic they are waiting for the moment that they see as most flattering which is just the same thing that I’m trying to do in the screen print or when looking in the mirror. It seems that my look can change a lot in just a few frames (from awful to Ooooh, that’s nice) so I’ve learned not to smash the mirror and cut up my clothes and know that it takes me about 20 tries before I find a good look. (BTY, it’s not unusual for cameras to add 10 pounds to a persons look and find every flaw.) I hope this helps. Marg
Just a little something to think about in response to the original question posed regarding the difference between the mirror image and the photographic image. It's a matter of optics. Best way (and it's fun, too) to comprehend the distinction is to conduct a little test. Stand at the focal distance you normally do when before the bathroom mirror in the morning. Put you thumb on the bottom of your chin in the reflect image of your face. Next put your middle finger on the top of the reflected image of your head. What will be discovered is that the head you've been looking at all these years (and the new head with the beautiful woman's face you now have begun to enjoy) is only half the size of your actual head. Conclusion? All these years you've been looking at a miniature of your actual self. It's an illusion corrected by your brain. A camera lens doesn't work that way. So, when considering the difference between the mirror image and the camera image of yourself, remember that the self in the mirror is a distortion while the self in the photograph is the actuality.
Livi