First, remember it's the distance, not the lens width – It's a common belief that selfies are distorted because cell phone cameras use really wide angle lenses. And that's sorta true, but not entirely true. It's just a short-cut way to talk about the phenomenon.
Because phone cameras use wide angle lenses that are good for landscapes but bad for portraiture. They magnify whatever is near them, like noses and cheeks. Also, If you are not centered in the image, you will be distorted sideways.
No, iPhone cameras do not actually show what you really look like. They tend to make people look a lot worse than they actually are. This is because the iPhone camera is not a very high quality camera and it doesn't capture people's features very well.
No, I think it gets the colors wrong and as mentioned by others, distorts your face since it is close and not flat. Your nose will look bigger. The iPhone image fits somewhere between the first 2 images of the 3 images the guy who posted multiple images of camera lenses.
The new iPhone 12, 12 mini, 12 Pro, and 12 Pro Max are equipped with some great cameras, but not perfect cameras. The ultra-wide lens is known to cause distortion at the edges of the frame, so people and objects look slightly warped.
THE ISSUE: Most smartphones, including iPhones, have a wide angle lens on their default camera. Wide angle lenses cause barrel distortion within photos, causing the subject to look more rounded and wider than they are in real life. THE FIX: Have your photographer stand 5 feet away from you and zoom into 1.4x.
Summary. Mirror images provide a more accurate perception of self due to the mere exposure effect, while camera images show how others see us. Selfies offer a unique perspective but can be distorted and less accurate than mirror selfies.
Those dots together create your image, and 1 individual dot of light is a pixel. Since the back facing camera has 12 megapixels, and the front has 7 megapixels, there is almost twice the image quality in the back facing camera. The more pixel data you have, the better quality image you'll be able to produce.
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.
A Complete Reflection
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.
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.
A lot of this distortion is based on the distance from your subject. Many or most photos and videos of you are taken off angle and might artificially make your head appear larger than your body and also longer than it would normally be. Distortions like this happen when the phone is not exactly level from your face.
Are we less attractive than we think? Conclusion. There are some people who overestimate their physical attractiveness, but on average, as research has shown, most people tend to underestimate how physically attractive they are.
There has been scientific evidence that attractive people underestimate their attractiveness and see themselves as average or even lower. But it's the opposite for unattractive people, they see themselves as more pretty than they actually are.
A new study shows that 20% of people see you as more attractive than you do. When you look in the mirror, all you see is your appearance. When others look at you they see something different such as personality, kindness, intelligence, and sense of humor. All these factors make up a part of a person's overall beauty.
The closer the camera is to our face, the more distorted our appearance can appear, which can be unflattering. The angle of the camera can also affect the way our facial features appear, which can make us look different than we do in the mirror.
The only difference between a mirror and a camera is that you are reversed in the mirror. Otherwise, they are both just as “accurate.” Here's the thing: the camera/mirror doesn't matter.
Back camera is how you look from other people, and typically shot from distance people normally see you, so perspective will be also likely going to be close.
Because camera lenses distort the image, particularly when your face is close to one of the corners.
This happens to most of the people as human faces are not completely symmetrical and also camera puts on some weight. So, that's why we look better in mirrors than pictures. Also, people find others more attractive than we do ourselves. Moreover, don't get too much concerned about this.