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.
When it comes to appearance, which is more accurate, the camera or the mirror? A flat mirror has no aberrations or distortion like a lens does. So your reflection in a mirror will always be a more accurate representation of you.
Factors such as camera lens width, angles, and focal length can easily make even the slimmest of people appear wider by distorting their features or expanding the width of their faces and bodies.
There's a difference between your image in the mirror and in photos. The image you see in the mirror is reversed compared to the image that others see face-to-face with you. Your friends are familiar with your non-reversed image, while you are familiar with your reversed image in a regular mirror.
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.
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.
A picture is a truer representation of what you look like. In a way camera, but then again in the mirror your eyes see the true resolution and depth field of your face. Camera because as people saying looking at a mirror image ISN'T actually you. Your mirror image may be more attractive than you or vice versa.
I found the front camera gives more pleasing pictures than the back one, for example, the pictures taken by the back one often shows my eyes are proportionally smaller. Also the front camera seems to produce completely dark pictures when the lighting isn't good, while the back camera can still produce clearer pictures.
The camera lens is not the human eye
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.
Strangers see you exactly how you reflect in the mirror.
Those who know you see you as you deliver in speech and action which is the real you. Someone who is looking directly at you sees you as you see yourself in a mirror.
The camera lens also plays a part.
But the problem might not be your angles, it could be lens distortion. Because of the proximity of your face to the camera, the lens can distort certain features, making them look larger than they are in real life. Pictures also only provide a 2-D version of ourselves.
The True Mirror optically restores your true image from your mirror image, letting you see yourself not just as you look, but as you really are, in real time. The light and life in your eyes is present for the first time, and even better, it doesn't go away as you continue looking.
(See: Selfies Make Your Face Look Bad. Here's why.) 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.
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.
Taking a photograph with the front camera (like a selfie) from too close a distance will distort your face (ending up with a slightly enlarged nose, for example). That's one of the reasons that people use those horrid selfie sticks, but it does move the camera far enough away that your face won't be distorted.
However, pictures show your image the way you really look. When you look at yourself in pictures, it's a slightly different version of yourself than you are used to seeing. Psychology Today added that not everyone prefers their mirror image over their actual image because some like how they look in photographs.
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.
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.
When you look in a mirror, who do you see? Not the person other people see, since our reflection in the mirror is reversed by our brain. Raise your left hand, and the person in the mirror raises their right hand. From the way we part our hair to the way we smile, our faces are not symmetrical.
There's another psychological bias that affects us when looking at pictures of ourselves. It's called the confirmation bias. It's the bias that makes you hate you. The confirmation bias is our tendency to search for and find information that backs up our previously held beliefs.
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.