We have spent our lives seeing our faces in the mirror, and we have become used to seeing our face that way round. So when we reverse that image, it doesn't look right. No one has a perfectly symmetrical face. Most people part their hair on one side rather than the other.
However, when we see a photo, we look at a 2D representation of ourselves, which is not reversed and can look different from what we see in the mirror and we are not used to the reversed face in the photo. We don't have a symmetrical face that shows no differences when it is reversed.
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.
Every time we look at ourselves in the mirror, we tend to focus on a different part of our face, such our nose, eyes, lips, etc., and miss the big picture. On the other hand, when we look at a photograph, we take everything in at once and build an overall impression of the performance.
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.
You become familiar with this image because you see it every single day of your life. But the image you see in the mirror is NOT what everyone else sees. The reflection you see in the mirror each morning is a REVERSED IMAGE of how you appear to the world, and to the camera.
When you look in a mirror, what you're actually seeing is a reversed image of yourself. As you're hanging out with friends or walking down the street, people see your image un-flipped. So that mole that you're used to seeing on your right cheek is actually on your left to the person facing you.
Do you see yourself uglier or prettier? In a series of studies, Epley and Whitchurch showed that we see ourselves as better looking than we actually are. The researchers took pictures of study participants and, using a computerized procedure, produced more attractive and less attractive versions of those pictures.
The results showed that participants generally rated themselves as being more attractive in photographs than in mirrors. This may be because when we look in a mirror, our image is reversed left to right, which can make us look different than we expect.
All photos are lies, distortions of the truth, and that goes double triple for selfies. Every photo in existence is altered and constrained by many factors, including the camera itself, the focal length of the lens we use, lighting and posing of the subject and the perspective from which the photo was taken.
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.
Neither is very accurate. A mirror shows a reversed image of your face, and our faces are subtly asymmetrical. Therefore, a mirror image will always look slightly different from how we appear to other people - in that regard a photo is more accurate.
A new study shows that 20% of people see you as more attractive than you do.
The lens of a camera introduces barrel distortion. This makes you look more like a ball than the way you see yourself in a mirror. For an exaggerated version of this, look at a wide angle or fish eye lens photo.
If you don't wear clothes that flatter your body, you likely won't look good in photos. Choose styles and cuts that work for your body and colours that work for your complexion. The most important thing is to feel confident in whatever you're wearing, it's sure to shine through! Makeup can make or break your photo.
People gravitate toward you. Attraction by definition means that other people will feel the need to be near you. If you are attractive, you may find that you naturally become the center of conversation or of a large group of friends. People send you messages or contact you out of the blue.
If you have a lot of people interested in you or pursuing you, it could be a sign that you're attractive. People are naturally attracted to beauty, and if you have it, you might find that you have a lot of admirers.
The evidence from psychological research suggests instead that we tend to think of our appearance in ways that are more flattering than are warranted. This seems to be part of a broader human tendency to see ourselves through rose colored glasses.
The answer is complicated. While mirrors can provide an accurate reflection of our physical features, they can also distort our appearance in subtle ways. Factors such as lighting conditions and the angle of reflection can also affect how we look in the mirror.
Am I uglier than I am in the mirror? According to psychology, when we see ourselves in the mirror, we tend to think of ourselves as prettier, than how we actually look to others, in real life. That's the perception of the mirror, vs what you look like to others in real life.
Given that FOV and the distance you can hold the camera from your face is going to top out at around 2.5 feet for most people, your features closest to the camera will seem quite exaggerated, and is not an accurate representation of proportions.
Another reason why people are not photogenic in picture is that cameras over-emphasize flaws. It may even distort your features when you stand close to the lens, such as your legs or arms may look stronger than they are.
In the case of mirror-gazing, the subject's facial expressions are reflected in the mirror and then perceived and recognized by the subject itself. This dynamic self-reflection can produce, within the subject, recognition-expression or perception-action loops.
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.