Lighting and lens choice tend to affect this a lot.
Bathroom lighting is usually specifically designed to make you look nice, especially if you have so-called “vanity lighting”, which are the diffuse bulbs over the mirror. The light isn’t harsh and it’s evenly distributed so it’s flattering. Compare that to a camera flash or even environmental lighting (if you’re taking photos at, like, a tourist site).
Lenses can either flatten or exaggerate perspective. Wider angle lenses tend to make features like noses more prominent. Shorter focal lengths can make you look a little heavier. Pro photographers who are taking portraits tend to use a “nifty fifty” lens which is right down the middle. Most phones are wider angle even in “portrait” mode.
I should also point out that the sensors on camera lenses are so small* that actually much of what you see as the final image is automatically done in post processing. So it could also be that you’re seeing some unflattering artificial sharpening of the image, etc.
Basically, if you want to look good in photos hire a pro photographer with proper lighting and gear.
*despite Moore’s law and the evolution of technology, at a certain point you’re going to bump up against how many actual photons you can fit onto a sensor. More will always be better and for that you need a big sensor.
Mirror is 3D, Photo is 2D. just close one eye and see how your shape in the mirror changes.
With 2 eyes, you see 2 perspectives/angles of yourself at once, which the brain fuses to one coherent 3D image. This look different than a 2D image.
You can make a simple experiment. Close one eye, and look at your vertically held phone (or flat hand) from the side, so that you don’t see the back or front but only the side. Now open the other eye. With 2 eyes, you will always see either the front or back and the object will appear much thicker. The same happens with your face in the mirror. Generally, your face looks longer in photos and wider in real life (mirrors).
TLDR: camera’s have something called Field Of View which can be adjusted to elongate your face one way or the other. Try googling “Same picture different FOV” and you’ll see exactly what Im saying. Mirrors reflect a 3D image, you see yourself. Cameras turn a 3D scene into a 2D image and each lens has its own quirks in how it minutely (or majorly) changes the scene it captures
a picture shows you what everybody else sees, a mirror is reversed and how you perceive yourself; if you flip your pictures (in edit) in your phone you will be much happier with the outcome
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You only see yourself from one angle in the mirror, while in a picture of have no control of the angle.
I was just watching a video of me on a live stream. It was a live event and I passed the camera. I didn’t recognize myself.
Lighting and lens choice tend to affect this a lot.
Bathroom lighting is usually specifically designed to make you look nice, especially if you have so-called “vanity lighting”, which are the diffuse bulbs over the mirror. The light isn’t harsh and it’s evenly distributed so it’s flattering. Compare that to a camera flash or even environmental lighting (if you’re taking photos at, like, a tourist site).
Lenses can either flatten or exaggerate perspective. Wider angle lenses tend to make features like noses more prominent. Shorter focal lengths can make you look a little heavier. Pro photographers who are taking portraits tend to use a “nifty fifty” lens which is right down the middle. Most phones are wider angle even in “portrait” mode.
I should also point out that the sensors on camera lenses are so small* that actually much of what you see as the final image is automatically done in post processing. So it could also be that you’re seeing some unflattering artificial sharpening of the image, etc.
Basically, if you want to look good in photos hire a pro photographer with proper lighting and gear.
*despite Moore’s law and the evolution of technology, at a certain point you’re going to bump up against how many actual photons you can fit onto a sensor. More will always be better and for that you need a big sensor.
Mirror is 3D, Photo is 2D. just close one eye and see how your shape in the mirror changes.
With 2 eyes, you see 2 perspectives/angles of yourself at once, which the brain fuses to one coherent 3D image. This look different than a 2D image.
You can make a simple experiment. Close one eye, and look at your vertically held phone (or flat hand) from the side, so that you don’t see the back or front but only the side. Now open the other eye. With 2 eyes, you will always see either the front or back and the object will appear much thicker. The same happens with your face in the mirror. Generally, your face looks longer in photos and wider in real life (mirrors).
TLDR: camera’s have something called Field Of View which can be adjusted to elongate your face one way or the other. Try googling “Same picture different FOV” and you’ll see exactly what Im saying. Mirrors reflect a 3D image, you see yourself. Cameras turn a 3D scene into a 2D image and each lens has its own quirks in how it minutely (or majorly) changes the scene it captures
a picture shows you what everybody else sees, a mirror is reversed and how you perceive yourself; if you flip your pictures (in edit) in your phone you will be much happier with the outcome