Does anyone else see two different things when they look in the mirror compared to a photo of themselves? Which should one trust more? :P
A photo will show you the way that other people see you. The mirror shows a mirror-image, with left and right reversed.
On the other hand, the mirror allows you to step back and see yourself in good perspective. A photo can do that too, if someone else takes the picture. Unfortunately, this is the age of the selfie, which puts the camera too close and distors your features.
Quote from: JMJW on May 06, 2017, 01:23:09 PM
Does anyone else see two different things when they look in the mirror compared to a photo of themselves? Which should one trust more? :P
Yes, I think most if not all people see two different of themself in a mirror vs a photograph. I am a photographer and my opinion is that the mirror shows a much more realistic image of yourself for several reasons:
1. A photograph is only 2-dimensional and a lot of factors depend on the result of a photograph
2. The human eye sees a much higher dynamic range than any camera on the market today. What this means is that a camera shoes purest black much sooner than your eye as well as whitest white, so if the photographer doesn't do a good job with lighting the subject, some areas of the face might get really dark while others will get overexposed and turn white.
3. the focal-length of the lens makes a big difference on how the face of a person will look like. If it's too wide, it will look distorted, is it too long, it gets compressed and might look flat. Take a look at this example:
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/6a/10/3b/6a103beeaa377a2f7c0408a669b459e1.jpg)
4. the position/angle of the camera
(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wJFG-O0JpVI/maxresdefault.jpg)
5. the position of the light used to shoot a portrait. Take a look at this example. Same camera, same focal length, same camera position but different results just by moving the light:
(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spinlight360.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F12%2F141209-One-Position-Different-Looks-1080p.jpg&hash=ff1974ea3305cb7eeed06ef3fb4890cd3ca17973)
I guess I went a little bit overboard with my answer... :)
Jessica
Best explanation yet! Photos are really inconsistent it's like a yo yo of satisafaction and disappointment.
Quick video on camera and perception
https://youtu.be/_48NNAbZMjs
~Brooke~
They both lie
They both tell the truth
From a purely photographic point of view which I have some experience in, lighting is crucial and the subtleties of the angle of the subject. With a camera you are freezing an image in one instant of time. Ever wonder why in movies or TV when they do scenes with a pro-photog like with glamour shots and the shutter is always clicking away? Just one maybe of all those will be used.
And then..... There are those people who thanks to optics, film color renditions, or other factors are just plain UN-Photogenic. My wife is a prime example. Hardly any photo of her renders her properly.
Then... The Mirror. More live action and the only person who can offer an opinion is the viewer. Again lighting is a critical factor. Too much. Too little. Bad angles, Un-natural color spectrum's all don't help. Worse yet, is we are pretty much our absolute worse( or is it best) critics. There is not a flaw that goes unnoticed since we are so intimately fixated on them
Most people's faces are somewhat asymmetrical, though not to the extent mine is. I look a lot different in the mirror than I do in pictures. I think that's the main reason I don't like the way I look in pictures. It's not the way I am used to seeing myself, even if that is the way others see me. Have you tried taking selfies using a mirror?
I think you get used to the mirror in a way that it doesn't reflect what other people see.
But photos don't always seem to be accurate either compared to how a human eye sees. That's because it's flat, so it "adds 10 pounds" as they say, because no 3D detailing is present to show what a face is really like in reality. So while a photo looks different from a mirror, at least a mirror is 3D.
It's probably not necessary at this point, but I'll add on to the list of variances that Jessica mentioned regarding photos. In the film days, the type of film used made a huge difference in terms of how colors were captured, the amount of "noise" or graininess, even the overall sharpness of the image. Well in digital cameras of today, even the ones on your phone, it's even more complex. The sensor that captures the image can cause many of the same variances that film did. However, further complicating it is the translation of what the sensor captures into the final image file. Each camera, even the one in your cell phone, has a processor that applies certain algorithms to the photo to adjust things like color saturation, hue, sharpness, white balance and other factors. Samsung phones for instance are infamous for raising color saturation to unnatural levels. The iPhones tend to over-compensate in sharpness leading to unnatural edges. Canon digital cameras have always had a reputation for some of the best image processing chips in the industry but even still people sometimes complain about different aspects. Now add to all this, the fact that on most cameras, even your iPhone or Galaxy Sx, you can adjust every one of these parameters, the end result of a photograph is rarely a truly accurate representation of reality.
When it comes to mirrors, lighting is every bit as important in what you see as it is for the camera. Just the type of light bulbs being used makes a difference. A lot of people don't even realize that different bulbs have different color temperatures that can affect how you see things. A cool white bulb (high color temperature, more pure white) tends to wash out color on the face. In fact these types of bulbs are not recommended for make-up mirrors because they cause you to over do it on blush and bronzer. Soft white bulbs (low color temperature, more yellowish light) produce a more balanced color on your face but if they're too soft, can actually accentuate the color of your face. And of course natural sunlight is another animal all together but is ultimately the most accurate. Of course where the bulbs are placed makes a different too in terms of shadows cast which even if very subtle, will also cause differences in perception.
So what I'm saying is, you can't really expect either a mirror or a camera to give you an idea perspective of how others will perceive you. Each situation will be different and you can go insane trying to level that out (trust me, as a former professional photog myself, we sometimes do). So just use both as a tool to give you a good idea of what others see but keep in mind they'll always see something just a little differently than you do.
I've found that certain mirrors make me look thin, tall, and young (the full-length mirrors in the EGV movie theater bathroom) and others make me look 80 years old.
Selfies with my Galaxy Note make me look hideous..lopsided face, many wrinkles..eeew.
Photos taken further away with a good camera and lens in natural lighting make me look pretty.
I used to hate looking in the mirror or at photos, but now when I look at old photos of me, I can see that I was very pretty, but because of dysphoria, I thought I was hideous.
Quote from: Raell on May 06, 2017, 09:22:30 PM
Selfies with my Galaxy Note make me look hideous..lopsided face, many wrinkles..eeew.
As Jessica mentioned above with focal length, selfie cameras are some of the worst. Given the nature of their use, they are very wide angle (short focal length) so that they can capture an entire face or multiple faces from a very short distance. The result is a lot of distortion. Usually your nose ends up looking a lot larger, as you noticed, wrinkles become more pronounced and your ears and hair line appear pushed further back. I'd say never use a selfie photo as a way to really gauge your appearance.
I trust pictures more. I'll even take a picture of my face/hair and look at that as my final check after makeup and styling since it is what others see and not reversed like a mirror. I have a slight lazy eye that doesn't focus and I never notice it straight on in the mirror, only in pictures.
My personal experience with photo vs mirror is the photo is more realistic.
I had a severe weight issue. Just too much of it. I never saw it in the mirror though. Maybe it is the angle of my eyes looking down toward my waist, but I looked like a normal weight in the mirror.
Then I saw a photo of myself. Taken from a distance and outdoors of me sitting down. I could not believe that I was THAT fat.
They both lie, but the mirror was the bigger liar.