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Simple photography lesson shows why selfies distort how you really look

Don't be fooled!

via Evey Winters/Facebook

A selfie camera can distort how you look in real life.

We've all done it: You snap a selfie, look at it, say, "OMG is my nose swollen?" then try again from a different angle. "Wait, now my forehead looks weird. And what's up with my chin?" You keep trying various angles and distances, trying to get a picture that looks like how you remember yourself looking. Whether you finally land on one or not, you walk away from the experience wondering which photo actually looks like the "real" you.

I do this, even as a 40-something-year-old who is quite comfortable with the face I see in the mirror. So, it makes me cringe imagining a tween or teen, who likely take a lot more selfies than I do, questioning their facial features based on those snapshots. When I'm wondering why my facial features look weird in selfies it's because I know my face well enough to know that's not what it looks like. However, when a young person whose face is changing rapidly sees their facial features distorted in a photo, they may come to all kinds of wrong conclusions about what they actually look like.

via GIPHY


Not that it should matter, of course. But we're talking about people living in a society obsessed with personal appearance. It's going to matter to a lot of people, and if they get the wrong impression of their face, some people will go to all sorts of lengths to change it. That's why understanding a bit about how focal lengths on cameras can impact what we see in photographs is vital.

Why do I look different in selfies?

Writer Evey Winters shared some of that education in a post on Facebook. She writes about this topic through a trans and dysmorphia lens, but it applies to everyone.

Winters points out that if someone is thinking of doing surgery to change their bodies, they should seek sources outside of themselves and a cellphone camera.


"I have dysmorphia and recognize that in myself," she wrote, "but even if I didn’t, there’s not a selfie I’ve ever taken that would accurately help me make choices about my face. Mirrors are slightly better only for their minimal distortions."

Why do people look different in selfies?

"Almost any photo taken of you with a commonly available cell phone without additional equipment will not display anything approaching an accurate summation of you but an artistic rendering of what the camera is able to capture," she continued. "Cameras are not people. People don’t freeze frames of time for all eternity down to the pixel and automatically enhance certain features like the darkness of pores and fine lines in your skin."

"If you want the best chance at getting good feedback pre-op about what you might want to change," she added, "I’d recommend a skilled photographer take a series of photos of you at different focal lengths and even then none of these will be entirely accurate as none of these employ humans binocular vision and filtering."

selfies, photography, friends in photos, camera phone, smartphone, good selfies, bad selfiesA group of friends taking a selfie.via Canva/Photos

Winters shared a collage of photos of the same girl's face at different focal lengths to show the significant difference it makes. "Notice how in different photos this child’s eyes may appear to be slightly hooded," she wrote. "The nose appears enlarged disproportionately. Hairline seems to shift with every snap. So does jaw shape, face shape, and even the width and size of the ears."

The difference between each of these photos is significant, but the difference between the first and the last is stunning. Cellphone selfie cameras usually have an even smaller focal length than the 40 mm shown here (Winters points out that the iPhone 13 Pro Max selfie camera has the equivalent of a 23 mm focal length), so they distort facial features even more. It also depends on how far away from the camera you are—the closer you are, the more distortion you'll see. Lighting matters, too, but even the best lighting can't cancel out what the focal length is doing.

Vox shared a video specifically about the "big nose" phenomenon with selfies, showing how drastic the distortion can be.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

The difference between each of these photos is significant, but the difference between the first and the last is stunning. Cellphone selfie cameras usually have an even smaller focal length than the 40 mm shown here (Winters points out that the iPhone 13 Pro Max selfie camera has the equivalent of a 23 mm focal length), so they distort facial features even more. It also depends on how far away from the camera you are—the closer you are, the more distortion you'll see. Lighting matters, too, but even the best lighting can't cancel out what the focal length is doing.

This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Pop Culture

Miranda Lambert calling out selfie taking fans, sparks debate about concert etiquette.

Is it a form of disrespect?

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Was she in the right?

Country singer Miranda Lambert recently paused mid-song during a show in Las Vegas to confront fans who were taking a selfie during the performance, and no one can seem to agree whether or not she was right to do so.

In a video taken at the Sunday night concert, Lambert is seen beginning her ballad “Tin Man” when she suddenly says, "I'm gonna stop right here for a second, I'm sorry. These girls are worried about their selfie and not listening to the song,” referencing a group of friends somewhere in the front section.

“I don’t like it, at all,” she continues, “We’re here to hear some country music tonight…I’m singing some country damn music,” before motioning for them to put their phones away.

The clip quickly went viral, sparking a heated debate about who was in the wrong. Over on TikTok, most commenters thought Lambert was out of line in her chastising and agreed that the harshness did more to ruin the moment than the girls trying to take a photo.

@redneckinvegas Miranda said its My Show.. #selfie #narcissist #Miranda #country #music #show #iPhone #tinman #sing #viral #share #wwyd #comment #vegas @Miranda Lambert #startover #scream #concert #wtf #lol #haha #me #like #love #vegasshow #subscribe #pissmeoff #girls #why #beautiful #sexy ♬ original sound - redneckinvegas

“Imagine it was their favorite song and they were taking a video and they were excited,” one person wrote.

“They were just making memories,” wrote another.

Another pointed out that even if Lambert were in the right, she could have handled the situation differently, suggesting that “she could have finished her song and just said some blanket statement like ‘let’s try to be in the moment and stay off our phones.’”

One even noted that for folks who “paid upward of $700 to sit up front…they SHOULD be able to take photos.”

It even became a point of focus on “The View,” wherein Whoopi Goldberg defended Lambert against the other hosts, saying that for those willing to pay high prices for front row seats to a show, they should equally be willing to “give respect” by watching someone “do their thing.”

Eventually, one of the women called out by Lambert, Adela Calin, decided to speak up. She assured NBC News that posing for a photo that night took “30 seconds at most” and came from innocent intentions—they had even attempted to capture the image before the show started but couldn’t find proper lighting. They had finally asked a woman behind them to snap a photo when Lambert spotted them.

"We just couldn’t get one good picture," Calin told NBC. "We were so excited because I think we had the best seats in the whole theater."

The entire situation reflects a larger exhaustion many people are having with the tech that is now the cornerstone of every aspect of our lives. According to a survey published by Fast Company, an overwhelming number of Americans (including those from Gen Z) long for a pre-plugged-in world, when life didn’t revolve around a 24-hour news cycle, constant content and a barrage of screens. It seems like many would prefer to return to simply being at a concert and trusting that the memories will be made through the feelings felt in the moment, rather than posting something online and then never thinking about it again.

There’s also the recent uptick of concertgoers literally abusing performers by throwing their phones and other objects at them, as with Bebe Rexha and Harry Styles. This is, needless to say, dehumanizing and dangerous, and most likely something that influenced Lambert’s reaction. Even Calin acknowledged this.

However, Calin added that while she might understand Lambert’s concern, her determination to make her group look “young, immature and vain” was unfair.

“It felt like I was back at school with the teacher scolding me for doing something wrong and telling me to sit down back in my place,” Calin said. “We were just grown women in our 30s to 60s trying to take a picture.”

There isn’t a clear-cut solution to this modern-day dilemma. Selfie-taking is a deeply embedded part of our contemporary culture and like any social trend, there are pros and cons to that. Probably the only thing that we can count on not changing is the value of keeping to kindness while discussing the topic.

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Identity

Here’s why you look better in mirrors than you do in pictures

A scientific breakdown that explains why it's so hard to take a good selfie.

SOURCE: iSTOCK

Usually the greatest fear after a wild night of partying isn't what you said that you might regret, but how you'll look in your friends' tagged photos. Although you left the house looking like a 10, those awkward group selfies make you feel more like a 5, prompting you to wonder, "Why do I look different in pictures?"

It's a weird phenomenon that, thanks to selfies, is making people question their own mirrors. Are pictures the "real" you or is it your reflection? Have mirrors been lying to us this whole time??

The answer to that is a bit tricky. The good news is that there's a big chance that Quasimodo-looking creature that stares back at you in your selfies isn't an accurate depiction of the real you. But your mirror isn't completely truthful either.

Below, a scientific breakdown that might explain those embarrassing tagged photos of you:

The mirror is a reflection. It's not the real you.

Although we're the most comfortable and familiar with the face staring back at us while we brush our teeth in the morning, the mirror isn't really the real us. It's a reflection, so it shows how we look like in reverse. Because we're so used to seeing the reverse version of ourselves, seeing how we look in pictures can be jarring. And unless you're blessed with a perfectly symmetrical face, the photo version of yourself can be even more wonky.

"We see ourselves in the mirror all the time—you brush your teeth, you shave, you put on makeup," Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Psychology Center, told The Atlantic. "Looking at yourself in the mirror becomes a firm impression. You have that familiarity. Familiarity breeds liking. You've established a preference for that look of your face."

Scientists call this the "mere-exposure" effect. Basically, it's a behavior concocted by psychologist Robert Zajonc that says people react favorably to things they're most familiar with. So, when you see a flipped version of yourself, you immediately hate it or even find it grotesque because it's the opposite of what you're used to.

So although we think we look better in a mirror, we're more psychologically inclined to feel that way even if we truthfully look better in photos. Weird, huh?

The camera lens also plays a part.

So if your reflection isn't the real you, does that mean your ugly selfies are your "true self"? Although mirrors show a flipped version of yourself that tones down the harshness of your asymmetries, the myth that "pictures never lie" isn't true either. After all, most people take more than one selfie before they find their most flattering one, and usually it takes a combination of angles, lighting, and duck lips before landing one that's Instagram-worthy.

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. Depending on your features, if you have a soft, round face, photos can flatten your features and further distort the "real" you.

For example, just changing the focal length of a camera can even change the width of your head. As Gizmodo writer John Herrman pens, the fancier the camera, the better you'll look in the picture:

"Telephoto lenses are usually seen as more flattering, giving the impression that the subject is flattened, and slightly compressing the width of your foremost features, like your nose or breasts. So you might want to think twice before fleeing the pesky paparazzi and their fancy zoom lenses; it's the tourist with the pocket cam whose snaps will make you look fat on the Internet."

And because cameras don't show the 3-D version of you, it's easy to "trick" cameras to present a reality that's not even true. Professional models have perfected this, which is why people can do photo sorcery like this by merely tweaking their angles:

It's also the camera flash.

istock

Although good lighting is the key to all flattering photos, a harsh flash from your iPhone can actually make you look a lot worse, especially if it's taken in a dark room. In fact, according to OKCupid, harsh camera flashes add seven years to your face.

In addition to making you look shiny and greasy, cameras can't adjust to lightness and darkness the ways our eyes naturally can. Cameras can only focus on highlights or shadows, and sometimes that can result in lighting that can be less than flattering. A good rule of thumb is to stick to natural or outdoor lighting instead.

Your smile could also be the culprit.

iStock

Everyone knows what it's like to pose for an awkward photo, like a driver's license or a passport. The photos never turn out looking nice, and they hardly look like our natural smiles. When you're looking at yourself in the mirror, you're relaxed, confident, and more likely to smile and act naturally.

If someone shouting "Say cheese!" at you makes you feel self-conscious about your unphotogenic reputation, obviously you're going to tense up and have a photo that looks different and foreign from the version you see in the mirror. It's best to relax when taking pictures and try to focus on something else. That tense, forced awkwardness will always translate to a bad photo.

It's possible you're less attractive than you think.

assets.rebelmouse.io

But no matter how many factors you want to blame for your crappy pictures, it all boils down to psychology. Perhaps the reason you look different in pictures is because the version of yourself you like best is a figment of your imagination.

According to a 2008 study, people tend to think they're more attractive than they really are. In the experiment, researchers photoshopped pictures of participants to make them look more attractive and then mixed those with photos of strangers. Next, they asked the subjects to pick their picture out of a line-up. People were quicker at picking photos where they looked more attractive, concluding that "attractiveness" was the version of themselves they were most familiar with.

However, other experts have also said the opposite, that people tend to think they're less attractive than they really are. Whatever the case, if you're beating yourself up about why you look different in mirrors and pictures, there's a good chance that all your fear and anxiety is just in your head. It's sort of similar to how people hate the sound of their own voice. Perhaps the key to looking better in pictures is taking as many selfies as you can to help familiarize yourself with both the "mirror" and "camera" version of yourself.

"People who take a lot of selfies end up feeling a lot more comfortable in their own skin because they have a continuum of images of themselves, and they're more in control of the image," Pamela said. "Flipped or not flipped, the ability to see themselves in all these different ways will just make them generally more comfortable."

Or, you know, just download FaceTune. Might as well fight science with science.


This article originally appeared on 7.21.21


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Pop Culture

Man has taken a selfie every day for 15 years. His transformation is fascinating to watch.

Watch Jordan Wilson go from age 13 to 28 in less than five minutes.

Jordan Wilson/YouTube

Jordan Wilson started taking a daily selfie when he was 13.

On Christmas Day in 2007, when he was just 13-years-old, Jordan Wilson hung up a purple sheet of fabric and took a photo of himself in front of it with his digital camera.

He's done the exact same thing every day since.

When he goes on vacation, he takes the purple curtain with him so he doesn't miss a day. He used the same digital camera from 2007 to 2020, when light flares started showing at the bottom of his photos indicating that the camera was on its last legs. He tracked down the exact same model of camera from 2007 to replace it and kept going.

Now he has a timelapse of his face every day of his life for 15 years, with the same backdrop from the same distance and angle, and watching it play out is truly fascinating.

Most of us find it interesting to see photos of ourselves from when we were younger and notice how we've changed, but imagine what it would be like to watch yourself grow and change daily through your entire adolescence and early adulthood.

The foresight it would take to do that at age 13 is remarkable, as is the dedication to taking a daily selfie no matter what. Wilson shared his timelapse video on YouTube this week and has been responding to people's questions about his process on Reddit.

Watch him go from a chubby-cheeked young teen to a balding, bearded young man in less than five minutes:

Wilson shared that he used the free video editing software DaVinci Resolve to create the video. "It has a timelapse stabilisation option built into it, and that's what it's in the video," he wrote.

He also shared that there are actually two different curtains in the video because he made a second backdrop when he started splitting his time between two different cities about 10 years into the project so he wouldn't have to always transport the one back and forth.

It's pretty brave to put something like this out on the internet, where you know people will comment on everything from your hair to your weight to your teen acne. But it's also a mesmerizing creation that allows us to see time passing in a way we don't normally get to. One can't help but wonder what he was personally experiencing through all of these daily photos—the ups and downs of the teen years, educational endeavors and jobs, relationships and family dynamics. And then to think about what was happening in the world during this time—the financial crisis of 2008, the Obama years, the political upheaval that followed, the COVID-19 pandemic and more. (If you watch carefully, there's even a little blip of a mask toward the end of the video).

Wilson has been sharing his timelapse videos every five years, and he wrote that he has no plans to stop now. So look for another of these videos to come around Christmas of 2027 to see how he changes as he heads into his 30s. Will he lose more hair? Start seeing some early grays and wrinkles? Time will tell, and thanks to a 13-year-old looking ahead in 2007, there's a good chance we'll get to see what it says in another five years.

Thanks for the cool trip through time, Jordan Wilson!

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