Does anybody know why some people look pretty in mirrors but horible in photos? I hate taking pictures because I tend to look horible. I'ts starting to bumb me out not only because I thought I was ok looking and told all the time how pretty I am, but now it's getting in the way of me taking pictures with my children. I just had my daughter 5 months ago and I don't have one single picture with both of us (with the exception of when she was born) and it's making me feel sad. I don't want my children to not have a picture of us as a family.
why do I look pretty in mirrors (some) but ugly in photos
- Thread starter lulu68
- Start date
Elle_p
Cathlete
Some people are naturally more photogenic than others but it could also be that you just don't know how to relax in front of the camera. One of the reasons an attractive person sometimes appears unattractive in pictures is that in pictures you are seen through a single camera lens as opposed to real life where you can see the three dimensional aspects of your face
A lot of models have features and bone structure that aren't necessarily considered classically pretty or attractive but when photographed they look stunning.
You should practice finding the right angles and poses that will help you to look your best in front of the camera. You also need to learn to relax when having your picture taken and that will start to come across in the pictures.
A lot of models have features and bone structure that aren't necessarily considered classically pretty or attractive but when photographed they look stunning.
You should practice finding the right angles and poses that will help you to look your best in front of the camera. You also need to learn to relax when having your picture taken and that will start to come across in the pictures.
Stebby
Cathlete
My advice ... don't worry about how you look ... focus on others rather than yourself and just have your picture taken! As you say, it would be awful not to have any pictures of you and your children at this time in all your lives. In 10 years you will look at those pictures and think how young and beautiful you were. Trust me -- you don't look nearly as bad as you think you do.
Stebby
Stebby
MidgetDogg
Cathlete
Lighting, angles, photos capturing you doing something with your mouth that looks just fine when you're doing it, but really unattractive when it's stop motion. You should see some of the freeze frames I get on Cathe when I pause to change my weights.
If it makes you feel better, you look better in 3D than 2D, so you actually look better than you look in the mirror too. It's one of the reasons I don't use the webcam on my Mac, it's so unflattering.
You should go to a professional photographer to have a family picture done. You almost always get a flattering shot that way. I did this with my daughter a couple years ago and it came out beautiful, and was so much fun. But the ladies are right - just have candids taken, those almost always come out better than posed ones because you're relaxed. And if you don't look like Cindy Crawford in the photo, just laugh at how silly you look. I have a million pics where I'm looking pretty bad, but they're funny.
If it makes you feel better, you look better in 3D than 2D, so you actually look better than you look in the mirror too. It's one of the reasons I don't use the webcam on my Mac, it's so unflattering.
You should go to a professional photographer to have a family picture done. You almost always get a flattering shot that way. I did this with my daughter a couple years ago and it came out beautiful, and was so much fun. But the ladies are right - just have candids taken, those almost always come out better than posed ones because you're relaxed. And if you don't look like Cindy Crawford in the photo, just laugh at how silly you look. I have a million pics where I'm looking pretty bad, but they're funny.
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DeborahG
Cathlete
I could have written this post. I am by no means gorgeous, but I generally look all right. On the other hand, I am downright hideous in just about every photo that has ever been taken of me. As a result, I have very few photos of my daughters with me in them. Sounds vain, I known, and I'm trying not to care about it, but I truly can't believe how unphotogenic I am. (Hopefully I'm not really that hideous and just deluding myself!) 
cataddict
Cathlete
Oh, I feel your pain. I am the least photogenic person I know. My DH had sent photos of our wedding to his parents who couldn't be there and my father in law commented to me when he eventually met me in person that "your pictures don't do you justice." That was his nice way of saying "I was wondering what my son was thinking marrying that ugly hag!" I try to avoid being photographed but it doesn't bother me quite so much when the pictures of me don't look so great--I'm concluded that I'm just one of those people whose looks come from facial expressions and personality rather than actual physical features.
I try to avoid being photographed but it doesn't bother me quite so much when the pictures of me don't look so great--I'm concluded that I'm just one of those people whose looks come from facial expressions and personality rather than actual physical features.RapidBreath
Cathlete
It would appear that everybody has answered the question already. I am a camera operator and the biggest difference between a good photo and a bad one is the photographer, makeup and hair. Also, there is the issue of the camera adding ten pounds, its true! I have seen slender pretty girls look terrible on camera. The camera lens is inherently distorting. Mirrors may or may not distort your image depending on if they are warped or not. You can't even really use a photograph to conduct CSI work (determining distance/rate/speed of a crash for instance.) without using a software algorithm to take out the distortion of the specific camera/lens combination. The other thing to take into consideration is white balance, if the camera was not white balanced the shot can look brassy/green or blue or orange. The wrong tint can make you look dead.
I second the idea for getting a professional photographer to take some pictures. It really does take some experience and skill to make great pictures.
I second the idea for getting a professional photographer to take some pictures. It really does take some experience and skill to make great pictures.
jdawnc
Cathlete
I feel your pain too! I'm pregnant so whenever I look nice I get my husband to take a picture so we can remember me being pregnant. Every single one I have this forced smile and look terrible! We have to take about 5 practice shots before we can get one I like. It reminds me of the Friends episode when Chandler can't make a nice face with his engangement photos, lol. My husband tells me relax and why are you making that face, "What I'm smiling". I'm having more sucess with the saying "cheese" method.
Find some pictures you do like of yourself and take note how you are positioned.
Find some pictures you do like of yourself and take note how you are positioned.
kathryn
Cathlete
Same here.
I can look fine in a mirror, but then I try to take a photo of myself, and I look so old and saggy and 'not me'.
I avoid having my photo taken for that reason (though I did have a good "winner's circle photo of me from a race I was in, and my avatar photo turned out really well, IMO. In fact, it might look better than me...and not just because it's about 4 years old! The trick, I found, is to think happy thoughts. I took about a half-dozen photos before I got a good one, and when I got the good one, I decided to think about one of my cats, and look at the camera as if it were her. It also worked for the race photo).
I can look fine in a mirror, but then I try to take a photo of myself, and I look so old and saggy and 'not me'.
I avoid having my photo taken for that reason (though I did have a good "winner's circle photo of me from a race I was in, and my avatar photo turned out really well, IMO. In fact, it might look better than me...and not just because it's about 4 years old! The trick, I found, is to think happy thoughts. I took about a half-dozen photos before I got a good one, and when I got the good one, I decided to think about one of my cats, and look at the camera as if it were her. It also worked for the race photo).
kathryn
Cathlete
Some of the contestants on "America's Next Top Model" are good examples of that, for sure!
Hermia
Cathlete
I think part of it is that in regular life you're constantly moving through these small steps in a series of motions, like say when you're in the process of smiling or blinking or turning around. But then in a picture, it freezes it in just one part of the process, like you're partially into a smile or your eyes are half open. I can usually take decent pics if I'm consciously posing (cuz I have thought of certain angles that seem to work), but otherwise, I seem to always be frozen in some wierd facial expression or a moment of bad posture. =(
kathryn
Cathlete
Another thought: we don't really look the same in a mirror as we do to other people. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, there is a display in the physics department (at least there was when I was a student there) of all sorts of interesting things, one of which is a mirror that shows you the way you look to others: when you look at it, your right side is on your left, and vice versa (the way other people would see you). It's interestiong how it changes how you look. (And makes me wonder if we ever can see ourselves the way others see us, if both mirrors, and possibly photos, are not an accurate reflection--no pun intended, really!)
Terina
Cathlete
same here.
I can relate, most of my pictures my hair looks flat,or I look stoned( my daughters always get a good laugh when we try to take quick fun snap shots for FB for example. Theres a rare occasion that I take a great picture...lol
if you click on to my profile that picture is a great example of rare great picture( that i'm happy with that is).
Just gotta keep taking pictures....better to great in person that in a pic I guess..lol
I can relate, most of my pictures my hair looks flat,or I look stoned( my daughters always get a good laugh when we try to take quick fun snap shots for FB for example. Theres a rare occasion that I take a great picture...lol
if you click on to my profile that picture is a great example of rare great picture( that i'm happy with that is
).Just gotta keep taking pictures....better to great in person that in a pic I guess..lol
crm549
Cathlete
Ditto Kathryn. If fact ANTM is a good example of what Lulu is talking about. In that some of the girls' photographs don't come out as well as you think they would.
To add to this discussion, I have a theory that those of us with really animated facial expressions tend to get caught by the camera in the midst of them. Once I started pondering this question myself a while back, I realized I could "feel" myself scrunching my face up, wrinkling my nose, opening my eyes wide -- in short, doing the exact things I was caught doing in all those horrible photos I was in.
As I continued to observe, I noticed my teacher friends in videos doing the same things. Those who were really animated in their gestures and facial expressions ended up making outrageously funny faces when their videos were paused, something I hadn't noticed at all while the video was running. I suspect the same would be true if they were caught by a camera.
Obviously not the only one, but maybe another reason some people take awful photos???
Shari
As I continued to observe, I noticed my teacher friends in videos doing the same things. Those who were really animated in their gestures and facial expressions ended up making outrageously funny faces when their videos were paused, something I hadn't noticed at all while the video was running. I suspect the same would be true if they were caught by a camera.
Obviously not the only one, but maybe another reason some people take awful photos???
Shari
I have this problem too! One time when I was getting professional photos the photographer told me to smile at the camera like I had just been smiling at my then newborn son. He said he could see the love in my smile, so from that day forward I've always thought of my son as a baby when I get photos done and it really works.