this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 16 minutes ago

The part of yourself that's looking good is your vampire descent (everyone's 1/1000th vampire after all as vampires were landlords that fucked everything that moved back in the 13th century) and that's not visible on photo.

[–] DJKJuicy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 hour ago

This mirrored/asymmetrical stuff is mostly wrong. It can definitely cause an "uncanny" vibe but doesn't explain why you're a 7/10 in the mirror and a 3/10 in a photo.

You look different in the mirror versus photos because of the different focal length, different depth of field, and different angle.

I look pretty good to my own eye in the mirror but look like an absolute blumpkin in photos. However, you can take a pretty good selfie that looks like what you see in the mirror by placing the camera about 4 feet away from you and at a slightly elevated angle.

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 hour ago

The solution is to talk to women in person while you're a 7 instead of over the internet where you're a 3

[–] sheepishly@fedia.io 9 points 6 hours ago

Just take a picture of the mirror bro

[–] LodeMike 10 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

The amount of people in the comments who don't immediately know this is because our faces are slightly asymmetrical and we're used to seeing them in the mirror is concerning.

Other people get the same effect when they see your face mirrored.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 14 minutes ago (1 children)

so ... you could just "flip" photos and make them look good? Why didn't phone makers recognize this and build this into their apps?? I think you just revolutionized the mobile phone industry.

[–] LodeMike 1 points 5 minutes ago

They only look good to the person taking a photo. Anyone else thinks you look weird due to that effect.

[–] chatroom@lemm.ee 61 points 16 hours ago (5 children)

Short distance to subject and wide angle camera lens makes bad photos

[–] HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.world 12 points 13 hours ago

In addition to this (the effects of which are far more pronounced than the 'mirror image' theory btw — flipping a camera shot doesn't tend to make a strong difference after all), a photo is just, well, a snapshot. It can't pick up the subtle movements in expressions that add to your visual personality. If we all went about with a static photo expression on our faces, we'd look weird as fuck.

[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 31 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Every cellphone camera is objectively terrible at capturing human features

[–] CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 21 points 14 hours ago

Helps if you angle the camera down slightly, actually funny story about AI... There was this site a few years ago that would give you a masculine/femanine score based on a selfie, I discovered all it was really checking was the angle of the face because men tend to take photos straight on and women know to take the photo with your face at an angle. (But NEVER an upward angle)

[–] Apytele@sh.itjust.works 2 points 12 hours ago

You said it better than me.

[–] BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 0 points 8 hours ago

Not necessarily

[–] javasux@lemmy.world 43 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

take a picture of the mirror, dumbass

[–] OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 11 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Confirmed, fixes the issue

I'm 99% sure it's me noticing flaws because I recognise it's mine but it's very different due to mirroring

Like, damn, my face is slanted as fuck when mirrored...

[–] slaacaa@lemmy.world 7 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

Not really, it’s the distance, mirror doubles it. Selfies of most people look horrible, even if flipped, due to the camera’s distortion from the short distance.

Any time I had professional photos taken for work, the photographer stood at least 3 meters (10 feet) away, maybe even more.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 13 minutes ago

does ... does that mean that people would look weird if you creep very close to them irl too?

[–] cornshark@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago

Aw, does this mean that spy satellites exist to create the sexiest possible pictures of everyone on earth? Thank you Big Brother

[–] supercargo@r.nf 6 points 13 hours ago

Like, damn, my face is slanted as fuck when mirrored...

Same bruh, same.
What my mirrored face looks like to me:

[–] dumbass@leminal.space 4 points 13 hours ago

Ok done.

Now what?

[–] ch00f@lemmy.world 32 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

You're used to seeing your mirror image. You aren't perfectly symmetrical, so your reflection looks slightly different than your image in a camera.

[–] steeznson@lemmy.world 6 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I remember seeing a study saying the most attractive people had somewhat asymmetrical faces but there's a sweet spot for it. Attractiveness reduces again if the face is too asymmetrical.

[–] Boxscape@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

Are you sure it said asymmetrical?

I read something on the topic (though, awhile ago now) and it talked about symmetry being attractive, and even gave Denzel Washington as an example because he had a remarkably symmetrical face.

Wud be really interesting if asymmetry is found attractive now!

[–] Sirence@feddit.org 0 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Slightly asymmetrical, with emphasis on the slightly. Which is the reason women often drew fake moles on their cheeks in the past, or drew over existing ones to make them bigger (eg Monroe). It's kinda making a comeback lately, I've seen some "influencers" picking the habit back up.

[–] scytale@lemm.ee 0 points 8 hours ago

I noticed kpop idols put on fake moles as part of their look for performances.

[–] Asidonhopo@lemmy.world 17 points 16 hours ago

A mirror is a lot easier to use than a camera

[–] Boxscape@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Lmaoa, I remember reading about this.

If I recall correctly, a picture shows how you appear to others whereas the mirror shows you a 'mirrored' image of yourself (e.g., your left side is the reflection's right side).

We are used to seeing our reflection, which then makes pictures of ourselves look strange.

I think selfie cameras intentionally take a mirrored image to avoid this effect. But I've never taken one because I hate looking at myself.

There's a similar phenomenon with hearing ourselves in recordings vs. as we speak.

Edit: as @ch00f@lemmy.world already explained!

[–] andybytes@programming.dev 2 points 16 hours ago

I love eating tofu and beef.