I read a great article on Gizmodo about why you look different when you look in the mirror to what you see in a picture. I'm sure you've checked yourself in the mirror before going out and you thought you looked fine and then later see a picture and realize you look totally different. Basically this difference you see is your body, camera, and mirror are conspiring against you to damage you body image.
Part of the reason you look different is due to the camera. While cameras work in a similar fashion as our eyes they do so through a complex lens. This lens can actually distort how you really look. There are many types of lenses which can all cause a different effect altering how you actually look.
It's ok to blame the mirror too. First off, they flip your image. What you are most accustomed to seeing in the mirror is actually the opposite of what other's see. There's also an issue with perspective. People often stand very close to mirrors in order to see their entire body. This position provides for a unique perspective. This perspective is more like that of a partner, someone close to you rather than a stranger far away. You may not look the same at 2' then you do at 10'.
Finally, you have no one left to blame but yourself. Yes, blame yourself. You allow yourself to think that your image in a photograph is somehow less than what you see in the mirror. Everything you do in the mirror is in order to look better, to show your most perfect self.
Others do not see the mirrored version of you. Others are able to see a side of you that you may rarely see. The reason we feel uncomfortable looking at ourselves in pictures is the same reason people dislike hearing their own voice. We like to think of ourselves as our most perfect self when in reality we are so much more. We are free, uncaring, and living.
Do you really look like what you think you look like?
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