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Kraken
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Often asked question so I hope this helps alot of people. If that's water for you nice, but many ppl still answer it wrong.
A lot of people see themselves in the mirror and think they are quite good looking, then they take a selfie and are shocked. Most likely I have good news for you. Unless you are really good at taking selfies the mirror is actually closer to the truth than the selfie(and yes taking selfies IS heavily affected by skill, you will realize that after reading this thread models can look like below average and vice versa). Now what's the closest?
So how do people see you? Is it how you look in selfies? mirror pics? the actual mirror? a "true" mirror? or a photoshoot?
tl dr: best objective ways are a mirror pic or depending on what you want a mirror video or a photoshoot are the best options. even those cant 100% represent you and are heavily affected by many of the following things but they are the best out of the options I listed.
Let's start with human perception first so I dont have to repeat it in every sentence. It's one of the most important factors actually. How you and others perceive you is HEAVILY influenced by what they or you think about you. If you are high status others will perceive you as better looking. If you yourself are in a good mood you will perceive yourself as better looking. Some pics of you might not be bad. You are just in a bad mood. So no picture can actually represent how others see you cuz that depends on their mood and their perception of you. Now that's out of the way lets get into objective facts.
#1 Why flipped selfie or true Mirrors lie
You are your biggest critic and fan at the same time. NOONE looks at you as much as yourself. You look into the mirror every single day your whole lifetime. Thus you are very used to every single feature of your face. That all happens subconscious however.
What does that mean tho?
It means that you are so familiar with your face that every single change no matter how minor will NEGATIVELY impact your perception of yourself (unless that change is a straight up improvement like a edited straighter nose which will not happen since it's just you but flipped. I'm only referring to flipping in this part). Humans like familiar faces more and perceive them as more attractive.
That is also the reason why flipped selfies or true mirrors are NOT how you look like. Yes it's true that the mirror is a flipped version of yourself but just as you are used to that flipped version everyone else is to your not flipped version.
A true mirror or a flipped selfie completly switches your familiar face around. Since you are so used to that flipped face AND you being yourselfs biggest critic that results in a massive change for you. Since you are not familiar with that face anymore it will impact how you see yourself negatively. For example if you have a slightly asymmetric nose you will be used to it over time and it will not appear as bad as it actually is. When you flip it however that change becomes even more apparent, due to your face now being unfamiliar and your nose will look worse than it actually is.That means EVERY foto that is flipped, compared to what you see in the mirror, will automatically be uglier to you than how others see you. True mirrors or flipped selfies are thus not how others see you.
Now a mirror is something you are very used to and thus will appear slighlty more attractive than how you actually are. But if you saw yourself for the first time ever, that would be closer to how you see yourself in the mirror than in a flipped selfies. The shock of a true mirror or a flipped selfie when seeing a totally different face outweighs the familiarity of the mirror by a lot.
Does that mean that if I flipped my face in real life people would see me as ugly as I see myself in a flipped selfie?
No. Due to the fact that they are not even close as familiar with your face as you are. For them the flipped version wouldnt be much of a difference. It would drag you down noticeably tho.
You can test that yourself by flipping a pic of a family member or a celebrity. It will look slighlty off to you.
That is because everyone has assymetrys but only you notice them as strongly.
Flipped anything results in a uglier perception of yourself than you actually are.
#2 Lenses and distances
Everyone knows about lens distortion yet for some weird reason ppl still say selfies are accurate lmao. Smartphones have small diameter lenses and they are close to your face.
The following pic ONLY accounts for the lens, not
for the distance. It's already a massive change.
The next picture showcases lens distortion AND distance changes. It's already a massive change in the 35mm lens. The standard selfie lens is MUCH smaller even.
The closer you are to your face the closer your nose is the the camera compared ro your ears. On a longer distance that relative distance becomes neglectable.
That means due to the lens distortion and the close up distance selfies are a terrible representation of yourself.
#3 Angles
Angles can make or break your face. Good side profiles are usually angle frauded. Try it yourself. Take a side profile pic from slighlty behind your ears and another one some cm infront of your ears. The mandible will appear much more appealing from the slighlty infron picture.
Same goes for the nose (especially nose) or any other part of your face.
The following pic showcases that WITHOUT major lens distortion.
This becomes even more apparent with lens distortion and close up distance.
Now we can already conclude that SELFIES and TRUE MIRRORS are out of the equation for honest pictures.
What stands are mirror selfies photoshoots and the actual mirror. They arent perfect, I will go into that as well but the other two are just terrible.
A mirror basicly doubles the distances which makes it preferably already. Remember the bigger the distance the less lens distortion affects the picture.
However even back cameras for example from the iPhone 12 have MASSIVE lens distortion if your face is not centered. Try it four yourself. Take a picture where your face is on the upper edge of the screen. It will be very elongated (depending on the phone obviously). So try to keep your face centered.
#4 Lightning
There are only 2 kinds of lightning.
Good, preferable lightning or bad lighnting which makes you look worse.
There is no such thing as neutral lighting. It always changes in real life as well so dont expect there to be one honest set of lightning. There are many techniques I'm not gonna list in here that photographers use to help with the lighnting and fraud wrinkles away or fraud a better side. But just as good lighnting can fraud wrinkles away bad lighnting makes fat pads and wrinkles MORE apparent.
Here a reddit video that showcases it very well.
and here a picture for ppl who cant be bothered or in case the thread gets taken down. The video shows it much better tho.
Notice how his NCT changes heavily depending on the lighnting and his skin looks saggy. The wrinkles become more apparent. The nose appears bigger. Overall the bad light makes him look older and depressed. The better lightning makes his skin smoother and he appears younger and happier.
#5 Motion vs stale images
This one is tricky. In reality our brains are wired to overlook assymetrys and a normal not BDD brain uses only the eyes and mouth as main anchor points when looking at someone. Our brain corrects minor failos basicly. In a picture our brains are not forced to use those anchor points as much which results into us giving slighlty more attention to those failos and assymetrys. So basicly that means most ppl will look better in person than in pictures.
So yeah a motion video will be closer to how people see you in person. A picture is closer to how you actually look. However that correction is ALWAYS active so neither a picture or a motion video is more accurate. But its somewhat of a lie.
That leaves us with stale images or motion videos as equally true. Depending on the situation one is closer to the truth than the other.
Another major difference is yet again lightning. As you saw lightning plays a huge role in attractiveness. While a stale image has a set lightning, a motion video shows more cases of your face structure under different conditions. That is closer to what people will see IRL again, since lightning will change there frequently as well.
Now a stale picture is not wrong. And in today's age of IG and so on just as important, it just showcases a very specific you.
#6 Why Mirrors "lie"
I went over a lot of it in why #1 Why true mirrors lie as well. Basicly since you see yourself every day you become familiar with that appearance and familiar = more attractive than it actually is. Besides that there are two other important factors.
Looking in the mirror, we usually focus on a particular part of our face like our lips, nose, eyes, etc., and we don’t realize how it looks all together. When looking at a pic, on the other hand, we perceive everything at once.
That goes for every interaction with a person in real life as well so it's somewhat close to what others see in person. It's a result of our brains not being able to look at an entire face at once.
There is one major thing that makes the mirror our best looking version tho.
The live corrections also comes into play and will affect you depending on your mood. That corrections is by far the strongest for ourselves. Overall a mirror makes you appear better looking than you are. The improved self perception is also proved by Epley.
In a series of studies, Epley and Whitchurch showed that we see ourselves as better looking than we actually are. The researchers took pictures of study participants and, using a computerized procedure, produced more attractive and less attractive versions of those pictures
People tend to say that an attractively enhanced picture is their own, but Epley and Whitchurch wanted to be sure that people truly believe what they say. People recognize objects more quickly when those objects match their mental representations. Therefore, if people truly believe that an attractively enhanced picture is their own, they should recognize that picture more quickly, which is exactly what the researchers found.
This means if an image looks "ugly" or rather very unfamiliar compared to what you see inside the mirror that means that your brain corrected your looks according to what you feel like you look aka better looking than you actually are. If the picture of you looks very close to what you see inside the mirror then your brain doesnt trick you as much and the mirror is quite close to the truth.
That concludes mirrors itself,selfies whether flipped or not and true mirrors as terrible options, and mirror pics or mirror videos and photoshoots as most honest options. Depending on the lighnting and angle those can be either good or bad. Lightning can also change the skin tone and so on.
The truth lies somewhere in the middle of your best and worst pics.
And remember it also heavily depends on your mood and how you think about yourself. Same goes for others. If someone looks up to you he will peceive you as better looking.
A lot of people see themselves in the mirror and think they are quite good looking, then they take a selfie and are shocked. Most likely I have good news for you. Unless you are really good at taking selfies the mirror is actually closer to the truth than the selfie(and yes taking selfies IS heavily affected by skill, you will realize that after reading this thread models can look like below average and vice versa). Now what's the closest?
So how do people see you? Is it how you look in selfies? mirror pics? the actual mirror? a "true" mirror? or a photoshoot?
tl dr: best objective ways are a mirror pic or depending on what you want a mirror video or a photoshoot are the best options. even those cant 100% represent you and are heavily affected by many of the following things but they are the best out of the options I listed.
Let's start with human perception first so I dont have to repeat it in every sentence. It's one of the most important factors actually. How you and others perceive you is HEAVILY influenced by what they or you think about you. If you are high status others will perceive you as better looking. If you yourself are in a good mood you will perceive yourself as better looking. Some pics of you might not be bad. You are just in a bad mood. So no picture can actually represent how others see you cuz that depends on their mood and their perception of you. Now that's out of the way lets get into objective facts.
#1 Why flipped selfie or true Mirrors lie
You are your biggest critic and fan at the same time. NOONE looks at you as much as yourself. You look into the mirror every single day your whole lifetime. Thus you are very used to every single feature of your face. That all happens subconscious however.
What does that mean tho?
It means that you are so familiar with your face that every single change no matter how minor will NEGATIVELY impact your perception of yourself (unless that change is a straight up improvement like a edited straighter nose which will not happen since it's just you but flipped. I'm only referring to flipping in this part). Humans like familiar faces more and perceive them as more attractive.
That is also the reason why flipped selfies or true mirrors are NOT how you look like. Yes it's true that the mirror is a flipped version of yourself but just as you are used to that flipped version everyone else is to your not flipped version.
A true mirror or a flipped selfie completly switches your familiar face around. Since you are so used to that flipped face AND you being yourselfs biggest critic that results in a massive change for you. Since you are not familiar with that face anymore it will impact how you see yourself negatively. For example if you have a slightly asymmetric nose you will be used to it over time and it will not appear as bad as it actually is. When you flip it however that change becomes even more apparent, due to your face now being unfamiliar and your nose will look worse than it actually is.That means EVERY foto that is flipped, compared to what you see in the mirror, will automatically be uglier to you than how others see you. True mirrors or flipped selfies are thus not how others see you.
Now a mirror is something you are very used to and thus will appear slighlty more attractive than how you actually are. But if you saw yourself for the first time ever, that would be closer to how you see yourself in the mirror than in a flipped selfies. The shock of a true mirror or a flipped selfie when seeing a totally different face outweighs the familiarity of the mirror by a lot.
Does that mean that if I flipped my face in real life people would see me as ugly as I see myself in a flipped selfie?
No. Due to the fact that they are not even close as familiar with your face as you are. For them the flipped version wouldnt be much of a difference. It would drag you down noticeably tho.
You can test that yourself by flipping a pic of a family member or a celebrity. It will look slighlty off to you.
That is because everyone has assymetrys but only you notice them as strongly.
Flipped anything results in a uglier perception of yourself than you actually are.
#2 Lenses and distances
Everyone knows about lens distortion yet for some weird reason ppl still say selfies are accurate lmao. Smartphones have small diameter lenses and they are close to your face.
The following pic ONLY accounts for the lens, not
for the distance. It's already a massive change.
The next picture showcases lens distortion AND distance changes. It's already a massive change in the 35mm lens. The standard selfie lens is MUCH smaller even.
The closer you are to your face the closer your nose is the the camera compared ro your ears. On a longer distance that relative distance becomes neglectable.
That means due to the lens distortion and the close up distance selfies are a terrible representation of yourself.
#3 Angles
Angles can make or break your face. Good side profiles are usually angle frauded. Try it yourself. Take a side profile pic from slighlty behind your ears and another one some cm infront of your ears. The mandible will appear much more appealing from the slighlty infron picture.
Same goes for the nose (especially nose) or any other part of your face.
The following pic showcases that WITHOUT major lens distortion.
This becomes even more apparent with lens distortion and close up distance.
Now we can already conclude that SELFIES and TRUE MIRRORS are out of the equation for honest pictures.
What stands are mirror selfies photoshoots and the actual mirror. They arent perfect, I will go into that as well but the other two are just terrible.
A mirror basicly doubles the distances which makes it preferably already. Remember the bigger the distance the less lens distortion affects the picture.
However even back cameras for example from the iPhone 12 have MASSIVE lens distortion if your face is not centered. Try it four yourself. Take a picture where your face is on the upper edge of the screen. It will be very elongated (depending on the phone obviously). So try to keep your face centered.
#4 Lightning
There are only 2 kinds of lightning.
Good, preferable lightning or bad lighnting which makes you look worse.
There is no such thing as neutral lighting. It always changes in real life as well so dont expect there to be one honest set of lightning. There are many techniques I'm not gonna list in here that photographers use to help with the lighnting and fraud wrinkles away or fraud a better side. But just as good lighnting can fraud wrinkles away bad lighnting makes fat pads and wrinkles MORE apparent.
Here a reddit video that showcases it very well.
and here a picture for ppl who cant be bothered or in case the thread gets taken down. The video shows it much better tho.
Notice how his NCT changes heavily depending on the lighnting and his skin looks saggy. The wrinkles become more apparent. The nose appears bigger. Overall the bad light makes him look older and depressed. The better lightning makes his skin smoother and he appears younger and happier.
#5 Motion vs stale images
This one is tricky. In reality our brains are wired to overlook assymetrys and a normal not BDD brain uses only the eyes and mouth as main anchor points when looking at someone. Our brain corrects minor failos basicly. In a picture our brains are not forced to use those anchor points as much which results into us giving slighlty more attention to those failos and assymetrys. So basicly that means most ppl will look better in person than in pictures.
So yeah a motion video will be closer to how people see you in person. A picture is closer to how you actually look. However that correction is ALWAYS active so neither a picture or a motion video is more accurate. But its somewhat of a lie.
That leaves us with stale images or motion videos as equally true. Depending on the situation one is closer to the truth than the other.
Another major difference is yet again lightning. As you saw lightning plays a huge role in attractiveness. While a stale image has a set lightning, a motion video shows more cases of your face structure under different conditions. That is closer to what people will see IRL again, since lightning will change there frequently as well.
Now a stale picture is not wrong. And in today's age of IG and so on just as important, it just showcases a very specific you.
#6 Why Mirrors "lie"
I went over a lot of it in why #1 Why true mirrors lie as well. Basicly since you see yourself every day you become familiar with that appearance and familiar = more attractive than it actually is. Besides that there are two other important factors.
Looking in the mirror, we usually focus on a particular part of our face like our lips, nose, eyes, etc., and we don’t realize how it looks all together. When looking at a pic, on the other hand, we perceive everything at once.
That goes for every interaction with a person in real life as well so it's somewhat close to what others see in person. It's a result of our brains not being able to look at an entire face at once.
There is one major thing that makes the mirror our best looking version tho.
The live corrections also comes into play and will affect you depending on your mood. That corrections is by far the strongest for ourselves. Overall a mirror makes you appear better looking than you are. The improved self perception is also proved by Epley.
People tend to say that an attractively enhanced picture is their own, but Epley and Whitchurch wanted to be sure that people truly believe what they say. People recognize objects more quickly when those objects match their mental representations. Therefore, if people truly believe that an attractively enhanced picture is their own, they should recognize that picture more quickly, which is exactly what the researchers found.
This means if an image looks "ugly" or rather very unfamiliar compared to what you see inside the mirror that means that your brain corrected your looks according to what you feel like you look aka better looking than you actually are. If the picture of you looks very close to what you see inside the mirror then your brain doesnt trick you as much and the mirror is quite close to the truth.
That concludes mirrors itself,selfies whether flipped or not and true mirrors as terrible options, and mirror pics or mirror videos and photoshoots as most honest options. Depending on the lighnting and angle those can be either good or bad. Lightning can also change the skin tone and so on.
The truth lies somewhere in the middle of your best and worst pics.
And remember it also heavily depends on your mood and how you think about yourself. Same goes for others. If someone looks up to you he will peceive you as better looking.
Last edited:
..you are.right I should add "unless.its a straight up imporvement". I did not make it clear I'm talking about the flipping changes :/
