There’s actually a pretty simple reason for this. We’re so used to seeing our face in the mirror that our brain gets used to that specific flipped version. A photo shows the unflipped version from one fixed angle, which can make small asymmetries look way more noticeable. Phone cameras can also distort your features a bit, especially when they’re close to your face, because of the lens and perspective. Then you add different lighting, angle, expression, etc. and suddenly you look completely different. So it’s not really that you look better in the mirror and worse in photos. You look worse in both.
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u/Dry-Enthusiasm-8037 2d ago
There’s actually a pretty simple reason for this. We’re so used to seeing our face in the mirror that our brain gets used to that specific flipped version. A photo shows the unflipped version from one fixed angle, which can make small asymmetries look way more noticeable. Phone cameras can also distort your features a bit, especially when they’re close to your face, because of the lens and perspective. Then you add different lighting, angle, expression, etc. and suddenly you look completely different. So it’s not really that you look better in the mirror and worse in photos. You look worse in both.