Why do blemishes and acne look worse in pictures than irl?
In: Technology
There are way too many parts of the full answer to post here, but I’ll cover those that are most important.
First, consider how almost all folks see their own reflections, and also how we see other people whom we admire enough to linger on their faces.
The former involves a lot of denial and basic narcissism or very creative lighting. The latter involves one’s appropriately named “rose colored glasses” so to speak.
Second, there are way more sebaceous glands on the face and scalp than the rest of the body. Which means there’s a lot more oil in those places. Combine oil with light from a camera’s flash or even natural lighting and you get a kind of acne and blemish highlighter.
Third, it’s not that it looks worse per se, it’s simply the psychological distance a camera allows which a mirror doesn’t. It’s the same kind of difference between a writer’s first draft and the final product a reader experiences.
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