why do people look different in photos than in person.
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I’d say the biggest reasons are probably editing and selection bias in the form of self-selection. More people edit photos than you realize, and the average person is far worse at identifying edited photos than they realize. Moreover, when you’re seeing a photo of someone, 9 times out of 10 you’re seeing a photo that they chose to show you. This is naturally going to be a very flattering photo of them, with light, facial expression, and potentially edits that are making them look like the best version of themselves.
Different lenses can distort the image.
“Wide angle,” lenses tend to stretch distances, but can fit more things in the frame. This has the side effect of making noses look really long, and faces looking skinnier.
“Telephoto,” lenses tend to shorten distances, giving the appearance of being closer to the subject (i.e. zoomed in), but this has the side effect of making faces look more squished and “fat.”
Lenses that “zoom,” do so by changing their focal length. You can see an example of a lens going from a telephoto to a wide focal length [in this movie clip](https://youtu.be/nXiHYUM6G68?si=xXnCLr8uQgFBVwjb&t=14), and see how it distorts the actor’s face.
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