This isn’t a personal attack lol I’m genuinely confused.
In: Physics
the mirrored image is responsible for some of it as others have said, but also the human eye is approximately 22mm with an fstop range of about 2 – 8. So anything other than that won’t look the same. Also bathroom lighting is usually pretty even, warm, from the top, which can be different from the lighting in photographs, which can contribute. Furthermore, a photo is just a single moment in time where in a mirror, you are immediatly seeing the image, so you can adjust yourself in small ways constanstly to get the best image possible.
In a mirror, your face is backwards (that would be generally known as a mirror image). It is the way you see yourself, and the way you have become accustomed to seeing your face for your entire life.
Faces are not symmetrical. That means they are not the same on both sides. So you actually are very used to looking at those sides in a mirror on the opposite side that everyone else sees them.
There is a simple experiment on a computer you can use to see this. Most photo editing software has a “transform” function. If you put that picture through that process of flipping it left for right, you will find the image of your face much more pleasing. That is because it now mimics what you see in the mirror.
This is just a visual bias of finding what you are accustomed to pleasing. It’s not that you look different, just not what you’re used to. So you don’t think it looks as good. But in reality, if you then take that reversed image on the computer and show it to friends or family, they will see it as being “off” because they are used to seeing you how you appear. This is also why others look normal to you in pictures while you don’t. You are used to seeing their faces in real life, and that’s how the picture looks.
Because you’re used to seeing your face in a mirror. Your face is asymmetrical and everyone is used to seeing their face in the mirror that when they see it the same as everyone else (in a photo), the asymmetries get compounded
A photo taken at arm’s length shows you an image from one arm length away. A mirror held at arm’s length shows you an image from *two* arm lengths away.
An image taken closer up exaggerates facial features, making them look larger against a smallish head. The effect looks even stranger as a photograph can scale up or down, something you can’t do with a flat mirror.
It’s not something you notice when actually looking at someone, since most of you see in stereo, your eyes can’t zoom, and you very likely have their attention.
Your face will look the same in a mirror as it does a photo taken from twice as far away.
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