Is there a scientific reason why most people look like total shit in their photos

I thought my psychologist was average from his online pic but he’s hot in person!

I have several photographer friends and they say the same thing: you have to take a hundred photos to get just one good photo. Cameras are cruel, bitches.

Some people look like shit on camera

Not always, OP.

[quote]90% of people look bad.

This is why, OP.

I know a woman who is exactly the opposite. She’s sort of meh in person but stunning in photos.

I have no idea what the camera captures. Maybe it’s her skin tone

If most people photographed well, everyone would be a fashion model. Or a movie star.

Ever met a highly trained performer (actor, dancer, singer, musician) who does not photograph well (still photos, video, etc.)? That little shortcoming has destroyed a lot of budding careers.

Madonna is always beautiful.

R6 I know a woman like that too. Her photos are stunning, in person she is very flat though. I know it's not just editing because pictures of us with my phone reveal the same change.

At least these days, you don’t need to run up a bill on film. You can take 1000 photos if you have to.

It's bone structure. We've had a thousand threads about this, n00b.

And that's one reason models and actors make so much money... photogenic faces are so very rare.

Not only bone structure, R11.

I had the opportunity to see dozens of working fashion models come and go every day in my previous line of work, and not many of them possessed classical bone structure. There was always something else about them that the camera loved.

What races photograph the worst? I imagine it is near impossible to make Chinese look good.

Do us all a favor and FF the racist at R14 right after you savor the exquisite beauty of Joan Chen.

As far as on line profiles, I figure people only post their best pictures, so I expect everyone to look worse in person.

I look better in photos than real life.

People actually have said this.

It wasn’t necessary they say it - it wasn’t a dating situation - but they said it.

R15 choke on a huge black cock.

R18, are you propositioning me? Thanks, but no thanks.

For some strange reason, I usually look good in photos. So does my BF. I sure as hell ain't that impressive in real life.

Everyone taking portraits or selfies needs one of those circular around the lens light bars. They make anyone look better.

R20 faux humility from an ugly dude is not interesting.

Yes, it's the lighting.

OP is desperately trying to rationalize why he doesn't look 40 years younger in photos.

r8....she looks like an addict.

I too know someone who photographs exceptionally well....she wrinkled from the sun and looks 20 years older in person...in pics, she looks like a supermodel. Im the opposite, Im much better looking in person, I look horrible in pics....to the point that I dont allow my pic taken.

None of the women at work look even remotely like the pics in their profile thanks to those fucking filters.

R26 says the human turd. Sure.

They don't. You've just been conditioned by the mass media to accept their standards of what looks good.

[quote]I'm much better looking in person.

WHY WE LOOK BETTER IN A MIRROR THAN A PICTURE

Cameras, cell phone cameras in particular, use wide-angle lenses, typically 24-30mm focal length. The wide angle distorts facial features. Portrait lenses use a much narrower focal length, usually between 70-110mm, which produce the most pleasing facial proportions.

I'm sure I've never had that problem, OP.

I’ve aorked with a lot of fashion and supermodels over the years and it’s shocking how many look rather ordinary or unattractive in real life yet like goddesses in their photos . A lot has to do with bome structure that plays well for the camera I guess . Then I have female friends who are breathtaking in the real world yet look like crap in photos . Always has baffled me .

It has a lot to do with how we perceive faces. A living face moves imperceptibly, even when asleep. When we look at a face in a photograph, our brains see something that it labels as 'face', but because it isn't behaving in quite the way that hundreds of thousands of years of evolution have taught us to expect a face to behave, we perceive it as 'off'. Of course there are particularly beautiful people who are able to overcome our natural instinct, and actors and models train their facial muscles which helps then portray a semblance of movement even in a still shot, but most people just don't look right in a photo.

The thing you have to keep in mind about cameras, be they old fashioned film or modern digital is that they're just capturing a moment in time. And that image is captured in a fraction of a second.

So unless you carefully pose your photographic subject - you're going to have to take numerous pictures of them.

r35 um watch r31. Dont be so pretentious.

I had it explained to me like this: A camera is taking something 3 dimensional, a face, and turning it 2 dimensional. This results in a certain amount of flattening and distortion. Some people's faces distort prettier than other people's. Those people are photogenic. The rest of us are SOL.

My dentist's photo doesn't do him justice. In the photo he is good looking, but is even better looking in person.

There is a homeless guy in my neighborhood. He showed me some headshots since he is a working homeless dude. His pics don't do him justice at all.

Mug shots are the best!

I recall hearing of a guy that they punched right before his mug shot was taken, because he looked too happy otherwise.

My bone structure looks worse on film - m y nose looks wider and my cheekbones aren't as prominent. But my skin looks better, I have acne scars that I hate when I look in the mirror but they barely show up in pictures

When I was single I would always post what I thought was a bad pic of myself so I would know the guys who responded were ok with what I considered my worst.

When I met my partner of now nearly 15 years for the first time the first thing he said was "wow, you are WAY cuter in person". The funny thing is, so was he.

That's when I knew I had met the right guy.

R43, you should write Reader’s Digest “This American Life” column.

bumping