Are you wondering if your camera is the true representative of how others see you? Why does your image look different with a front camera, back camera, and mirror? The pictures you take could have noticeable differences based on lighting, camera quality, and angle. But is there any way you can look at your face precisely as it is?
Some people feel that their face looks weird on a front camera and prefer a back camera instead. Is that the true representation of their face or just their perception? I’m sure you have a number of questions in mind, and I’ve got you covered with this guide!
Is the back camera how others see you?
There are a lot of factors that affect the pictures you take from your back camera, especially when it comes to accuracy and quality. Even though the resolution of your camera could significantly have an impact on the accuracy of your picture, other factors like your positioning, angle, natural lighting, and the focal length of the lens could play an important role.
With all these factors, you are likely to get a warped and distorted image that is not so close to reality. You may take a few steps to mirror reality, have adequate lighting and choose the most appropriate angle to get an image as real as possible, but you might still notice differences.
Moreover, editing applications that help you modify your pictures further prevent you from getting a real picture of yourself. However, compared to your front camera, the rear camera definitely gives more clear and more realistic results.
Does a front camera give accurate results?
Now that you know the reality of back cameras, you might wonder how accurate your front camera is. Just like the back camera, the front camera is susceptible to being influenced by factors that distort your pictures and affect the level of their accuracy.
It is essential to understand that your front cameras have slightly more wide-angle lenses than rear cameras. With a wide-angle lens, the foreground of your picture is enlarged while the background is diminished.
Since the focus is on you instead of the area around you, more emphasis will be laid on you to make the area in front of your camera much more defined. With an increased focus, clarity of details, and proper positioning, you are able to get great selfies.
Furthermore, the length of your lens plays a huge role in impacting the accuracy of your picture. With a longer lens that ignores the area around you to improve the focus on the portion in front of your camera, you are able to get results that are much more accurate.
Nevertheless, what you see in your front camera is actually a mirror image. You will notice the same while you look at your reflection in a mirror. Since your reflection is reversed from left to right and the image is reversed, you would not be able to look at yourself in the way others perceive you.
Why do you look weird with the front camera?
We have discussed how the front camera is not the actual representation of how your face looks. Even so, you might wonder why your features look distorted and your overall face appears to be warped while you take a selfie.
Because of the level of inaccuracy, which is affected by a lot of factors, selfies tend to get you terrible results by exaggerating your features and presenting an image that does not mirror reality.
If you find your pictures to be a little too inaccurate and far from reality, the lens of your front camera might be too short for taking great pictures at that particular range. Taking close-up pictures with a short lens could get you distorted images with your face looking weird and your features like your nose and eyes appearing wider than they really are.
As discussed before, front cameras tend to flip your face and get you inverted images that can potentially exaggerate the already existing asymmetry of your face and stretch the image. This wide-angled distortion can be avoided to an extent if you start clicking your pictures with an increased distance between your face and your mobile phone selfie camera instead of close-up photos.
But how to avoid this distortion in close-up selfies? You can simply hold the camera away from your face and zoom in a little before you click the picture, as it negates this stretching effect to fetch results that are relatively accurate. Apart from all these reasons, front cameras tend to produce completely dark pictures in bad lighting, unlike back cameras, which can not only produce clearer pictures, but also more pleasing pictures.
How do you know the way others see you?
Now that you know for a fact that neither the back camera, nor the front camera is an accurate representation of how you look, you might want to get an idea of your actual appearance. The phone camera might not capture you in the most accurate way possible, but you can definitely use the following methods to know the way others see you.
1. Get two plain mirrors
Just by placing two plain mirrors in a way that they form a right angle, you will be able to get a very accurate idea of how you look in the eyes of others. The reflection you get in a mirror is much more accurate than the one you get in your front or back camera.
This is because mirrors won’t distort your features and make you look weird like phone cameras can. However, you will still have a flipped image of yourself, which is why you should use two plain mirrors and place them in a way to get the right angle.
You may spot differences in bedroom and bathroom mirrors, so what you see in the mirror, a plain true mirror, to be specific, is the reflection closest to how others perceive you.
2. Ask others
Whether it is your friend or someone from your family, people who are used to looking at you will be able to tell you better about the way you look compared to your pictures. You can simply ask them to tell you whether your pictures look like the true representation of your actual appearance.
And if not, then what differences do they see in your features? By asking those who can perceive you in the most accurate way, you will be able to know what you truly look like. You can ask them to compare your features with the ones in your pictures to know what prevents your photos from being the true representative of your looks.
3. Compare your reflection to pictures
Both mirror reflections and pictures, whether clicked from the back camera or front camera, cannot be considered the most accurate representation of your actual looks. However, if you compare your pictures with your reflection in the mirror, you might be able to get an idea of which will be the closest to reality.
Even though your pictures do not accurately demonstrate how others perceive you, they tend to reveal crucial facts about your appearance and features. And if you compare and combine these pictures with the reflection you see in your mirror, you will be able to draw a reliable conclusion.
You can notice how the dimensions of your face in photos differ from those you see in a mirror. Even the size of your features might look different in pictures, and you can compare this using a plain mirror.
4. Record videos
Another way to get a clear and accurate representation of your physical appearance is to record videos of yourself. Photos offer a specific angle and prompt you to stay in a still pose to capture you from that particular angle.
Videos, on the other hand, depict your appearance more accurately as you can record yourself with different expressions and poses. Videos will help in examining your features and overall look from different distances and angles to let you draw a conclusion.
Furthermore, a video can capture your expressions more clearly and let you know about your appearance by taking into account every aspect. To get the best and the most reliable results with maximum accuracy, try increasing the distance between your camera and face while recording videos and using proper lighting.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article must have given you a clear idea of determining how others perceive you. Whether you use a front camera or a back camera to click pictures, neither of them will portray your actual look with complete accuracy.
The back camera will give you a more realistic view, but even the accuracy of those pictures is affected by a number of factors. When it comes to mirrors, you only get to see a true reflection of yourself, but it is a mirror image and a reversal of how others perceive you. That being said, there are a few ways that you can follow to understand how you actually look.
You may ask your friends and family to compare the accuracy of your pictures with your actual face. You can even use other ways listed in this guide and get an idea of your appearance through your video recordings or simply compare your pictures with your mirror reflection.