Do you perceive yourself differently in a photograph than you do in a mirror?

[sevo]

It's on the same side on the portraits as in the ambrotype, which is odd because the ambrotype is of course reversed.

As a matter of fact, it is not. Tintypes are a cheaper, later application of ambrotype technology, and different in that aspect. Tintypes are mirror images as the emulsion is face up on a dark metal sheet, while true ambrotypes are properly oriented as they are glass plates with the emulsion flipped backwards and painted black or glued to a black backing paper for viewing.

 

[Ducky]

I am absolutely gorgeous either way.

 

[TaoPhoto]

I, for one, trust the photograph more than the mirror. In the moment, the human mind has an amazing ability to not see what it doesn't want to see. We fool ourselves all the time in the mirror, convinced we look good, only to find that others see something else. The photograph is more honest, and brutal, than the mirror. It's also, I think, a better measure of what other people see when they look at me.

All that might explain why I always like the way I look in the mirror, but hate the way I look in photos.

 

[Nescio]

I also don't always like to look at myself in a mirror, though. For example, I hate looking at myself in the mirror too long when I'm at the hair dresser because I start noticing all the flaws in my face

So finally us myopists have something we can feel better about than all those 28 frame viewers. Or is it you should go more often...?😉

 

[sara]

I think I only started noticing this when I realised my fringe looked a bit weird on my face on photographs (btw I hate photos of myself), then I started to think why I looked okay with my fringe in the mirror. It only happened recently so now I just tie my hair back to make myself look symmetrical, but god I look like a horrible cow in real life -_-

 

[Dave Jenkins]

I much prefer the way I look in a photograph. To myself, I look much older in a mirror.

 

[JFH]

Yes, of course.... In a mirror, I can... well... move around, etc. You know what I mean. Most photographs just make me look fat, and, frankly, old.. 🙁

 

[ferider]

As dedicated photographers, you guys are funny .... wouldn't it depend on who took the photograph and with what intend ?

In other words, a self-portrait doesn't look so different than a look in the mirror. A good portrait by somebody else should show me something else, no ? I've seen some that I like, and others that I don't.

I guess this is a somewhat self indulgent question prompted by the fact that I dislike seeing myself in photographs ...

Have you taken portraits of other people and expected them to like them ?