A which distance should a photo be taken in order to given a true representation of one's physical appearance?

Question

There are photos I have of myself that I've taken at arm's distance where I would just take the camera in my hand, stretch out my arm as far as it would go, and snap a photo of myself, and other photos where Someone would take a picture of me from 5-6 feet away; both of which return completely different results.

In fact, I've been told I look like different people as compared to the arm's distance photo shots and the photos taken from 5-6 feet away.

Which distance is a more accurate representation of a person when taking a photo? Arm's length, or 5-6 feet away?

Just so everyone knows, I'm using a cheap disposable camera and know very little about photography to be honest.

Answer 1

Firstly why are you taking a photo of yourself?? If you want to get a reasonably true representation of yourself without looking as if it was taken in 'the hall of mirrors' and you are using a cheap camera then you need get someone else to take the photo. Disposable cameras were not designed for portraits!

Reason? Without being too techy, the lens is convex, (roundy) the closer you get the more roundy you look. So you need to be as far away from the camera to 1: fill the frame, 2: not be too far away.

TIP: mark your height on a wall. look through the viewfinder till you can see where your feet would be and the mark for your height. allow a little bit extra and there you go.Thats how far away you need to be. If its only a head shot you need move about 2feet closer no more and crop ( cut the photo) when you get the print back. Ideally get A DIGITAL CAMERA. They cost about the priceof a few cans of beer. and would suit you better.

Answer 2

Why are you asking this again? Don't believe what I told you first time? Don't be boring.

Answer 3

Don't take the photo yourself--have someone do it for you. Unfortunately a disposable camera does have a rather wide lens on it--what you'd need is a "longer" lens, like 100 to 135 mm, like this one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/little_pook...

I was a few feet away from the subject.

Answer 4

the camera you are using is most likely a fixed wide angle lens - that means most things up close will loook strached out and wide or distorted, if you are to far from the cam you will be small in the frame,

without knowing the camera or the lens set up i would geuss you should be at least 10feet (3meters) from the lens - get someone else to shoot you

a

Answer 5

The classic advice is to use a lens of longer-than-normal focal length -- a slight telephoto. For a 35mm camera, this would be somewhere between 75 - 100 mm, or the equivalent on a DSLR.   This gives correct drawing of the face and still fills the frame.  A normal lens (45 - 50mm) may do the same from ten feet away, but the head will be a small part of the image.  A wide-angle distorts the features.