Does taking a picture directly at your face emphasize the features too much?

Question

Well, I'm just kind of obsessed and paranoid about something because I never realized I looked a certain way until I started taking pictures like directly at my face. If I take them at about arm's length away, I look weird and stuff. My face shape looks deformed. My face looks so thin, big at the top, small at the bottom, and my lips and nose are the main things on my face. If I look in the mirror, it looks more fuller and squarer. It's like I can see the big picture, but I feel like that's not what other people see. They must see what's in the camera a few feet away. Can the camera put too much focus on me?

When I set the timer, and step a few feet away, I look more like what I look like in the mirror. It's like everything is focused equally, including the backround, if that makes sense.

Is it just that the picture is making a certain effect, or am I ugly from up close, but normal looking like three feet away?

Answer 1

My nose always looks bigger and weird when I take a photo of myself up close so I think it's the way you are holding the camera.  I wouldn't stress over it.  Just quit taking photos of yourself up close.

Answer 2

Any wide angle lens will distort facial features if used too closely to a person. Even a pro SLR type camera will do this with the wrong lens mounted. I am assuming you are using a point and shoot digital. It has a zoom range does it not? You need to zoom the lens out, (bringing things closer), set the timer, and move far enough away so that you fill the frame as you desire. The focal length of say 80 - 100 mm will give a MUCH better look to portraits than a focal range somewhere in the 20s and held close to the face.

So there is your most basic portraiture lesson for today! :-)

steve

Answer 3

lol, what you are most likely suffering from is a phobia known as 'MySpaceacloseupimageparanoia'...

Taking a close up image of your face will usually distort your features  because the lens on the camera is a wider angle. So, use the timer instead and move away from the camera to take a more realistic image of yourself.

Don't worry that people will see you in exactly the same way as your camera does up close. They will not see your face distorted and I'm sure you look perfectly normal up close (in real life).

Answer 4

yeah, cameras are really like that.

People have what you call "selective distortion" in which their brains choose what they want to see or choose what to retain in the mental picture one has of a person.

You only notice these details in a photo because cameras are designed to capture all the details the eyes don't really process.

If you want, you can go with a camera with a lower resolution so it doesn't capture every detail, and don't use flash because it emphasizes the contours of your face too much. Just use ordinary room light.

And i wouldn't call it ugly from close up, but rather, taken at a wrong angle... :)