Why do we think we look better in the mirror than in the picture?

But then take a picture and everything looks bad. You look like you're two different people.

However, you must understand that you are not alone. In fact, there is also a scientific explanation for this.

The Mirror Turns Us Over

What we see when we look at ourselves in the mirror is not reality. The reflection of the mirror is the upside down version of how we really look.

And as we look in the mirror every day, we're used to the feeling of the overturned version. So if you don't see yourself very often in the picture, you really don't know how you look, so it's okay if you shake up a little bit.

Instant Control

When we look in the mirror, we have complete and immediate control. If we do not like the angle, we respond immediately by changing our face and correcting our standing but also by changing our facial expression to form more satisfying images.

When it comes to photographs, we see ourselves after the picture's taken.

Light Matters

The brain works in that way that we don't notice the differences of enlightenment when we look at the mirror because the brain automatically equates it and shows our face close to what we're used to.

The camera doesn't work that way and it gets all shades and shadows.

In the mirror we only see specific details

When we look in the mirror, we usually focus on a certain part of our face, such as lips, nose, eyes, etc. and we don't perceive what they all look like together.

When we look at the photograph, we experience it all at once and we judge the performance: the way we stand, the expression of our face and everything else that we have not paid attention to.

Our asymmetric Faces

Nobody has absolutely symmetric faces. We're used to seeing ourselves at one or several certain angles and often think that one side of the face is the same as the other. That is why we feel like a completely different person when we look at ourselves in the picture and feel less attractive.