You’ve probably found yourself saying the same question at some point yourself…”Is that really what I look like?” after taking a photo. It’s Okay For Our Bodies To Look Drastically Different In Selfies Compared To Photos Taken By Others – But Why Does It Still Affect Us So Much? Sure, in an ideal world where we didn’t care about how our bodies looked in the photo and compared it to our reflections in the mirror, but unfortunately we don’t and pictures that we see across social media platforms don’t help us either.
Remember that there is a multitude of reasons for how a camera can alter your photos, i.e. camera settings, angles, lighting conditions and lens can all contribute. A wide lens, thick lens or a lens with a short focal length can cause more distortion and make the person in front of the camera look bigger.
Different angles can have a huge effect on how the size of the person in front of the camera – A group photo? The person on the end is always stretched, no matter the size. And you know that when you take a picture from close to the ground, the person will always appear taller and thinner, while when you take a picture from a higher position, the person will appear shorter. This doesn’t ever single anyone out. It applies to all of us.
So the next time you start comparing yourself to an image that you’ve seen on social media when you have NO idea what has gone into the making of the finishing picture – post-shooting editing – as it’s unfair to compare.
And lastly, when you see a beautiful full moon or sunset and you think to yourself “oh how pretty does that view look?” and want to capture the moment by taking a photo. But when you go back to have a look at the picture and…well, it looks a bit rubbish. You feel like you’ve failed at capturing the natural beauty of a beautiful sunset/full moon.
Cameras aren’t always perfect at capturing images and a picture can’t capture the beauty of a human. We can’t allow how we look to subsequently impact our self-esteem or dictated our worth. There is far more to us than how we look and how we look is the least interesting thing about us!
