“Why do I always look worse in photos?” - Here's why & what you can do.

Summary

Highlights

• Explore why your photos don't always match the mirror reflection. 📷
• Discover how eye positions and camera distance affect photo outcomes. 🤳
• Learn why Buckingham fat procedures are popular for a photogenic look. ✂️
• Uncover makeup strategies that enhance facial features for photography. 💅
• Find out why filming videos might boost your photo confidence. 🎥

Key Takeaways

• Our faces often look different in photos due to the camera lens capturing a 2D image, unlike our eyes which perceive 3D. 📸
• Objective photography factors and self-perception both play roles in how photogenic we seem. 🤔
• Facial symmetry and perception challenges make us critical of our photos. 😮
• Style tips like face-framing hair and strategic makeup can enhance photogenic qualities. 💄
• Confidence and knowing your angles can make a significant difference in photographs. ✨

Overview

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction In this introduction, the speaker addresses the common feeling of looking worse in photos than in real life and questions why our faces often appear differently in pictures compared to the mirror. The speaker, Jen, aims to help viewers understand this phenomenon and offers style tips for becoming more photogenic, emphasizing the theme of personal improvement and style enhancement.
• 00:30 - 05:00: Objective Reasons for Looking Worse in Photos This chapter explores objective reasons why individuals might look less photogenic in photos. It specifically highlights the concept of facial width, mentioning that the distance across one's face can contribute to their photogenic quality. The discussion emphasizes understanding and embracing individual uniqueness in style over simply adhering to trends.
• 05:00 - 07:00: Subjective Reasons for Looking Worse in Photos This chapter delves into the reasons why individuals might perceive themselves as looking worse in photos compared to real life. It discusses how the structure of the face, particularly the cheekbones and the outline of the face, contributes to this perception. The text explains that in real life, the human eye can recognize the depth and dimensions of the face, noting the forward protrusion of facial features contrasted with the receding outline of the face. This natural perception of depth and three-dimensionality is often lost in photographs, leading to the face appearing wider from a frontal view, particularly for those with prominent cheekbones.
• 07:00 - 10:00: Style Tips for Photogenic Appearance This chapter provides insights into how human eyes perceive depth and create three-dimensional images. It explains the disparity in perception when closing one eye and then the other, which highlights the role of binocular vision in depth perception. The chapter also contrasts this natural perception with the limitations of a camera lens, which lacks the ability to fully replicate this effect due to its single-lens structure.
• 10:00 - 16:00: Makeup Tips for Photogenic Appearance Chapter discusses how facial features can appear flatter and more two-dimensional in photos. It explains that a wide distance from the eye to the facial outline can make more of the face's surface area appear 2D, drawing less attention to facial features. This is why procedures like Buckle fat removal are popular among celebrities, as they reduce the face's surface area, enhancing the prominence of facial features in photos or on screen.
• 16:00 - 20:00: Wardrobe and Confidence Tips The chapter discusses the importance of appearance for people, particularly celebrities, who need to maintain a certain image for on-screen presence. It highlights the popularity of cosmetic procedures like Buckle fat removal among celebrities, despite the potential negative side effects. The discussion also touches upon the concept of photogenic features, such as wide-set eyes, and explains that vertical proportions of the face are typically measured in fifths.
• 20:00 - 20:30: Conclusion The conclusion discusses the impact of eye distance on facial appearance. A wider distance between the eyes makes the outer parts of the face appear narrower, while a closer distance makes them appear wider. It suggests that people with wide-set eyes and narrow outer features may be more photogenic compared to those with wide-set eyes and wide outer features. The importance of the distance from the camera is also highlighted.

“Why do I always look worse in photos?” - Here's why & what you can do. Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 do you always feel like you look worse in photos than in real life and it's why you hate getting your photos taken so much why is it that our faces seem to look so different in photos compared to what we see in the mirror and we can't help but ask ourselves is that how other people actually see me trust me when I say that I know the exact feeling and in this video I'm going to help you understand why and share some style tips with you to be more photogenic if you're new here welcome I'm Jen and on this channel we talk about defining an improving our personal
• 00:30 - 01:00 style not by blindly following Trends but by understanding and Catering to our own individual uniqueness if that's something you're interested in make sure to hit that subscribe button and welcome to the channel so I think when it comes to talking about what makes a face less photogenic there are both objective and subjective reasons and if we were to talk about the objective reason first it has something to do with how wide the face is and if I'm being more specific it's actually the distance from the
• 01:00 - 01:30 outer corner of the eyes to the edge of the facial outline and that usually means you have some width in your cheekbones and in these cases the surface area of the face along the sides here is going to appear especially wide from the frontal view now in real life our eyes are able to recognize that there is depth to the face the facial features are not only placed in the center of the face but they also protrude more forward whereas the facial outline recedes back you know how when
• 01:30 - 02:00 you close one eye and you look at an object and you close the other eye you look at the same object the position of that object will seem to shift slightly that's actually Our Eyes giving information about the depth of the object so that's what our brain uses to create three-dimensional images and a camera lens is obviously not going to be able to capture that effect fully because there's only one lens and what our eyes recognize as a 3D object
• 02:00 - 02:30 becomes flatter and more two-dimensional in a photo so if there's a wide distance from the eye to the facial outline more of this surface area of the face is going to be captured as 2D and that means naturally there's going to be less attention drawn to the facial features sort of why procedures like Buckle fat removal is such a popular thing among celebrities because it naturally reduces the size of that surface area of the phase and it makes the facial features pop more in photo or on screen and for
• 02:30 - 03:00 these people it's kind of their job to appear a certain way on screen you know it's more important than how they come across in real life so in my opinion that's why procedures like Buckle fat is so popular amongst people like celebrities despite all of the negative side effects that are associated with it in my previous video I talked about how WID set eyes tend to be more photogenic and that's because our vertical proportions are measured in fifths so a
• 03:00 - 03:30 wider distance between the eyes will make the outer fifths of the face look narrower in contrast and Clos that eyes will have the opposite effect because having a closer distance between the eyes will make the outer fifs appear wider in contrast so technically if you have wide set eyes but you also have wide outer fibs then you might not be as photogenic as somebody that has wide set eyes but narrow outer fits the distance from the C camera is something that you
• 03:30 - 04:00 might want to consider as well because the closer the face is to the camera the larger and more prominent the facial features will appear especially the nose area where it protrudes the most forward and the further away you are from the camera the more the surface area of the face becomes emphasized so if you feel like you look fine in selfies but not when somebody else takes your photos and that might be related to you know how far the camera is from the face and how
• 04:00 - 04:30 much the surface area of the face is emphasized more or you might be the opposite you know if you hate taking selfies but you feel like you look okay when other people take your photos then you might not like the effect of the middle third or the nose area becoming more emphasized with selfies because of the closer distance to the camera so apparently being about 3 ft away from the camera is the most accurate depiction of how other people perceive our faces in an in-person interaction
• 04:30 - 05:00 like a one-on-one conversation so it really comes down to how emphasized the facial features are versus how emphasized the surface area of the face is so factors like the size of the eyes the height of the nose Bridge the width and the roundness of the nose can all have an impact on how photogenic the face can be so any features that add more Dimension and depth to the face will generally look flatter and wider in
• 05:00 - 05:30 photos the next two reasons that make a face less photogenic I think are more so related to our self perception one of them being facial symmetry A more symmetrical face will generally be more photogenic but no one's face is perfectly symmetrical there's too many external factors like posture or lifestyle that impact the symmetry of our faces but we're so used to seeing our faces in the mirror every day and the camera or the photo will flip that around right and because we know the
• 05:30 - 06:00 smallest details of our faces the best seeing our faces flip like that just makes it look a little bit more Awkward even celebrities faces also look different when we flip them around it doesn't necessarily look worse we're just not used to seeing their faces this way but when it comes to ourselves I think we're just a little bit harsher like have you ever had a friend take your photo and they think you look fine but you think you look horrendous so I just think there's a general tendency
• 06:00 - 06:30 for a lot of us to be overly critical when it comes to our own appearances another reason could be that a still phase is not the only thing that makes us who we are you know we have our voice our facial expression the posture our personality like all of these elements combined is what makes us who we are and photos can't possibly encapsulate that all it really only captures the smallest
• 06:30 - 07:00 second of a component of ourselves and on top of that things like social media or having more photogenic friends around makes it so easy for us to fall into the comparison trap it's similar to facial symmetry you know we're kind of being overly critical about ourselves because we're just not used to seeing such a small component of who we are in a still shot and so how we feel about our photos has a lot to do with self-perception as
• 07:00 - 07:30 well and those are the more subjective reasons of why we feel like we're not photogenic so let's talk about some style tips for becoming more photogenic and like I said the objective reason that makes a face less photogenic has to do with the surface area of the face and the face looking especially wide and lacking in dimension in photos so to start off with a tip for your hair I would say face framing layers that cover the widest area of the face is naturally
• 07:30 - 08:00 going to help with drawing more attention to the facial features if we use myself as an example my wide outer fifs is actually something that I am very very insecure about and you would have noticed by now that I actually never wear my hair back or in an updo when I'm on camera so if you're concerned about your outer fifs being on the wide side then using a middle part or a slight off center part can cover both sides of the face and that'll naturally help with drawing more
• 08:00 - 08:30 attention to the facial features and if you don't like having so much hair touching the face so much then at least try to create a visual break with a few strands even if you pin the rest of your hair back or pull it up and that'll still be helpful in adding a narrowing effect on the outer fifs now if you're concerned about a middle part highlighting your facial asymmetry more a side part can still add a narrowing effect on the face if you style the hair in a way that frames one side of the
• 08:30 - 09:00 face entirely and that'll make the asymmetry in the face less noticeable and it also helps with drawing more emphasis to one side of the eyes now when it comes to tips for makeup is obviously going to involve contouring and the traditional Western makeup style will tell you to use a diagonal contour line to accentuate the cheekbones more but if your goal is to actually add a narrowing effect on the overall facial width then contouring the entire entire outline of the face along the sides can
• 09:00 - 09:30 be effective and that's more of an East Asian makeup style and I actually like combining both techniques so I'll Contour the overall outline of the face along the sides first and then I'll go back in with my Contour just slightly underneath the cheekbones to bring them out a little bit more now if the width in the jawline is a concern for you then using a heavier Contour below the cheekbones we're blending it downwards instead of up to cover the jawline will
• 09:30 - 10:00 make this area appear a bit narrower most people only consider contour and highlight for adding more Dimension to the face but I actually think that blush is such an underrated technique because it can draw more attention to where the pigment is applied so applying the blush and highlighter in the centers of your cheeks can not only highlight those areas but make them appear more protruded because remember the goal is to make the center of the face more
• 10:00 - 10:30 protruded and the sides of the face more receded so using the blush to draw more attention is going to help with making the center of the face appear more prominent now if you have some roundness or some width in your nose that's another area that will appear wider in photos naturally the lack of definition in the nose bridge will make the nose appear a bit more two-dimensional so paying extra attention to nose Contour on the days that you know you're going
• 10:30 - 11:00 to be photographed is a good idea another thing to pay attention to is shine because a shiny surface is going to draw more attention and it also distracts from your facial features especially large and flat areas like the forehead or between your eyebrows or areas where the lines of the face are highlighted more like beside the nose along the smile lines make sure you use extra powder on those areas if you know
• 11:00 - 11:30 you're going to be photographed and if you use a highlighter stick to a matte finish instead of a shimmery finish the next tip is related to wardrobe and is to avoid a turtleneck because creating a separation between the face and the neck can highlight the surface area of the face more but this doesn't apply if you have a weak chin because when you have a weak chin the face and the net can actually look somewhat connected so it kind of looks like one big surface area and in those cases it's actually better
• 11:30 - 12:00 to use a turtleneck to create that clear separation between the face and the neck and if you want more tips for weak chins I have a separate video on the topic as well now let's talk about some tips related to confidence with the first being find and know your best angles at an angle the curves and the protrusion of your features can be seen a lot better so naturally more Dimension is going to be added to the phase you also want to pay attention to your posture
• 12:00 - 12:30 for example if you always have a tendency to lift the chin up like I always used to then that actually lengthens the chin more and it makes the surface area in the lower face a lot more noticeable so pay attention to how you usually position yourself and at which angle your best photos are taken from another tip is to try filming a video instead you're constantly moving in a video as opposed to staying still in a photo so so all of your facial
• 12:30 - 13:00 expressions the natural curves of your face and the dimension can be seen a lot more in a video than in a photo it's actually something that's helped me a lot personally you know with starting YouTube and seeing myself more and more in video format has helped me feeling a lot less insecure even in photos I mean I still think that I look better in person than on screen but I guess you guys will never find out I hope you found all the tips helpful today and
• 13:00 - 13:30 I'll see you in my next video Until then stay unique and stay gorgeous