ok ..so whose lying the camera or the mirror...???..!!

[Jessicajane]

Not sure if I have a mental block when it comes to looking at myself dressed in the mirror...but....

I had some Jess time the other evening, and I spent a while applying my make up and generally pampering myself....when I had finished adjusting my wig I looked in the mirrror and was really happy with the look...OK ...so I was not going to get any modelling offers or win a beauty contest but the chick lookig back at me was ...hmmm...cute...to me anyway...

Feeling oh so happy with myself I positioned myself in the study in front of the computer camera and took a few shots eagerly awaiting the results.....errrmmm...not at all what I expected...the make up I had put on was heavier than normal as I had some sunburn and wanted to cover it...(Derma blend etc etc) but the camera appeared to strip off the makeup other than the lippy and eyeliner...and I was left looking at me in a wig !!...puzzled I went back into the bathroom sort myself out...looking into the mirror the girly chick was back..??!!....so what is going on...am I imagining things...is my mind playing tricks and showing me what I want to see in the mirror or do I dump the computer camera..??!!!!!

171968171969171970171971

[Shelly Preston]

Hi Jessica

Your imagination is playing tricks on you.

You look fantastic. :D

[Jeanna]

Dump the camera. You look good!

[Ashley S]

Blame the camera, it's totally the camera.

I completely understand where you're coming from, I think the mirror is relatively impartial, and the camera can just be a real jerk some days.

I find my camera will maybe let me look good in about 5% of the pictures I take.

Regardless, I think your pictures look great. A little sun makes your cheeks glow :battingeyelashes:

Ashley

[jillleanne]

Nope, not you. It's the camera. They love to pick up makeup in particular, blush and eye liner will look like you are getting ready for Halloween or a drag show, particularly if you are indoors. Outdoor pics seem just fine. Oh btw, I want that blue top so just mail it to me, ok?

[jillleanne]

Nope, not you. It's the camera. They love to pick up makeup in particular, blush and eye liner will look like you are getting ready for Halloween or a drag show, particularly if you are indoors. Outdoor pics seem just fine. Oh btw, I want that blue top so just mail it to me, ok? I hope you are not talking about the pics you posted because they look fine.

[Karren H]

My mirror never lies.... My camera always lies! Sigh...

[Cynthia Anne]

Either my eyes have gone bad or you are beautiful! TESTING----------------! Nope! There aint nothin' wrong with my eyes! Hugs!:)

[April_Ligeia]

My camera always lies so I just take lots of photos and only keep the ones that make me look prettier than I really am.

[tracigirl_tv]

Jessica, ditto what April said just above.

My ration of camera-keepers to camera-deleters is approximately 1 : 5,029 (I exaggerate only slightly *lol*)

IMHO, you look quite pretty.

*suppressing jealous thoughts*

xoxo

Traci

[Stephenie S]

Yeah. The camera.

You look fine. Remember, even pros take hundreds of photos to get just one dynamite shot.

S

[Sally24]

Computer cameras are made for chatting, not photographs. You are in poor lighting, looking down at the camera, which is not a good camera. Try even an inexpensive or older digital camera with good difuse lighting and you should see what your mirror shows.

[Marleena]

It's the stupid camera! I hate mine! It finds the smallest things and amplifies them or adds things that aren't there. We all need a professional photographer.:)

You look great Jessica!

Mirror, mirror on the wall.. I like you best of all!!

[Babette]

First off Jessica, you look just fine to me. I like your presentation.

Now for the bad news. Nobody can look "normal" using the same sources of light as you did. A strong back light, as with your hall lighting, will only enhance your silhouette. Here is the scary part. People with European facial features tend to look like Boris Karloff whenever their faces are illuminated from below their chins. If you don't believe me, then take a flash light into a dark room with a mirror. Then put the flashlight below your chin and point it straight up. Now that you have scared yourself half to death, pick yourself off the floor and notice how your computer screen is doing the same thing with your web cam. As a bonus point of horror, you need to realize that computer screens do not emit a full spectrum of light. Did you notice how some of your pictures had blue tones and your makeup was the same?

So what should you do? Try experimenting with different sources and types of lighting. You don't always need a professional photography setup. Some incandescent lights can produce a nice warm glow to your pictures. If green or jaundice is your color, then go for the Martian look with CFL bulbs. Finally, IMHO, there is no substitute for natural daylight but try to avoid taking pictures with a strongly lit window in the background unless you like the silhouette look.

Hope this helps.

Babette

[Joanna41]

My mirror and camera are bff's...they both hate me...sigh...

Joanna

[patti1569]

My ration of camera-keepers to camera-deleters is approximately 1 : 5,029 (I exaggerate only slightly *lol*)


Haha! This is sooo true! Its the camera. I take so many pics just to get one I like. BTW, your pics look great!

[RenneB]

I am so there with you on this one girl. My camera works best when it is out of focus and fuzzy.... What I see isn't ever what the camera captures... boo hoo. So with a little photoshop and .... oh what the heck, dump the camera, you look great.

Be happy with what you have as there are so many of us in the human race that don't have nearly what you have. So enjoy and stop being so picky... really, just go with it. Get to where you are comfortable and enjoy the world....

Renne.....

[Diana Bain]

My camera works fine:D...Jessica you look great

[Lorileah]

Looking in the mirror you see what you will see in real life. A quick ever changing glimpse. You may think you are studying deeply but there are slight changes all the time. The camera gives you a frozen time. If you twitch wrong or turn just slightly, things change. This is especially true when you are using computer cameras or timers. It is less so when you have someone shooting the picture for you so that they can see the light the shadows the angle.

Add that to the fact that you expect something and it isn't what you expect (being your own worse critic). Your pictures look good. Go with what you see in the mirror :)

[helena.gcd]

i think that what lies is the mirror. Different cameras configurations take different pics of the same scene, due to differences in perspective.

The human eye can be compared with a camera. You just have to know two parameters, "f" and focal length. The human eye is the equivalent of a camera with and objective of 22mm and a f-range from 3.3 to 15, approximately.

So in order to take pics with the same appearance of what you see in the mirror you will need to have an objective that covers that focal length of 22 mm or something similar (a 28 or a 21 would do the trick) and shot at twice the distance you look at your self in the mirror. it should do the trick. (actually, for portrait photography, longer focal lengths are used, something between 60 and 90 mm)

with a "point and shot" camera this could be a bit more difficult, but not impossible if it has an optical zoom(digital zoom is useless in this case). You have to point to and object and put the camera in front of you. Play with the zoom till the object in the screen of the camera is the same size from your point of view that the real object.

i dont think that you can do anything if you use a webcam.


After all this technical speech, all i wanted to say is that you shouldn't worry, the camera lies and the mirror is right.

By the way, you look beautiful in those pics.

[DanaR]

I seem to never like pictures that are taken of me. One thing to remember, we are always going to be our own worst critics.

[NicoleScott]

You can look good in the mirror and bad in the camera, and vice versa. It's all about lighting.

[Stephanie47]

I think you look fine, especially the lighter picture with you in the floral top. I find my mirror reveals the woman I feel at the time. I always leave the door to the powder room open so I can see myself laboring away in the kitchen and dining area. At a distance I look great, so the mirror tells me. I have never taken a recent picture (last twenty-five years) of me en femme. So I don't know how my presentation comes through. However, I do see myself in en homme pictures, and, well, er....I look my age. I cannot hide my male facial features, even if I shave really close. The en homme pictures really re-enforce the fact that I will never pass. Going back to pictures of myself as a teenager and young adult, except for the height, I think I would pass as a woman. The en homme pictures really brought home the necessity to lose weight. I've kept some of the more form fitting dresses I wore twenty-five years ago as a goal to get back into.

[Mikaela]

The human eye can be compared with a camera. You just have to know two parameters, "f" and focal length. The human eye is the equivalent of a camera with and objective of 22mm and a f-range from 3.3 to 15, approximately.of view that the real object.

Actually, the focal length of the eye is closer to 50mm on a full frame sensor (or about 35mm on a crop sensor). Below that (wide), then you get some strange distortion to the face which will affect the apparent proportions.

Also, cameras pick up infrared light and have to have filters in place. Cheaper cameras/webcams are going to have poorer filters and infrared will go right through makeup.

And if you are bouncing a flash, then anything with SPF might bounce back white or brighter, which is common with concealers. It's why under eyes and beardlines bounce back white in a flash if heavily concealed.

If you've taken these into considerations, cameras will be better since they do not flip your image. They also give you an opportunity to be 'outside of yourself' to view it. That can mean you can be more critical or it can mean that you've separated yourself enough from the moment to be more open to interpreting what you see.

[Beverley Sims]

I have some wonderful soft focus shots of myself taken when I was 18 20.
Camera wise it is lighting, correct pose, makeup, and at the end there is your over critical eye.
It is familiar with you and imagination lets it all go wild. Mirror images are different as well.
I think a lot of walking and posing in front of a video camera is helpful. First shots are usually awful, but as you practice walks poses etc you will improve.
If you have someone to follow you with the camera you get their perspective of what you look like.
The acid test is go out and see if you are reckognised by your friends and family.
That is not necessarily a good idea!
If all else fails, Photoshop it.

[Kathy Smith]

If you can sort out a point-n-shoot camera with a flash you'll get far better results. The low-res cameras intended for web cam use are useless for this job, their resolution and colour balance are totally shot-at, even with good lighting. I usually use an old 3 mega pixel camera on a lightweight tripod, using the self-timer. I've no real complaint about the results.

Remember too that the mirror reverses your image left-right. We get used to seeing our reflections like that and things look "wrong" when we see ourselves as others see us.

[UNDERDRESSER]

Cameras do not see things the way that the eye does. Depending on the light source, the colors can change markedly. If you ever see someone made up for a television appearance, they look frankly weird.

[AllieSF]

The problem is that you are using the light from the computer screen and if you have a more modern web cam, it may have its own blue light brightener tied into its own software that will not always result in a flattering result. If you took those same pics during the day with enough natural light in the room, your results would be totally different. So, as others have recommended, get yourself a small digital camera with a decent flash, improve the overall lighting wherever you want to take your pic and practice to get the true results that you want.

Your scenario here makes me remember a Seinfeld episode where he was dating this very attractive woman who suddenly looked very eerie, think vampire movie eerie, when she was in certain lighting. Jerry Seinfeld couldn't figure out what made her go from fashion model beautiful to vampire scary until someone suggested that he needed to find the right lighting to see her.

[Julie Denier]

I think you look great!

[elliemoss]

yes I feel your pain. Always happens me, I look in the mirror and think "whos that cute foxy chic staring back at me?" then I look at the pics and think "where did that huge man/woman beast thing come from?", seriously though you look great we are all our own harshest critics.

[eluuzion]

Lots of factors influence mirrors and photos/videos.

In a photo or looking at yourself on your laptop screen when you are making videos or taking pictures, the image you see is “correct” with reference to “left and right sides”. When you raise your right hand, the hand raised in the image is on the left side of the screen (or photo), as people see it (you) in real life.

Left/right reversal- the mirror reflects a reversed image of you. Look in a mirror and raise your right hand. The mirror image of you is raising the hand on the right side of the mirror. If that was a real person facing you raising their right hand, the raised hand would be on the other side. Try shaking hands with yourself in a mirror. It does not happen that way in real life. So in a mirror, you are always seeing a reversed image of yourself.

If you want to know what you really look like (to others)…put two mirrors perpendicular to each other (push them together into a corner). Or just buy one of these…
http://www.truemirror.com/

Foreshortening- the distortion of perspective.
In photography/video… Like a standing person where the upper part looks closer and larger than the lower part…and the person looks shorter than they really are. (The cause here is the camera angle is too high at a relatively close distance).

Gee, do you think this has anything to do with the appearance of being well-endowed in a porn video? :heehee:

Look into a mirror and hold out your hand. Look how close (and big) your hand looks compared to your body and how short your arm looks between the two. That is foreshortening.

Here is a link to a basic physics tutorial explaining mirror imaging. Factors like distance and lighting and how they affect image. Pretty interesting.
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/refln/u13l2b.cfm

So as usual, defining “reality” is always based upon individual perception of it. Add/remove/adjust the angle, color and lighting and anything can happen (especially when you turn out all of the lights, lol).

No wonder we have difficulty figuring out who we really are...:doh:

:love:

[Natalie D]

Hi Jess,

Don't worry it's the camera...honest.

There's a reason professional photographers charge a lot of money to take pictures.
Its all about lighting and camera angles. That's before you even start to think about shutter speed, aperture, etc and of course pro cameras and lenses. It a lot harder to take a natural looking picture of someone than you may think. Let alone trying to take one of yourself without the equipment or proper lights.

You may get lucky using your laptop camera but the odds are staked against you.

How often do you see pictures in the press of top models not looking so good when they are snapped outside of a controlled photo shoot?

If you really want to get some decent pictures of yourself you will need a decent camera, tripod and remote control. Then just play around with it. Have a bit of fun and find out what angles work well.

[Cari]

This may just be me but I am very critical when I look at photo and video when dressed.
If I go back a few days later I see a bigger picture good and bad.
At the time I see the new things I tried and the first impression is off a bit.

By far my best pics are under sunlight or incandescent bulbs the flash really does play tricks.
I have a floor lamp with three bulbs and some smaller lights I use makes a big difference.

One question I used to go to support group meetings with flourescent lights.
That was kinda harsh and I dont think I ever looked good
Anyone have any tips for that harsh office type lighting ?

I do look good by dim bar light which is a good thing :-)

[Patsy]

You're not alone Jess. When I take webcam photos I usually have to sit down and have a nice cup of tea to get over the shock, and I'm really beautiful (joke).

[erickka]

Forget that stupid camera! You're one cute blonde! The pic with the better lighting (seated wearing blue blouse) shows you off the best

[Jessicajane]

LOL...thanks for the comments girls...its good to know that others have the same frustrations that I do...it was just such a shock to see a "chalk and cheese" difference...but hey in truth I just loved being Jess for a few hours...thanks Joanne for taking the children out !!!

Next time I will sort out a decent camera, and try again..!!...

[Jessicajane]

LOL...OMG never thought anyone would compliment my clothes...!!!....but it does feel nice on..!!

[Teri Ray]

Well if you ask me it depends on your camera. For example I have a cheap digital camera that can only give me a picture of me, that I find looks acceptable, on a ratio of 1 good for 50 bad. Used to think it was actually me looking silly, looking fat, crooked smile or whatever now I am happy to believe that its only the cameras fault. Come to think of it sometimes my computer misspells words. Yeshh these electonics time are hard.

[Jennifer Marie P.]

You look pretty and for the camera theres days that you wont like the pictures.