DANGER: SELFIE DISTORTION!

​Standard Selfie
This image taken from about a foot away. You will note that there is obvious distortion. A cell  phone camera has a wide angle lens. Think "fish eye," but not quite to that degree. Whatever is closest will look much larger.

​​Improved Selfie
This image taken from about two feet away and has less distortion. While a marked improvement, it is still not the most accurate. For accuracy (i.e. you want to know what your face actually looks like), you need to go a little further back.

Accurate Selfie
This image taken from about five feet away. While my eyes don't look as big, you'll notice my nose looks MUCH smaller and my face looks proportionate. Nothing looks swollen or distorted. THIS should be the goal of a selfie.

All of the above images were taken with my cell phone and cropped to be about the same size, making for a smooth comparison. Folks, let's talk about selfies...

I am constantly explaining to anyone who will listen… you do NOT look like your selfie! Check out your feed from any social media platform and examine all the selfies. Those pictures are taken close to the face and they are seriously distorted. The current trend is to get your eyes closest to the phone to make sure they look huge! You’ve seen this, right?

The problem comes when your nose is actually the closest thing to the camera. The closer your face is to the camera, the more distortion your image will have. Period. Whatever is closest will appear the largest. Your nose will ALWAYS look bigger than it is in a standard selfie. Always.

I read a fantastic article in Newsweek and it explained that more people are getting nose jobs because they don’t like the way they look in their selfies. What?!?  Oh my gosh, y’all… we have GOT to educate ourselves! Your nose appears about 30% larger in a selfie. That’s a HUGE disparity between image and reality!

This excerpt really stood out to me… “In January, a survey by the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS) found that 55 percent of plastic surgeons said that their patients requested surgery to enhance their face to look better for selfies in 2017, while only 13 percent claimed to have executed a selfie-related surgery in 2016.”

So what’s going on? People are taking a standard selfie and the camera is about a foot from their face. There are simple solutions… my favorite is the selfie stick. It’s awesome, even if your running buddies tease you about it… then all admit they secretly love the effect. It gets the camera away from you. And what is optimal for an accurate image? About five feet away. The selfie stick can do this. But what if you don’t have a selfie stick? Put your camera on a timer, set it down, and step back. Or grab the nearest person and have him or her take the picture for you. Want to see how it should be done? Check out THIS VIDEO that I made a while back for a different blog post.

But let me tell you what you should NOT do… you should not look at an image taken from a foot away and think it’s an accurate depiction of your face. It is not.

Much love, readers. 
​~Lori

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