How do we know what we really look like?

…It’s pretty fucking close.

And you know…you could touch your face just fine. Things match up.

I generally see less of what I want to see in a picture than I do in a mirror.
I suspect it has to do more with the aspect of motion than a distortion of perception.

I’m pretty sure I look the same in the mirror, as I do in front of others. Pictures confirm this.

You can’t know for sure, since a lot of how you perceive yourself has nothing to do with what you actually look like. Anorectics, for example, have no abnormalities in judging the appearance of other people, but are grossly off the mark when judging their own appearance. People with BDD imagine flaws in their appearance that aren’t there, or that they wouldn’t see as a flaw in another person. Who’s to say that a normal brain doesn’t skew perception of the self in a different way?

I’ve seen before and after pictures of myself. From what I can tell, I’m right where I’m supposed to be.

Hurmmm… I don’t think we can ever really know, or at least I can’t. I mean, I could pick me out of a crowd pretty easily, but I’m constantly looking at pictures and saying “my chin is that big?” or “Wow, my arms look way better than I thought.” Usually it’s a negative thing, and I don’t know if my chin really is that big, or if I’m just focusing on certain parts in a picture, you know? I have an idea in my head of how I look, and it’s weird when the mirror or a picture doesn’t jive.

Maybe I’m a little crazy.

We only see objects because light is being reflected off of them and captured by our eyes. Mirrors simply add one more step to this process. The light reflects off of us, reflects off the mirror, then is collected by our eyes. Nothing magical happens when the light hits the mirror. It’s the same light that hits you, and it’s the same light that would be seen by someone else had they been standing there.

@Ivan The light would be the same, but the perception could be completely different. How do you explain how one person thinks a flower is beautiful, and another person would say “meh?” Or how one man could think a woman’s smile is incredibly lovely, and another person would find it annoying?

Reflections of light is only one part of what we see.

If the mirror images and the photographs look similar, you have an idea of your appearance. One interesting experiment is to use two mirrors; the second image will show your areas of asymmetry more clearly than the first reflection.

I’ve seen myself in this mirror. It was an eye opener.

O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us. To see oursels as others see us. It wad frae monie a blunder free us. An’ foolish notion… – Robert Burns, “To a Louse”

If, when I look in a mirror, I’m seeing what I want to see, then I am one fucked-up dude!

If you can see something good in the mirror, and it really isn’t there, then as the customer famously said of Meg Ryan, “I’ll have what she had!”

I know I see what I wanna see. My look has changed and I still see me so I know that others must see me a bit differently. Makes me wonder if we are all like that. We just see “me” when we look in the mirror and don’t really see ourselves objectively.

When I glance into a mirror briefly, or a reflection in a store window, when I am rushing, I see my maternal grandmother’s face. I can live with that.

I have this really.

@lynneblundell First time I heard that term.

I think it’s a brilliant question. Sometimes I look at old pictures and think – did I really look like that? Then someone will say that I haven’t changed that much. Sometimes I’ll look in the mirror and think I look okay – other times I think I am really ugly looking.

I do sometimes wonder if we see ourselves in our reflection the way others see us, and wonder what others see – if everyone sees you in a different way. I do know for a fact that your image, and image of yourself, greatly changes when you are feeling extreme in either way – confident (sexy), depressed (bad).

@Zen I totally agree with you. I just saw old friends of mine and they say I havent changed at all and I defiantly think I look totally different and actually for the better. I too sometimes one day I look in the mirror and think got damn I look good today and other days I dont understand when someones says I look good and I think there crazy.

@jessicar The thing is, beauty is an attitude. What friends and family say to us is one thing (aren’t they supposed to be polite and “forgiving” of our flaws, ex. and internal) by definition?

I think that I look like shit. Period.

I look in the mirror, and do not recognize myself anymore. I have friends, ( and online friends who have seen my photos both new and old,) and think I am as sexy as my current acatar, if not handsomer.

I, disagree. I think, as I’ve said, I look like hell.

Whatcha gonna do about it, is what’s important. If you have missed my other question, here’s a link for inspiration

Ok i have joined just so i can awnser your question. Cameras deform things in our perspective as an example take your finger and point it at the camera and take a pic, what you should see is a really big finger. That’s because cameras deal with a spacial different, meaning, the closer something is, the bigger it appears. A mirrors is plate of glass over metal coating. The glass plate takes in the spatial difference and separates the light bouncing off the metal, so your face appears the way it would to others around you in your perspective.

The mirror is correct just reversed. This site below helped a lot

http://www.rxpgnews.com/Ophthalmology/Why_do_pictures_look_same_from_different_angles_2499_2499.shtml