Do you look good in photos

I make sure I'm not square on to the camera-sideways much kinder. Lift lips in a smile and raise eyebrows too. I know I delude myself but I feel like I'm making an effort. Families do want photos of us so we just have to grin and bear it and be thankful we're loved and wanted. . . .

I never look good (or even passable) in photos....

What I DO look like is a spare relative from someone else's family who's just wandered into the range of the camera because she's not been taking her medication regularly.

I always look blank or confused or bemused or startled.

Definitely not photogenic.

I have always looked like a complete goof in photos and always refuse to have my photo taken. Anyway who in their right mind would want my ugly mug printed and framed? I also hate looking in the mirror at the hairdressers and always tell myself how ugly I am when I catch sight of myself in a mirror.

I think maybe I will be a striking beauty in my next life.

I sympathise totally. Whilst considered quite nice looking in real life I generally take a terrible photo. I am really saddened by this as the occasional photo taken at the right angle makes me look like Cameron Diaz!! I have no nice photos of me with my new babies and later young children - I always look harrassed fraught, dishevelled and in need of a trip to the hairdressers. My jaw looks about a foot wide and my eyes squint up to nothing. Having said that - I suppose the advantage is that people always comment that I look better in real life than in photos!!

As rosesarered said - it's ok if I'm told a photo is about to be taken so I have time to compose my wobbly and 'unfriendly-in-repose' face but I hate 'in action' photos that the photographer then decides to share with others or later comes back to ask who that person was in the photo - so embarrassing and cruel (recent experiences)!

My sister says I look much better in a photograph than I do in real life!
Years ago I thought that a bit cheeky but now I think she is maybe correct as when I look in the mirror I am old and have loads of wrinkles but in photographs of me smiling they disappear.

Sorry only just seen your post justwokeup.
I'm glad you were pleased with your photos.

Actually lefthanded the camera does distort.
Unless you are using a lens with a focal length greater than 80mm you get a 'barrelling' effect which makes the face look wider in the middle third of the face, as if you are looking into a slightly convex mirror.
That's why selfies taken with mobiles are never flattering and why I suggested the OP should go to s professional photographer.

@lefthanded, that's a really good response. We all age and as someone else said our children/grandchildren love us the way we are. I am usually behind the camera but find it difficult to avoid the constant mobile pictures, video blogging etc that my son does! Sometimes I am wandering around in my dressing gown looking half dead and my son whips out his phone and he shouts mum... then its too late, click! Photos are treasured memories that can never be revisited but I have to agree with the majority here, I try and avoid looking into the camera. This is me and my son :-)

I'm not photogenic and hate pictures of myself but I had to have a corporate pic taken at work and the professional photographer made me feel comfortable, adjusted the lighting and told me how to pose - without even mentioning my double chin - and I was really pleased with the result. It just looked ordinary but that was so much better than usual! So do take the family to a photographer - they take so many photos, you can pick the one of you you like best, and the plus is that you can have lots of your DGC too. We got a voucher for a slot which cost very little but we got so many wonderful photos of DGS and DD (who hates having her photo taken) that we bought lots of them. Photographer and Gran both happy .

I don't think it's vanity, or rather in an increasingly visual world, and as a woman because women are always under scrutiny, why wouldn't we take note of how we look compared to those millions of images out there.

There are lots of good articles explaining factors that affect how we look in photographs. Here's one:

www.zmescience.com/other/great-pics/why-you-look-ugly-photos-science-5354/

Not likely, I'm afraid. Seeing photos of myself ruins my day!

At risk of upsetting a few of you ladies, to answer the o/p's question "Are you being vain ?" - yes I think you are. Despite what you might like to think, the camera does not distort. But when you have a photograph taken please remember this - there is only one person on the planet who thinks you are unattractive in the photo, and that person is YOU.

My late mother thought the same way as you do. Even at family weddings she would ensure that she was out of sight of the cameras. When she died (in 2008) I discovered that the most recent photo of her that I could find was taken in 1983.

So face your fears. Smile and be photographed. Every day if possible. Future generations will thank you for it.

I look foul in photos, and I go to enormous lengths to avoid being in them.

Oh ANGIB, u are definitely not being vain. Like u I am not too bad in the looks stakes, but put a camera near me, I cannot believe what I see! Therefore where possible I avoid cameras. I dress my chicken neck with kerchiefs/scarves when necessary. In the scheme of things none of it really matters as long as we are happy 99.9% of the time!

I have photos of me that are good, but only because I didn't know they were being taken! Ask me to pose and I don't know how to smile, I've got a good 'Camilla' grimace though!

I take a lousy photo and always have done. I am nothing special in real life but I look ok, like most people. Take a picture of me and it would frighten small children I try to avoid it at all costs

DGD looked at a wedding photo of DH and me the other day and asked who the people were. I said 'that's Grandad and that's me'.
She looked astonished!

Someone once said to me that if you don't like a photo of yourself,keep it for 10 years and then you'll think it's ok.Ive found this generally to be true,but I still don't like my photo being taken.my husband says he has only seen two photos of me as a teenager and he's probably right. I prefer to be behind the camera!

I look absolutely hideous in photos and hate seeing them, fat, wrinkly, just awful. The only half decent ones are my passport photo (!) and one which was taken on holiday and so photoshopped that I look 30 years younger.
I think the trick for me may be - don't smile.
Or Photoshop.

I once let DH take my passport photo! You've never seen anything so hideous - all bags and wrinkles and I looked about 90! The worst of it was that he couldn't see anything wrong with it! I snuck out secretly and got one done in a booth and it actually looked human.

No, photos of me are awful, even worse if they end up on facebook! I've been trying to economise by not going to the hairdresser and adopting a kind of earth mother look, maybe time for an overhaul!

I hate my photo being taken but I make myself do so as it is important foe loved ones to have photos of me after I am gone. I have very few photos of my parents and I would have liked more

I really don't like having photos taken and try to avoid them, but these days everyone has a camera on their phone and I get really cross when photos of me are posted on the internet/Facebook without my knowledge/consent

My eyes tend to cross, have a fat shiny face one eye higher than other enhanced by strong lens and one stronger than other.Marrionette lines and 3 chins...I am such a beauty..was used in a photshoot for a magazine produced inhouse....after make up being done courtesy of professional....it was decided a model would be used and my photos where unusable