This is indeed perspective distortion from wide angle lenses (like your selfie cam):
The influencer-type “holding up a phone in the mirror” shot is actually technically sound, because it uses the phone’s longer-focal-length camera.
And typically this is the camera with the biggest sensor.
(I realize this is just a meme, but I can’t help spreading photography bits like I’m crazy).
Pet peeve: This is a common misunderstanding. Focal length doesn’t cause the distortion. The distortion is caused by the distance between the camera and the subject. Think of longer focal length as an optical crop. A longer focal length allows you to be farther away from the subject while still filling the frame. If you took a photo from the same distance with a wider lens and simply cropped it afterwards to have the same composition there would be no difference in distortion.
In practice, people use the term “focal length” as field of view/zoom for the final image, especially when we start talking smartphones and full-frame “equivalent” focal lengths.
I don’t disagree, the article I got this image from explains exactly what you did, but… I think the semantic ambiguity is acceptable, in this case. The actual angular field of view in a shot isn’t advertised in specifications. Neither is the sensor crop factor in post processing. It’s all kind of impractical to calculate, so using FF equivalent focal length as a “zoominess” standard people can understand makes sense.
The one on the right is very pretty tho.
Should have used the same subject for comparison
I like her better than the other
Why does it always look fine until the instant I press the button 😭
Probably because phone cameras do various types of processing that varies based on manufacturer. My guess is that the preview you see before you take the image is both lower fidelity (to update it in real time, as it is effectively live video), and uses less intense processing. A lower res image often makes people look more attractive by hiding skin blemishes, while less intensive processing would likely further smooth over details you might not otherwise like.
If you want to take a good selfie with your phone, treat the preview as nothing more than a viewfinder for getting proper framing. Like people using more advanced cameras, take test shots to get a sense for what the lighting (and in this case image processing) will actually look like. As you take more pictures, you’ll get a better sense for how the camera works in different conditions. Once you become proficient, you’ll be able to accurately predict what the image will look like before the picture is taken.
It made your eye color change?
Normally they turn red though…
Whenever I get that “surprise” selfie cam view it scares me so bad I nearly drop my phone.
😭
