I always found myself saying that my photo’s never look like me, and yet everyone else says they do! This was confusing until one day….

I can’t remember where I heard this or where I read this but what I discovered was that inside us we hold a mental picture of what we look like. When we see ourselves in a photograph often it doesn’t quite look right because the photograph and the image don’t match exactly – why?

Well our faces are not 100% symmetrical and we only ever see our own face in a mirror or reflection which is swapped left to right, whereas everyone else see’s us in a normal alignment that matches the photograph.

I think there is some truth in this, certainly for me, as I have often found I like my picture more when I open it in some image software and then flip the image so it is a mirror image and therefore must match my internal picture of myself better.

I’d be interested in others thoughts on this, maybe take a picture you are not sure about and flip it and see if it appeals more.

Mark Rhodes