Not sure if I should post this here or not... I considered posting it in "Looking Good, Feeling Great" but it's not really about clothes or anything...

I'm experiencing these weird body image issues. If I look at myself in the mirror, I think I look GREAT (clothed, mind you). However, I've noticed that even if I feel like I look okay, if I see a picture of myself, I think I look HORRIBLE. I did a short experiment today and I thought that I looked pretty good in the mirror. I took a picture on my digital camera, and I hated it!! I felt like there were a million rolls and bumps in the picture that I didn't see in the mirror.

I even looked back and forth from my reflection to the picture... my reflection was fine, but I still felt the picture was way worse!

I'm confused about what I really look like. I think I look okay, and so do people I know, but I don't exactly expect them to come up and tell me "Oh GOD, Elisa, you look horrible!!" (which is what I feel like after I see these pictures).

Bluh I don't know what to do about it? I feel like I look good, but the pictures say otherwise, while the mirror is on my side, and I can't get an honest answer from my friends and family. Does anyone else feel like this, or are my body image issues really that weird?

I have the SAME problem! I remember I went to my friend's graduation party, thought I was looking really cute, then I saw the pics and I looked horrific!

YOu should go take glamour photos.. like with a girlfriend where you feel comfortable.. have someone do your makeup and hair and wear something you feel good in! I wish you were my next door neighbor, I'd make u feel great!!!

Pictures ughhh.... I hear ya I'm way more scared of pictures than the mirror unless I see anything from my neck to my knees that scares me eitherway!

The same thing happens to me. But I also realized that people I know don't look as good as they do in photos than they do in real life. So, pretty much everyone looks worse in photos. I see pics of my friends and stuff, and sometimes think "hmm, they usually look better than that."

I have a double-chin in EVERY SINGLE photo I take. The only good photos of me are the ones where you can't see my chin. Seriously. But, to look at me, you would never see a double-chin. I think it's the whole moving vs. still action thing. My head is always moving, thus my neck is always stretching one way or another. The second the head stops apparently the double-chin shows up? No idea. Even when I weight 130 lbs. I still had a double-chin in my photo.

So. . . even thin people have this issue. Some people look better in their photos. Some people look worse. I'm the latter.

Maybe ask friends and family members if you take better photos or worse. Make them choose one or the other.

Photos aren't real. They are "flat". The three dimensional aspect of our body shape is missing. We almost always look different in our photos than in the mirror.

Fortunately, people see the 3-D version of us. So, don't sweat those pictures, they aren't real.

I still haven't over come my fear of photos! I'm going to have to get over it pretty quick, my wedding is in about a month and a half, and it's tough to hide when you're the bride!

I just took my passport photo done and I was like "Ok, my double chin is gone but all the fat went to my cheeks"

I swear I looked like a chipmunk.

I have it too! With clothes or without them, I look myself in the mirror and I think "Wow I am a gorgeous sexy chick!" Then I look myself in pictures and I am like "Oh *GASP* I look like a hippo!" (not offense to hippos intended)

Yeah, me too. I recently took some progress pics, and I was kinda more excited about them *before* I saw them I mean, I know I can see progress, it just looks better in the mirror I'm going with CountingDown's theory - people see the 3D version

I have a friend who went through a "finishing school" kind of course during which they actually taught everyone how to take a photo - and I don't mean clicking the button!

They were taught the best way to stand, what angle to hold their head at, which way to smile etc etc and so now every photo she is taken in she looks absolutely gorgeous!

But it really brought home to me just how artificial a photo is - its a fraction of a second in time during which you're standing stilted and probably uncomfortable and self concious so you instinctively shrink away from the camera - hence dropping the head and tucking the chin into the neck, or stooping the shoulders cause the belly to stick out a little more the normal.

Photos are evil but people don't see you as a still, they see you in motion!

Thanks so much for the encouragement, ladies!! Y'all are the best.

I got a bit of external encouragement as well... I caught my boyfriend looking me up and down HAHA! And by "caught" I mean that he was wearing sunglasses and he thought I couldn't see his eyes. Haha that made me feel better. And really? Who else have I got to impress besides him?

(But yes, photos are the devil!! I just edited a photo of myself to have the Joker makeup [The Dark Knight was FANTASTIC] and I must say, it was a bit of an improvement... =P)

Way to go!

That sounds fun!

"I have a friend who went through a "finishing school" kind of course during which they actually taught everyone how to take a photo - and I don't mean clicking the button!

They were taught the best way to stand, what angle to hold their head at, which way to smile etc etc and so now every photo she is taken in she looks absolutely gorgeous!

But it really brought home to me just how artificial a photo is - its a fraction of a second in time during which you're standing stilted and probably uncomfortable and self concious so you instinctively shrink away from the camera - hence dropping the head and tucking the chin into the neck, or stooping the shoulders cause the belly to stick out a little more the normal.

Photos are evil but people don't see you as a still, they see you in motion!"

Well don't hold out! Ask her what the tricks are and share!!!