I am not photogenic at all and I can tell by looking in the mirror, when I take normal photos without any filters I can very obviously see a difference, my forehead tends to look bigger in photos, my nose looks larger, these subtle differences that make a difference. My family members also agree with me, especially my brother he says he can see a big difference. When I showed them WITHOUT me even mentioning them, they all said the exact same things as I had noticed (forehead looks larger, nose looks bigger, face looks longer etc)
But whenever I ask friends they ALWAYS say I look exactly like my photos irl and I don't look better in person. And I am perplexed because the mirror which is a better representation and not distorted that theres alot of differences in my appearance. But when I ask them and say I think I look better irl, they say I look the same.
Now what I don't understand is the moment I put on filters people are quick to say that looks nothing like me, so its not like they're doing it to be nice.
Today I did an experiment and approached 5 random people and showed them an unedited photo of myself I took there and asked them 'do I look the same in my photos or the better irl', 3 of them said I look the same, 1 said I look better in person because I look very sad in the photo (more to do with expression) and the 5th person said the only difference I can see is that you are pouting your lips in the photo but otherwise you look the same.
Literally every girl gets told she is much more beautiful in real life so its definitely a thing
What confirms further that I don't look like my photos is people who have not seen me irl like on tiktok lives where they do ratings, on dating apps, on other forums people say I am not good looking at all (based off pictures), they rate me like a 4-5/10 but irl I get look backs often when I am walking on the street and I dress fully covered up so I know its my face. I get random strangers complimenting me sometimes and this is not common in the UK
If these people who have seen me irl are telling me I look the exact same irl, then they surely should rate me the same in photos and irl which I look for a fact they would not since its a case where hardly anyone finds my pictures attractive (when they havent seen me irl)
What do you guys think? I asked my brother and he said the only thing he can think of is when I apply filters my base completely changes you cant tell its me, whereas, even though I look far better than the unedited pictures, its still my base (but made worse, with subtle changes to many features but many subtle changes = major difference overall) and you can tell its me. But I just don't know at this point and its really getting to me
Also please don't be like looks shouldn't matter, they do to me and theres a reason why they matter alot which I can't talk about (would need to be its own thread), so please just give me your honest opinion