I hate what I see in pictures and video tape

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Have you ever recorded yourself on camera just to see how the world sees you? It's all subjective and whatnot but I absolutely despise my looks and facial expression on camera.. I think I look weird and ret*d and it tares down my self esteem each time I do it.

I can go weeks or months at a time confident about myself until I turn to the camera again. In pictures I always look funny and on video I look like a dork with a weird personality, and worst of all is my eyes, they just look high all the time..

What do you think?

Is it really all in my head or is it true for the most part?

From what I've seen, it's pretty common to dislike the way you look and sound on camera. The chances are pretty good that people don't actually see you that way.

Me too!
Some people are so photogenic... it's ridiculous, they always look good.
But I think it's also got to do with the camera, like on my smartphone I look horrible but so do my parents due to the bad camera.
Maybe try a better camera!

And of course there's the smile.
Up until a few months back I didn't even know that my smile is weird.
I "fixed" it not so long ago.
It's still not superb, but it's better.

Are you saying it's possible that people actually see you differently as opposed to how you see yourself? I once thought I was crazy, once I started taking medication that relieves my constant worrying it kinda reduced that photo camera phobic to a small extent but didn't actually fix the problem.

In just about every photo I'm very stiff-looking and my eyes are staring and appear to be painted on.
It's a shame because there's some lovely group shots of the family where everyone's looking relaxed and natural and I'm straight as a stick staring down the camera like Gazerbeam.
And it's not just my own perception because other people comment on it too.
A co-worker once made a photo booklet showing my picture with a caption underneath suggesting I was moonlighting as a shop dummy.
That has stuck with me ever since.
It's made me very reluctant to have my photo taken.

I think these things are at least partially perception because of how many people think "all" their photographs look terrible or who fuss over their pictures. It's very easy to nitpick.

When I was little I had a speech impediment for a few years and I had to listen to myself on tape sometimes in speech therapy. I hated that so much I guess I became afraid to hear myself talk, be recorded, or talk on the phone for years afterward even after it was corrected.

I also hated having my picture taken for most of my life, but as I became more comfortable with my appearance it bothered me less. Just as long as it wasn't on a bad hair day.

I can relate. Could it be part of the Asperger's disorder? They say Autism has no impact on looks but I kinda disagree, maybe we all have a slight amount of down's syndrome..

I normally don't look at people in the eyes not because I'm afraid, but I don't want to scare them and freak them out. It's really sad that it affects my self esteem so much.. If I had the looks and voice I bet I could function normal even having a brain that's supposedly rewired differently? I think my abnormalities has a direct impact on my self esteem which is very sad.

Believe me, my true self is always hidden. I don't feel autistic inside and am normally very outspoken but it's b/c of the camera that I'm not as confident.. I was diagnosed with OCD ADHD but not autism ever until I brought it up to my doctors.

Gah! I have to do that now! I hate that! The speech therapist tells me I'm in the normal range but when I hear the playback it's just awful and I can't hear any improvements whatsoever from the first recording to the last.
I hate pictures and video of myself, and refuse to get my picture taken (though it happened recently when I wasn't thinking quickly enough to politely get out of it before they took the picture) or get videod. This is a point of constant contention with my mother, when I have to basically be constantly on guard around her making sure she hasn't got a phone out secretly taking pictures of me. In my estimation I look fat and dour and I'm all self conscious about certain things. Plus whenever I try to smile in photos I look like I've had a stroke.
So do they want to show these pictures to, anyway?

I know what it's like. I work with disabled people who are not backward in saying exactly what they think. I'm regularly told that my eyes are weird/freaky/staring/stoned-looking. Have you ever thought about getting tinted lenses? I wear them now and they make me feel less self-conscious about my eyes.

Hard to fell!

I recorded something once for a demonstration. When I went back and heard it, it was jarring. Not the voice or such. It was the fact that what I thought was coming out of my mouth was not what was actually being said. I thought I was giving clear instructions and got ticked at my wife for not following them. When I heard it as I was editing the video, it was hard to actually hear what came out. Words dropped, mixed information and such.

And, I absolutely hate to get my picture taken. Makes my wife crazy.

My facebook profile I use with my face is me when I was 14 because that was the only picture of myself I found good looking enough, I'm incredibly anti-photogenic and since I'm dark skin I look pitch Black in some photos. I look good in a mirror but on a camera I look like the Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

I feel like I need to get a $4,000 camera and some proper lighting to get a photo that accurately represents me.

I think I look okay in most photos. I mean, not great, but I can smile naturally and all of that on demand. I have noticed that I'm standing on the sides of my feet in a lot of photos taken of me as a child. I still do that now, but I make sure to have my feet flat on the ground before someone takes a photo.

I have some unposed photos of my as a child that were taken when I wasn't even aware my photo was being taken, and I do look off in those. I've got a photo of me in a girl scouts ceremony not making eye contact with the leader, others where I'm holding my body weirdly, or I'm standing off from the other kids, etc.

I hate the sound of my voice recorded. I sound like a whiny little kid or something. My voice is so much quieter and softer than it sounds in my head. It makes me cringe every time I hear it. When I set my voicemail message on my phone, I must have recorded and re-recorded it a dozen times trying to make my voice sound right until I finally managed something decent.

i feel the same??? im very not happy with how i look too. cameras and video cameras cant really capture the real you the way they should, and it sucks. but ive learned that even if im not what people would consider normally attractive, that doesnt mean im not loved! idk if that helps but heres a part from a roald dahl book i read as a kid that helped me feel better about myself a lot

Yeah, it's pretty painful for me to watch video of myself.