Does the camera add 10 pounds?
Does the camera really add 10 pounds?
I was recently working with a client who is struggling to accept her current body. Some days she is okay, and others are a real struggle. During the session we were working on a list of triggers that cause her to feel badly about herself.
One of her biggest “bad body day” triggers: looking at photos of herself. It might be old photos or a more current photo. Either way, looking at photos causes her distress and erodes her self-confidence.
She lamented that her most recent “bad body day” was made worse by seeing a photo someone else had taken of her, and posted on social media. She said, “I can’t believe how large I looked in this photo! Is that really what I look like?!?”.
What’s more interesting? She was completely okay with how she looked in a photo taken only a day before, where she appeared “thinner”.
Did she gain 10 pounds overnight? As I discuss at length in this post, that’s a physical impossibility. But what about the old adage that the camera adds 10 pounds? Is that true? Why can we look so much heavier in one photo, and not in another? Even when those photos are taken only days, or even moments, apart?
Turns out, there is some truth to the urban legend that the camera adds 10 pounds!
How does the camera add 10 pounds?
Here’s the funny thing: the camera can giveth or taketh away….it all depends on angles.
Go try this fun little experiment: take two selfies. One shooting from the level of your navel and with the camera angled up at your face. Then take another holding the camera over your head and angled down toward your face. How different does your face look in these two pictures?
This is what my face looked like when I did it…
The camera can add weight! In Photo A (on the left): the camera is held at chest-level, angled up. In Photo B (on the right), two things to note: I was holding the camera higher than my face, and angled down. I also had my face angled to one side. Completely different look!
There’s a pretty big difference, right?!? The camera can add weight! A few things to notice about these two photos of me. In Photo A (on the left): the camera is held at chest-level, angled up. It makes me look “jowl-y” and exacerbates a little double chin (which I hate — it was really hard for me to post this photo!).
Another thing to note about the first photo: a filter on my camera kicked in because of the lighting, so my skin looks a lot smoother. In Photo B (on the right), two things to note: I was holding the camera higher than my face, and angled down. I also had my face angled to one side. Completely different look!
And it works for the body too. When the camera is held straight on, it makes me appear larger. When the camera is held higher and angled slightly down toward my body, I appear thinner. And Lord forbid anyone takes a photo of my body from lower vantage point with the camera angled up!
Here are two examples of how camera angle affects body size…
In these photos you can see where I’m holding the camera and how it affects my appearance. In Photo A (left), I’m holding the camera at about waist level…and suddenly my hips, abdomen, and even my face, look much larger. In Photo B (right), I’ve suddenly lost at least 10 pounds!!!
Once again, camera angle really matters! I instantly lose 10 pounds from my abdomen and face when I hold the camera overhead vs. straight on!
Camera angle isn’t all that affects the appearance of an image. The way you angle your body and face also plays a role in appearance. Most of us know that, as we were coached by our besties in high school to always stand tall and stick out your chin when someone is taking a picture of you.
In the first photo below, I’m taking a shot with my body slightly angled. You can see that my tummy looks larger than in the following two photos. In the second, I’m taking one with my body angled more to the right. In the third photo, I’m angled all the way to the right, so it’s a side shot. It’s pretty easy to see how the appearance of my “weight” changes depending on angle.
Here is an example of how the angle of your body affects its appearance in a photo…
Ever noticed that most Instagram fitness models take photos with their body angled to one direction? This is why. Camera angle matters and so does your body angle!
What else affects how your face and body appear in photos?
Whether or not you’re ready/realize someone is taking a photo. Some people love candid photography. I’m not one of those people. I always seem to be making a goofy face, or the camera angle is totally wrong for my “short and thick” body.
What you wear. The next time you’re at Target, try this experiment. Grab a pair of high-waisted jeans that fit comfortably, but are relatively snug (basically high-waist “skinny jeans”). Then grab a pair that are low-slung hip-huggers, that are a bit more baggy. Try them on. Which ones make you look larger? I’d be willing to bet the baggy low-slung hip-huggers add 10 pounds!
Lighting. Lighting can make all the difference in how your skin looks. Believe it or not, very bright lighting tends to make skin appear more glow-y, with fewer blemishes and wrinkles. Dark often creates or exacerbates shadows, wrinkles, and dark under eye circles.
Time of day/month/year. When I wake up in the morning, my tummy is often “flatter”. By the end of the day, I have a little Buddha thing happening. Why? Bloating. Depending on what and how much I’ve eaten, hydration status, PMS, and a host of other factors, my pants usually fit tighter by the end of the day, or at certain times of the month. And this can show up in a photo.
Filters. The filters available on phones and Instagram can do some pretty amazing things for your skin. My “selfie skin” is way different than the skin I see in the mirror…my real skin…which has wrinkles and age spots and cellulite.
Photoshop. There are some pretty sophisticated programs available that can change everything about your body, from your eye and hair color, to your height and bust size. There are even free apps that can do it, like the one I downloaded on my phone that allowed me to make my waist smaller and my boobs and butt larger. I basically was able to make myself look like a Kardashian.
This is the same photo, doctored two different ways by a body-changing app on my phone. In the first photo, I made myself look larger. In the second, I created society’s “cultural ideal” of the female body. Point: when you look at other peoples’ photos, not everything is always as it appears!
Bottom line about photos and body size…
If looking at photos — of yourself or others — causes distress, stop doing it! Seriously. When was the last time that hating yourself caused any sort of positive behavior change? My favorite author, Geneen Roth, says it best in her book When You Eat at the Refrigerator, Pull Up a Chair:
“While there is obviously a physical reality to of fatness or thinness, that reality is profoundly affected by the things we say to ourselves, the lack of respect or curiosity or kindness we are able to muster… What you want from being “thin and gorgeous and happy” will never be achieved by telling yourself you are fat and ugly.”
The point of this post is not to teach you how to take perfect photos. I wrote it because so many of the women I know and coach — including myself — struggle when it comes to photos. But, like so many things in life, photos can be deceiving. And this knowledge can make the difference between having a “bad body day”, or not, when faced with a less-than-flattering picture of yourself.
So the next time you see a photo of yourself that causes discomfort, I want you to remember this post! Don’t rely on photos to judge your appearance or body size…or your worth as a human being!
I hope you enjoyed this post and thank you for reading!
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Blog Author: Kelly Bailey, IIN certified holistic nutrition coach, and NPTI certified personal trainer
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