Is The Back Camera What I Look Like To Others? Quick Answer

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A mirror is not enough to see yourself as others see you. If you look in a bathroom mirror, you see an image of yourself with left and right reversed. If you don’t believe it, extend your right hand to shake your hand. The “person” in the mirror stretches out her left hand.

A bathroom mirror alternates left and right in every image it reflects. In order to see yourself as others do, you need a second mirror to undo the effect of the first mirror and switch directions again.

A complete reflection

Hold two hand mirrors in front of you so that their edges touch and there is a right angle between them, like the two book covers when you read. With a little adjustment, you can fully represent your face as others see it.

Blink your right eye. The person in the mirror winks his right eye. This may seem strange after a lifetime of looking at bathroom mirrors.

If you look at two mirrors held at right angles like the covers of an open book, you see left and right in their original relationship again. This is because the image you see has been reflected twice before it reaches you.

double

When you look in the right mirror, you see a reflection of the left mirror, which in turn reflects a reflection of the left side of your face. And vice versa. Two reflections are involved.

This may sound complicated when you read or hear it, but it’s easy to see when you try.

Source:

Martin Gardner, Entertaining Scientific Experiments with Everyday Objects (Dover reprint, 1981).

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In this hyper-connected era of social media and selfies, realizing that you look different in photos than you do in the mirror can be quite disconcerting. There is also a difference in how you look in the front camera from the back camera of your smartphone. So who is your real self?

The difference between a mirror image and a camera image is how light is reflected and refracted by objects. A mirror image is an accurate representation (virtual image) of an object, formed when rays of light travel in a straight line and bounce off a reflective surface. A camera image (real image) created by the crossing and emergence of light rays on an object that we capture on a light-sensitive surface (film or digital).

For example, you might argue when going out with friends when a mutual acquaintance has a mole on their right or left arm, with each party providing their evidence in the form of a photograph.

You can even speculate as to what caused the swapped images, but no one in the group can come up with a reasonable explanation. So let’s look at the real issues here.

Differences between a mirror image and a photo image

Image by LoboStudioHamburg via Pixabay

The difference between a mirror image and a camera image in optics is typically that of a “virtual” image versus a “real” image. These differ in the focal point of the light rays.

Rays of light create a virtual image when they travel in straight lines, bounce off a reflective surface, and create the image of the object.

A real image is a photographic image in which rays of light cross and emerge on an object that we can capture on light-sensitive materials.

The reflection (bouncing back) and refraction (deflection) of light rays through various media creates a “virtual image”, meaning that the light is not coming from where it appears to be; it is fleeting and changes as the object moves or the light changes.

The fluidity of the virtual mirror image differs greatly from the static camera image. A camera image is a “real image” where the light focuses on where the object really is.

We can capture it on materials and it most closely reflects how other people view the subject.

Mirror image: refraction and reflection

The formation of a mirror image begins when light strikes a shiny flat surface and reflects (bounces back) the image (source).

A mirror reverses the image from front to back so that the image appears backwards or upside down. It doesn’t invert the image from left to right as we commonly assume.

For example, if you face north while looking in a mirror, your image is facing south, so the inversion is front to back.

To illustrate this concept, imagine you have a mole on your left cheek or a mole on your right arm. In this case, it appears in a mirror on the opposite side.

Geometric optics

The field of geometric optics deals with both the reflection and refraction of light rays as the light rays travel through a transparent material. Sir Isaac Newton was the first to establish the three laws of geometric optics.

First, light rays travel in straight lines when traveling through clear material. Second, when rays of light hit a smooth, shiny surface – say, a mirror – the rays bounce off the surface.

The third concerns the behavior of light rays when passing through materials such as air and water.

A reflection occurs when rays of light bounce off a flat surface. The jets stay in a straight line but bounce off the surface in the opposite direction and angle of the surface. Because of this, objects appear at the same distance from the mirror.

Concave mirrors concentrate the light that reflects a focal point, and convex mirrors scatter the rays, reflecting the light at different angles.

camera image

The science of optics relates to the way light reacts when reflected, refracted or bent and forms the basis of the art of photography.

Cameras capture light rays on light-sensitive materials such as B. film in older cameras or light-sensitive sensors in modern digital cameras.

In a photo image, the rays of light are focused on the actual image. On film, for example, the image becomes visible through a camera lens. The same principle applies to projecting an image onto a large screen, like in a cinema.

pinhole camera

There is no lens in a pinhole camera, just an extremely small opening called the pinhole. It’s practically the size of a pinprick.

Here, the light from the subject passes through the pinhole and creates an inverted image on the photosensitive material. We know this process as the camera obscura effect.

Light travels at constant speed in a vacuum; however, it does not move through all materials at the same rate. It slows down, bends and breaks, and changes properties as it travels through different materials.

It is this tilt of light that allows us to manipulate the light traveling through camera lenses. The basic properties of lenses and the principles of how we use them have not changed over the years, even as lenses have become more sophisticated.

Modern cameras

Cameras today have a single lens or multiple lenses that vary in sophistication. Because a simple lens can produce multiple aberrations, it’s best to use a camera with better lenses.

Aberrations blur the periphery of the photo image, often magnifying the part of the subject closest to the lens, such as a nose on a face.

By using several lenses of a suitable shape, we counteract the aberrations. Sometimes we use one or more lenses with an aspheric shape – that is, with a variable curvature of a paraboloid – instead of just spherical.

Paraboloid shapes are curved shapes made up of straight lines and mathematical equations, like the symmetrical patterns that kids love to draw with stencils.

camera lenses

Camera lenses consist of a series of sheets of glass that are either convex (curved outward) or concave (curved inward), and in some cases with variable curvatures.

In a film camera, the lens sends the rays of light from the image onto a film strip. In a digital camera, the lens sends the rays of light to a digital sensor.

The shape of the lens determines the amount of distance light that must be traveled in order to properly converge on the image plane. With modern lenses, we measure this distance in millimeters and call this the focal length.

focal length

The focal length also determines the type of image your camera captures. It’s the basic description of your camera lens; The lens focuses at infinity (source).

The focal length not only determines the viewing angle, but also the magnification. Angle of view refers to how much of the scene the camera captures and magnifies how large the objects in the frame will be.

When you shoot, you need to choose your lens based on your result. For example, the longer the focal length of a lens, the higher the magnification and the narrower the view of the lens.

In contrast, the shorter the focal length, the wider the angle and the lower the magnification.

So if you want to take close-up shots, you need to use a long focal length lens, and for wide-angle shots that capture a whole view, you need a short focal length lens.

A prime lens has a fixed focal length, but zoom lenses have a variable focal length, giving the photographer room to play. Prime lenses also offer a larger aperture, which is great for shooting in low light and shallow depth of field.

There are three basic lenses: standard lenses, wide angle lenses and telephoto lenses.

Our article on dilation vs. dilation discusses the theory of transformation, which produces an image that is a different size but has the same shape as the original.

review

All these explanations can get very confusing, so it is advisable to summarize the differences in a table for easier orientation (source).

Plane mirror pinhole camera The mirror image is a virtual image. The camera image is real. In a mirror, the image produced is always equal to the size of the object. The image produced by the camera may or may not correspond to the size of the object. In some cases it will be smaller and in others larger. The image created in the mirror always remains upright. The image in the pinhole camera is inverted. The mirror image is always dynamic. A photo is static. A mirror image is 3D. The photo image is 2D. The reflection reflects light. A photograph cannot reflect light. The mirror image is less accurate. A photo image more accurately reflects how people see you. The mirror image preserves information about the distance to an object because it reflects light coming at a certain angle and in only one direction. In a photo, the object appears as far away from you as the photo is from your eyes. In a mirror, image objects remain sharp. In a photograph, you can manipulate the lenses to make objects appear sharp or not.

Why do you look better in the mirror than in a photo?

Image by 926663 via Pixabay

It’s frustrating to take selfies with different angles and lighting conditions that never look like the mirror in the morning. However, the image we see in the mirror is a false image that leads us to believe we look better than we do.

A mirror is not an accurate representation of what you really look like and does not translate well to a photograph.

The Mere Exposure Hypothesis

In the 1970s, a famous experiment took place in which 33 undergraduate students and their friends examined photographs of women showing their mirror image and true image side-by-side, using a single frontal photograph (source).

Surprisingly, in both studies, the female subjects preferred their reflection to their actual image, while the reverse was true for their friends.

The female subjects preferred the mirror image because they see it every day, while their friends preferred them as shown in the photos.

Why is this?

The reason you look better in a mirror than in a photograph has to do with your brain creating a 3D image of yourself, which makes you look more flattering in a mirror.

In real life, you see things in 3D, while in a photo you see a two-dimensional object.

The reflection is reversed, but that’s what you’re used to seeing. In photos you appear flatter and wider than you are – remember, the camera adds 10 pounds! – especially with the wide-angle camera lenses in the older phones.

The lens expanded the center of the image and was curled at the edges.

Cameras today have four or more lenses for different circumstances, scientifically positioned to reflect light in a way that gives you the results you expect. Wide-angle lenses are suitable for landscapes or groups, for example.

There is also the case of symmetry. Again, your face and body will be different in a mirror than in a photograph.

Again, you are most used to seeing yourself in the mirror and once again your brain compensates for this. So it can be surprising to see yourself in a photo.

Because faces are rarely symmetrical, we can see things in photos that we don’t see in the mirror.

Front-facing vs. rear-facing cameras on a smartphone

The main camera on the back of the phone is the main camera and has better dynamic range. Dynamic range is the range of light levels and the number of steps from shadows to highlights.

It also has a flash for night shots. The rear camera is great for landscape photography and has a much better resolution and wide-angle lens.

The front camera was originally intended for video calling in 2003 and is usually of lower resolution due to space issues on the front of the camera caused by the size of the screen and based on the general usage of the phone.

Very few smartphones have similar or better front cameras. The lower pixels in front often result in blurry photos.

When you take a selfie with the front camera, the image appears “flipped” like a mirror image. It’s not actually reversed, but reflected backwards.

It appears as if it’s reversed from left to right, but it’s just reflecting the light back towards you. So, for example, if you have a cup in your left hand, it will appear as if you have it in your right hand.

When you take a selfie with front cameras, your image looks distorted. Objects closest to the lens, such as lips or noses, appear much larger, mainly because they contain simple lenses.

The farther away you hold the camera from your face, the better you look. When you hold the camera under your face, your neck appears huge. This article was written for policiesforparents.com.

Many selfies taken in a mirror have been ruined by seemingly giant hands holding the smartphone. This is why someone invented the selfie stick.

Final Thoughts

Mirrors and lenses create real or virtual images, recorded or not, reversed or not and inverted or not. In real life, the photo image better reflects how you actually look to other people.

In contrast, the mirror image is the view we usually prefer because it’s so flattering.

The advent of the selfie has led to these images being obsessively posted on social media to let the world know what we look like. Some people take selfies in the mirror because they know they look better in the mirror than in a photo.

Therefore, they find the images just as frustrating as photo images since they now combine a mirror image with a photo image. Now that you understand how photo images and mirror images differ, you can discuss some of these principles with other English speakers.

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