Two Photos, Two Different Faces
Most people dislike their passport photo and tolerate their selfies. Then they wonder which one is accurate. The honest answer: the passport photo is closer to how your face is actually proportioned. The selfie is closer to how you like to see yourself.
| Typical selfie | Typical passport photo | |
|---|---|---|
| Camera distance | 25 to 50 cm | About 1 to 2 m |
| Lens effect | Wide angle, close up | Normal or longer lens |
| Angle | Often slightly above | Straight on, eye level |
| Light | Whatever's around | Flat, even, front-on |
| Expression | Your practised smile | Neutral, mouth closed |
| Flipped? | Often mirrored | Never |
| Retouching | Often filtered | Not allowed |
Why Selfies Distort
Perspective depends on distance. When a camera is only 30 cm from your face, your nose is noticeably closer to the lens than your ears, so it looks bigger and your ears shrink back. The face looks narrower at the sides and rounder in the middle.
A 2018 study in JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery by Brittany Ward and colleagues measured it: at 30 cm, nose width relative to face width appeared about 30% greater than in a photo from 1.5 metres. The researchers were investigating why more people were asking plastic surgeons about their noses after looking at selfies.
Selfies also tend to be taken from slightly above (shrinking the jaw and chin), mirrored (flipping your natural asymmetries), and filtered. See front vs back camera and why you don't recognise your own face.
Read more: The Best Photo for Celebrity Matching: A Practical Guide
Why Passport Photos Look Harsh
Passport photos follow international rules from ICAO, the UN agency for civil aviation, designed so that both border officers and face recognition gates can match you reliably. They're meant to be accurate, not flattering:
- Neutral expression, mouth closed. Smiles change the face. Some countries, like the US, allow a natural smile; many, like the UK, require a neutral face.
- Flat, even light. No shadows across the face, which also removes the gentle shading that gives faces depth in flattering photos.
- Head straight, eyes open, looking at the camera.
- Plain light background.
- No glasses in many countries, including the US since 2016.
- No retouching or filters.
Flat light plus a neutral face plus no flattering angle is why the result can look stern. But in terms of proportions, it's the most faithful photo of you that exists.
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Which One Matches Your Celebrity Lookalike Better?
The passport-style photo, for the structural reasons above. Ollie's model measures the proportions in your photo and compares them with celebrity photos, which are almost all taken from a distance with longer lenses. A close selfie compares a distorted face with undistorted ones.
In practice people often find that their selfie and their passport-style photo share a couple of names in the top five but not all. The shared names are the most reliable. The ones that only appear with the selfie are partly matching the distortion.
You don't need your actual passport photo. A passport-style photo is easy to take at home:
- Stand facing a window, with a plain wall behind you.
- Have someone take the photo from about 1.5 metres with the rear camera, zoomed in slightly.
- Camera at eye level, face straight on.
- Relaxed face or a small closed smile. You're allowed to look friendlier than at the passport office.
So What Do You Really Look Like?
Somewhere between the two, and closer to the passport photo in shape. Your friends see your face from about a metre away in conversation, unflipped, moving, in all kinds of light. A well-lit photo from 1 to 1.5 metres with a relaxed expression is the nearest a single still image gets to that.
Try both on Ollie and compare: it's a good way to see how much the camera changes a face.