What is it about being photographed that makes us so uncomfortable?
Okay so here it is. From a headshot photographer to every one of you. Here is why you feel so uncomfortable in front of a camera.
There is a number of facets to being photographed that makes feel the way we feel when being photographed. One of which is when you look in the mirror, you localise your vision to eyebrows, mouth or whatever else your working on in the mornings. The thing is your looking at yourself backwards. So from the get go, your seeing yourself wrong.
When we look at a photograph of ourselves, we see what others see..... with a twist.
What's the twist? Well, we live in a fault based society and are natural problem solvers. When something doesn't add up, we search for answers. So when you see a photograph of yourself, it is the wrong way round. Instantly your brain searches for an answer to why it looks wrong. So your eyes search your face for things that look wrong
Thats when we see things we don't like. Things that stand out when you see your face the other way round. For me, One side of my mouth is lower than the other. These things are our FedEx arrow.
The FedEx Arrow is in the logo. Between the E and X. One of those things we don't see until we are shown. Now, knowing it is there, when we see the FedEx van drive by, the first thing we look at is the logo.
In many ways this logo is representative of how we see ourselves and how others see us.
Nobody looks at the arrow directly, most don't even know it's there. All they see is the word FedEx, The see a brand, they understand who FedEx are. The same as when we look at each other. We see familiar faces. Not the minute flaws we see in ourselves.
So when you see a photograph of yourself, yes you are seeing what others see, but you are focused on your own arrow, the one thing hidden that nobody else sees.
This is one of the main reasons people don't like to be photographed and something we use when shooting headshots. Understanding this, and expression changes how people see themselves, feel about themselves and starts to help them enjoy and own their own experience.
Look out for my next blog post on Confidence and how our image and self perception relates, and can hold us back or give us the strength to succeed.