In the mirror close up I look good but from a distance in the mirror I look ugly as shit

[Turtle]

I swear in the mirror close up like a foot away or whatever I actually look pretty good, my face looks defined and chiseled but from a distance I just look chopped as fuck, my nose looks huge and I genuinely just look like birdperson from Rick and Morty

The question is which is more accurate to how people actually see me?

 

[hax]

wtf? it's the opposite for me

i look cl when i'm far but subhuman when i'm REALLY close

 

[d0wnpour_]

I swear in the mirror close up like a foot away or whatever I actually look pretty good, my face looks defined and chiseled but from a distance I just look chopped as fuck, my nose looks huge and I genuinely just look like birdperson from Rick and Morty

The question is which is more accurate to how people actually see me?

Mirror is kind of close to how people see you, they see your probably the most accurate not super up close but relatively close to the mirror. yes, mirror distorts your face but the change is more prominent when in pictures/real life due to your brain being used to the mirror version.

maybe your mirror is heavily distorted though

 

[LightskinHtn]

I swear in the mirror close up like a foot away or whatever I actually look pretty good, my face looks defined and chiseled but from a distance I just look chopped as fuck, my nose looks huge and I genuinely just look like birdperson from Rick and Morty

The question is which is more accurate to how people actually see me?

People see the distance version of you more often and the mirror up close looks better because it's familiar and detailed but neither is fully accurate but the distance version is the more accurate of the two
if you want to see your real appearance use a double mirror and make sure your not anglemaxxing

 

[bwrauycnee]

1. Mirrors aren't perfectly uniform. This non uniformity distorts the reflection, which is more apparent the further you are from it. So up close you see a higher quality, more uniform reflection which is closer to your actual proportions.
2. Related to 1, high harmony faces hold up better to that long distance distortion. So it could be you have lower harmony, so close up reflections look better. Also, close up, you focus less on the entire face and more on a localized region, so harmony also is less important.
3. Shadows and skin reflectiveness. From a distance, weird shadows can emphasize and hide certain parts of your face, making it look weird. Also, poor skin doesn't reflect the light of your face as well, which may hide certain contours or definition that you can only see well up close.

So overall, it can be complicated to determine which is more accurate. Best is probably about 2-3m, in a mirror with a uniform surface that has a strong uniform frontal lightsource (no direction bias i.e top down, left side bias etc), with you looking at your face as a whole and not focusing on your best features.