We use phone cameras every day. They are easy to use, and we always have them with us.
However, what about their accuracy? Can the selfies you take from your phone accurately show how you look in real life?
Here’s How Accurate Cell Phone Cameras Are:
Phone cameras have poor color accuracy and take distorted images because of their wide-angle lenses. Their small apertures and tiny sensors can’t capture enough light, causing unnatural photos and pale portraits.
Can Phone Cameras Accurately Show The Real You?
Smartphone cameras can’t accurately show the real you, and your selfies will look distorted with inaccurate colors. There are several reasons for this.
Phone cameras use wide-angle lenses to fit a lot of scenery into a single frame; however, these lenses tend to create a fisheye effect when the subject is closer to the camera. When you hold your phone closer to your face, these lenses can distort your face, making your nose and forehead disproportionately bigger.
Smartphone cameras also have poor color accuracy: their tiny apertures, small lenses, and small image sensors can only capture a limited amount of light. This is why your selfies have flawed hair color and skin color compared to real life.
Is A Mirror Or Phone Camera More Accurate?
Mirrors are more accurate than phone cameras — what others see is closer to your mirror image than your selfies.
When you look at the mirror, your left and right eyes capture two slightly different images, and your brain combines them to create the final reflection. On the other hand, your phone only captures a single image, so your selfies have limited image information, making them less accurate than a mirror image.
Mirrors also don’t suffer from significant optical distortions, while wide-angle lenses of phone cameras typically create distorted faces with disproportionately big noses and foreheads.
Your brain and eyes are more powerful than your phone camera: the human eye has a resolution closer to 576 megapixels, and your eyes are much better and more accurate at creating images from light.
Mirrors are more accurate and can show the real you. But what you see in the mirror is a reversed image, whereas cameras never flip the image.
Accuracy Of Back Camera Vs Front Camera
The back camera is more accurate than the front camera: it usually has a higher resolution image sensor, a larger aperture, and better image stabilization.
The front camera also applies beauty filters, but the back camera usually does not, making it even more accurate because it shows natural colors without significant post-processing.
Accuracy Of Phone Camera Vs Dedicated Camera
Dedicated cameras like DSLRs are more accurate than phone cameras: they have larger sensors and lenses and can absorb more light to create accurate colors. They also work well in low-light situations where phone cameras typically struggle to absorb enough light.
Wide-angle phone lenses also tend to distort your face, while most dedicated cameras have zoom lenses to take accurate portraits.
Can Phone Cameras Make You Look Worse?
The wide-angle lenses of a smartphone camera can distort your face, making your nose and forehead look bigger than usual. Phone cameras also have poor color accuracy and can make your selfies look worse compared to real life.
Because phone cameras have poor low-light quality, your nighttime selfies can be noisy and grainy, making you look worse.
What Type Of Phone Cameras Are More Accurate?
High-end phones typically have better-quality cameras than midrange or budget phones. They have larger sensors and larger apertures and can capture decent photos even in low-light conditions.
Flagship phone cameras also have optical image stabilization (OIS), which helps to reduce unwanted blur in your photos.
How To Improve Phone Camera Accuracy?
There are a few ways to improve the phone camera accuracy and take natural-looking photos.
When taking a selfie, you should hold your phone as far away as possible from your face to limit unwanted distortions — use a selfie stick to reduce the distortions even more.
Phone cameras have poor low-light performance; therefore, make sure you have sufficient light before taking a night photo.
Use the back camera whenever possible. It has better color accuracy and minimal post-processing compared to the front camera.
You can also increase color accuracy by shooting raw images. Raw images eliminate post-processing and make the photos look natural.
Phone cameras can’t beat dedicated cameras, so if you want to get an accurate portrait of yourself, it is better to use a dedicated camera with a zoom lens.
Conclusion
Cell phone cameras have poor accuracy, and selfies will never show the real you; mirrors are far better even though they reverse your image.
The back camera of your phone has higher accuracy than the selfie camera. But DSLRs and other dedicated cameras have much better accuracy than most smartphone cameras.
If you are serious about color accuracy, it is better to go for a cheap DSLR with a decent lens: it will provide significantly better image quality and accuracy than your phone.
