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Help Front facing (selfie mode) distortion

miss_vickies

miss_vickies

Android Enthusiast
Hey yall,

So, I am not sure if anyone posted about this... I am sure not everyone is "selfie-ing" it up as much as I do :blushDroid:, but regardless, there is a clear distortion with the front facing camera and I don't know how to make it stop...

If you turn your front facing camera option and just move it around and up and down, you will see that it makes your face look ridiculous... either too small, or your forehead too large, or chin too small or nose too big... has anyone else noticed it and maybe been able to find a solution?

this was never a problem on my note 2, so it feels like its either the selfie mode or the lense.. but i can't seem to turn off face recognition.

oh and I use this other app where I am not noticing the crazy distortion the stock camera has. Also, its super noticeable in Snapchat.

hope to get some tips from you guys, thanks! :thumbsupdroid::thumbsupdroid::thumbsupdroid:
 
I don't selfie a lot but what you describe is very common for extra wide angle lenses. I just turned on the front camera for my N4, and I see what you are talking about. The solution would be easy, but Samsung locked it out - if you could zoom a bit, you would not get the distortion.

One of the trade-offs to having a wide angle front lens...
 
First thing I noticed, when you are using the front camera, a "selfie" icon will appear on the screen. Tap it, and you can slide something from 0-8, not sure the effect of this...perhaps the manual or a youtube video can help.

As someone who has some experience with photography, I can give you some insight...
Perspective is an important thing to keep in mind when photographing people. Professional portrait photographers tend to back away from their subjects, and use telephoto lenses to “zoom in”. What this does, is it make facial features about the same distance from the camera. Why is this important? Well, take a larger nose for example. If the camera is close to the face, then the nose is even closer than the eyes. In some cases, the nose can be 50% closer if the camera is really close. So the nose looks really large in this case as it can be 3 inches from the camera and the eyes are 5 inches away. If you back up 15ft, and use a telephoto lens, then the nose is like only 2% closer than the eyes…and the face takes on a flatter, more appealing look. I know you can't do this with a selfie unless you have a tripod, which sorta defeats the purpose.

Perhaps the lens of the Note 4 makes this even more pronounced. Try holding the camera as far away as possible for some shots to see if it helps, and also try playing with that slider to see what it does. Even at 0, face recognition was still on, so not really sure what it does (without looking it up)
 
Palmetto Fellow said:
First thing I noticed, when you are using the front camera, a "selfie" icon will appear on the screen. Tap it, and you can slide something from 0-8, not sure the effect of this...perhaps the manual or a youtube video can help.
Click to expand...

I was playing with this slider, it seem to try to "smooth" the skin. Removes my wrinkles. Probably does the same for pimples? I'll try it on my teen tonight...

Move the slider towards the right (towards the icon), you get plastic skin. To the left, I get wrinkles.
 
yeah that 0 to 8 is to make you look "photoshopped"... it does not remove the weird distortion.

I took out my note 2 again last night just to make sure and no distortion on that phone. I am just not sure what to do... they add an entire perk to have your skin smoother but why when your face can look like an alien? and i can't turn off the selfie/face recognition circle...

i guess no snapchat for me lol

and Palmetto Fellow, I understand angles and photography basics... so I wish I had the ability to do it on this camera, but unfortunately it's at arm's length... literally :)

so, no solution to htis I am guessing... briefly skimmed the internet on this... others having the same problem found no solution.... weak, Samsung, weak...
 
There is a solution, but it is a bit of a PITA. But first -

When you compared the N2 to N4, did you take the picture with the same framing? or the same camera distance? I am betting the first. So try this.

Take the N4 selfie at arms length. yes, you face will be small. Open the Pic, crop down to frame the picture to similar to what your N2 did - distortion will be mostly gone.
 
Jerry,

Thanks for your reply. I understand what you mean, but then your whole body positioning also changes and i have stretched arms in all the pics, that's really not the solution...

it's a mistake on samsung's part... front facing camera is clearly meant for taking pictures of faces and it should be flattering and not make you feel like you got a ginormous forehead or chin or having to uncomfortably hold the camera far far away just so you look a normal size...

i am guessing there are no solutions to this...


Jerry-rigged said:
There is a solution, but it is a bit of a PITA. But first -

When you compared the N2 to N4, did you take the picture with the same framing? or the same camera distance? I am betting the first. So try this.

Take the N4 selfie at arms length. yes, you face will be small. Open the Pic, crop down to frame the picture to similar to what your N2 did - distortion will be mostly gone.
Click to expand...
 
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