Strange question perhaps... photo or mirror? Which one shows the true image?

There is also this.. a mirror shows you a flat reflection of what's in front of it. (and usually does have very flattering lights right around it as someone mentioned.) Because it's flat.. it's not distorted.
Camera lenses distort a photo.
If you look at a door-frame in a mirror.. it will still be straight lines up & down (if the mirror is flat)
If you look at them in a photograph, they will generally be curved. (unless they are in exactly the dead centre of the shot where the lens has the least distortion.)
A lens "bends" light as it goes through.. the further towards the edge of the lens you get, the more the light gets bent. Image sensors are generally flat, so the light that hits them is not going to be exactly as it would be in the "real world" except in size.

So.. a lens, by default, gives you a similar effect to a mirror you'd find in a "hall of mirrors".. that can make you look short & fat, or make you look tall & thin.. or make you look like some weird accordian creature.

If you've got Photoshop or Lightroom, you can compensate for that lens distortion to some degree. (probably in many other packages as well.. I just know it's in those.) or you can get a nice tilt & shift lens setup.. and spend hours getting it set up exactly right before shooting a photo of yourself.

Short answer: the mirror is technically more accurate than the photo. (unless you count the fact that everything is backwards left-to-right in the mirror against it..then it's probably a tie.)

i've often pondered that question too! (I look bad in RL but worse in a photo )
i know this very good looking girl, but it's a struggle to get a good shot of her - i have noticed that she's very self conscious and uncomfortable, any time a camera is produced. She wont/cant pose it's either, a strange one - she's very attractive and nice looking in RL but always looks the opposite almost in a photograph.
On the other hand theres a guy in work who just seems to be very photogenic no matter whats going on, he always seems to come out grand in photographs! in RL he's no oil painting
so it is a strange one.
It's probably down to a multitude of factors - from lighting to natural charisma/personality to colouring and facial lines/angles etc.

As images go, they are both true. They will obey the laws of physics. How accurately they reproduce the appearance of the original item will depend on the shape and characteristics of the lens and mirror being compared and the position of the observer.

The text is backwards left-to-right in the mirror. (I just stood in front of one, just to be sure.. it is not readable.. unless you can read backwards. [which I can.. along with reading upside-down, and upside-down and backwards.. I can also write upside-down and backwards, although not particularly well.) The whole mirror image thing is why the word "Ambulance" is written backwards on the fronts of ambulances.. so that when seen in a rear-view mirror... it is immediately readable.

magicbastarder wrote: »

it's not. your left hand is on the left in the image in a mirror.
if you stand looking into a mirror holding a book up, the text is not backwards - if you could see the text from where you're standing (e.g. if it was printed on clear plastic), the text would appear exactly the same as it does in the mirror.

it's not the mirror's fault, it's because you have the book turned around 180 degrees from the way you would usually view it.