is taking a picture of yourself give you a general idea what you look like?

If you want to see yourself stand in front of a mirror.

If taken properly with good lighting, the right lens and at the correct distance to keep it from distorting your features..... ie: NO STUPID SELFIES!

Of course it does just as long as you don't use a wide-angle lens that's too close to your face. Here's a link that shows you how a lens can change the look of a person:http://www.stepheneastwood.com/tutorials/lensdisto...

Standing in front of a mirror will give you an inverse image of yourself (your right side becomes your left side; hold a newspaper in front of a mirror and try to read from the mirror image, and you'll understand). And depending on the kind of camera AND LENS, you can get a general idea of what you look like to others. Let me explain. IF you take a photo of yourself with a cell 'phone camera, you'll have to understand that the cell 'phone camera has a tiny sensor and a tiny wide-angle lens that causes distortions (wide-angle perspective) and your features will appear pulled toward the camera (making your nose longer, along with your chin and cheeks, possibly your eye ridges); this is because your arms are too short, you should be around 5 feet away from the lens to get an image without the wide angle effect.

The best way to get a general idea of what you look like, is to use a DSLR, camera and set a focal range of 35mm on the lens if the camera is a cropped sensor camera ("DX") or a 50mm focal range on a full frame ("FX") camera.

Have you ever seen photos taken at a party or family get-together or some social event where you weren't aware that a photo was taken, and you appear in the background or near the intended subject? That should give you a general idea of how others see you.

Sounds too much like hard work too me...taking pictures and stuff...I'm with Ann on this one...just check yourself out in a mirror

Taking a picture of yourself is vain.

If all you want is a "general idea" then you might have better results with a mirror. A mirror has better quality and less distortion than a tiny cellphone camera.

Usually yes. What I do is have someone else take a picture and then tell me how much I look like it and how I do and don't.

Sure. Why not.

For the most part yes, but a lot of people say "the camera adds ten pounds."