Here is a small consolation for anyone who winces at their own selfies: that is not quite your face. Wide-angle lenses held at arm’s length — which describes every front-facing phone camera — geometrically inflate noses, narrow jaws, and push ears back. The distortion is physics, not genetics, and understanding it is the key to flattering portraits of anyone.
The real variable is distance, expressed through focal length. Close camera positions exaggerate whatever is nearest — usually the nose — because it is proportionally so much closer than the ears. Step back and zoom in, and facial features compress toward their true relationships. This is why the classic portrait lenses cluster between 85mm and 135mm: they enforce a conversational distance that renders faces honestly and gently.
The working ranges: 24-35mm is for environmental storytelling — a chef in her kitchen, a fisherman with his boat — where a bit of dimensional drama energizes the frame, but keep faces away from the edges, where stretching intensifies. The 50mm sits closest to natural human perspective and flatters small groups. The 85-135mm range is the headshot sweet spot: compressed features, melted backgrounds, and enough working distance that nervous subjects stop feeling examined. Beyond 200mm, compression turns painterly — backgrounds stack up close and creamy, a look wildlife photographers get free with their long glass.
Phone practicality: use the 2x or 3x telephoto camera for portraits of people, never the main wide lens up close, and never the front camera for anything you want to love. Even better, hand the phone to someone standing eight feet away.
The demonstration worth doing once: photograph the same patient friend at the same framing using 24mm, 50mm, and 100mm. Watching one identical face change shape across three frames permanently rewires how you position a camera. Faces deserve distance; distance is respect rendered optically.