People at the edges of a group selfie can look stretched, squished, or skewed because a wide camera view changes how faces are projected across the frame. Being very close to the phone can also exaggerate facial proportions. These are related but distinct effects: moving farther away helps with close-range perspective, while keeping faces out of the extreme edges helps with wide-angle stretching.
Why faces near the edge can look stretched
A wide field of view lets a phone fit more people into one shot without moving farther back. The tradeoff is that faces near the sides of a wide frame can appear less natural than faces nearer the center. Google Research’s 2019 work on wide-angle phone portraits describes faces as stretched, squished, or skewed and presents a correction method designed to work on large group selfies. Its demonstrations covered fields of view from 72° to 115°; those are research demonstration ranges, not a survey of phone cameras.
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A 2019 project page hosted by MIT illustrates the effect with a group selfie captured at a 97° field of view: faces at the periphery appear stretched, twisted, and squished. The project page reports demonstrations from 70° to 120°, another range specific to that research.
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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →This is best described as a wide-angle perspective effect or edge stretching. It is not necessary to assume that the camera has a defective lens, and “barrel distortion” is not a catch-all explanation for every face that looks odd.
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How close distance changes a selfie
A close selfie introduces a separate perspective effect: features at different distances from the camera are projected at different relative sizes. That can change how facial proportions look, even when the face is centered rather than near the edge. In a 2018 peer-reviewed correspondence, Emily A. Cooper and Martin S. Banks discuss how perceived facial shape depends in part on the distance from which a photo is viewed; the appropriate viewing distance depends on the photo’s capture geometry.
So a face that looks wider in a selfie is not, by itself, evidence of poor lens quality. Close camera distance and wide-frame edge stretching can overlap, but one does not explain away the other.
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What to change before taking another group selfie
- Move the phone farther from the group. More distance reduces the close-range component. Crop afterward if you need a tighter composition; extra distance alone does not guarantee natural-looking faces at the edges of a very wide frame.
- Choose a less-wide view if available. Try the standard camera view instead of an ultrawide setting. A narrower field of view can reduce the wide-angle tradeoff, though it also includes less of the group unless you step farther back.
- Keep faces away from the far left and right edges. Place people closer to the middle of the frame, take a test photo, and adjust the arrangement before taking the final shot.
- Look for a camera correction setting. Phone features vary by model. Samsung’s Galaxy S7 guidance, for example, describes an optional “Shape correction” setting; it is a model-specific example, not a feature available on every phone.
A selfie stick or selfie-stick tripod is an optional way to position a phone farther away. It may help with close-range perspective, but it is not a guaranteed fix for edge stretching.
What software correction can—and cannot—promise
Google Research’s 2019 method locally adjusts facial regions and transitions the correction over the background. That describes a research approach, not a guarantee that a particular phone includes it. Check your camera app or support information for your exact model before relying on an automatic correction feature.
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Samsung’s Galaxy S7 support guidance says minor distortion may occur in wide-angle photos, especially near the preview’s edges. It also warns that after shape correction, the background may appear slightly distorted because the algorithm is applied to the overall image. That guidance is for the Galaxy S7 and Samsung India support, last updated October 27, 2020; it should not be generalized to other models.
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Sources
- Google Research: “Distortion-Free Wide-Angle Portrait on Camera Phone” (2019).
- MIT-hosted project page for “Distortion-Free Wide-Angle Portrait on Camera Phone” (SIGGRAPH 2019).
- Cooper and Banks, “Perceived Facial Distortions in Selfies Are Explained by Viewing Habits” (published online June 28, 2018).
- Samsung India Support: Galaxy S7 Shape correction guidance (last updated October 27, 2020).
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