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Front-camera distortion is a specific optical signature. A clean 85mm portrait cropped square never reads as a selfie, and audiences know the difference without being able to name it.
The recipe
The shot never describes the person. It describes what is happening to them, which is what keeps the face out of the variables.
Getting it right
Composed
The locked line comes from the character sheet; everything after it comes from the recipe above. Swap in your own line and nothing else changes.
Midjourney
Front-camera photograph of a woman, late twenties, South Asian features, an oval face, dark brown almond eyes, softly arched brows, a straight nose, evenly balanced lips, a scatter of freckles across the nose and cheeks, shoulder-length wavy dark brown hair with a centre part, golden skin, natural texture and visible pores, average height with an average build. Wearing plain unbranded basics, a warm neutral palette of sand, bone and camel, in a small modern city apartment, soft daylight from a large window, camera at eye level. Head and shoulders at arm's length, slight wide-angle distortion, camera above eye height. Looking up into the lens, mid-sentence expression rather than a pose. Available light only, slightly overexposed, no retouching --ar 4:5 --style raw --seed 2865404059 --cref [url of your approved reference frame] --cw 100
Flux
Front-camera photograph of a woman, late twenties, South Asian features, an oval face, dark brown almond eyes, softly arched brows, a straight nose, evenly balanced lips, a scatter of freckles across the nose and cheeks, shoulder-length wavy dark brown hair with a centre part, golden skin, natural texture and visible pores, average height with an average build. Wearing plain unbranded basics, a warm neutral palette of sand, bone and camel, in a small modern city apartment, soft daylight from a large window, camera at eye level. Head and shoulders at arm's length, slight wide-angle distortion, camera above eye height. Looking up into the lens, mid-sentence expression rather than a pose. Available light only, slightly overexposed, no retouching negative: beauty filter, airbrushed skin, plastic skin, waxy skin, over-smoothed, perfectly symmetrical face, extra fingers, malformed hands, warped jewellery, text artifacts, watermark, logo on clothing, duplicate person, changing facial structure, clear skin, freckles removed, poreless skin seed: 2865404059 | guidance: 3.5 | steps: 28
Seedream
Front-camera photograph of a woman, late twenties, South Asian features, an oval face, dark brown almond eyes, softly arched brows, a straight nose, evenly balanced lips, a scatter of freckles across the nose and cheeks, shoulder-length wavy dark brown hair with a centre part, golden skin, natural texture and visible pores, average height with an average build. Wearing plain unbranded basics, a warm neutral palette of sand, bone and camel, in a small modern city apartment, soft daylight from a large window, camera at eye level. Head and shoulders at arm's length, slight wide-angle distortion, camera above eye height. Looking up into the lens, mid-sentence expression rather than a pose. Available light only, slightly overexposed, no retouching Keep identical: a woman, late twenties, South Asian features, an oval face, dark brown almond eyes, softly arched brows, a straight nose, evenly balanced lips, a scatter of freckles across the nose and cheeks, shoulder-length wavy dark brown hair with a centre part, golden skin, natural texture and visible pores, average height with an average build Change only: [the one thing that changes in this shot]
UGC / selfie
Full length in a mirror, phone visible in hand at chest height
Chest up in a bathroom mirror, phone in one hand, product in the other
Head and shoulders in a driver's seat, phone propped, engine off