If a penchant for selfies has left you worried about the size of your nose, you might want to consider a selfie-stick.

Researchers say selfie-lovers should be aware that snapping a picture with the camera close to your face distorts the proportions of your features.

“If the camera point is closer to something that projects out, like your nose, it is going to make everything that is closer to that camera look bigger compared to the rest of the face,” said Boris Paskhover, co-author of the study and a facial plastic surgeon at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

To illustrate the point, Paskhover and colleagues combined a simple mathematical model with average values for several facial measurements previously gathered for a large number of men and women in the US.

The results show that a face-on portrait taken from 12 inches away makes the nose’s breadth appear about 30% larger – compared to width of the face – than it really is. In such photos the tip of the nose also appears 7% bigger, compared to the rest of the nose, than it is in reality. By contrast, an image taken five feet away results in facial features appearing in the same proportions as they would in the flesh.

“[That] is actually a standard photographic distance – photographers take portraits at five feet; when I take pictures of patients, I take them at five feet,” said Paskhover.

According to a survey published in January by the the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 55% of facial plastic surgeons report that patients have said they want to improve their looks in selfies.

“I, for years, have seen that patients – and family members of mine and people in general around me – always say ‘hey, my nose looks so big’,” said Paskhover. But, he added, when they take out a picture, it is usually a selfie on their phone.

Paskhover noted that cosmetic nose surgery is more common in the younger population, typically young females. But, he said, the message was not just for people seeking surgery.

“Kids need to know that is not what you look like: you look great, don’t worry about that,” said Paskhover. “The selfie is kind of like a fun-house mirror.”