The “focal length” of our eyes is a subjective number, because our retinas aren’t flat and our attention doesn’t cover our whole field of view at the same time.
The numbers shown in that gif are the focal length, but the change in perspective is indeed actually due to the camera’s distance from the subject. When you are close to a person with a wide lens, their nose is considerably closer to the camera than their ears and hair, so it appears bigger. When you are further away with a nice telephoto lens for portraits, all their facial features are roughly the same distance away, so they all appear the same size.
It’s not distance to mirror, it’s the focal length. The focal length of our eyes is static
The “focal length” of our eyes is a subjective number, because our retinas aren’t flat and our attention doesn’t cover our whole field of view at the same time.
The numbers shown in that gif are the focal length, but the change in perspective is indeed actually due to the camera’s distance from the subject. When you are close to a person with a wide lens, their nose is considerably closer to the camera than their ears and hair, so it appears bigger. When you are further away with a nice telephoto lens for portraits, all their facial features are roughly the same distance away, so they all appear the same size.