Hi, I would search for this, but if you look at the title it is obviosly clear that I do not know the term for what I am looking into inquiring.

Alright here it goes

It has occured to me that when I look directly at myself or at myself with a mirror at a close range, I can only very very vaguely see my abs. Although when I look at myself with a mirror say 8+ feet away, I can make out my abs quite well, I mean, I can see every single one.

Is this a lighting issue due to distance or what?

Yup, it's a lighting issue. When you're standing close to the mirror there's a great deal of light bouncing both off of your body and back off of the mirror. That light is washing out the shadows that are defining the sections of your abs.

Not only that, but if you look at it as though you where standing for a photoshoot, keep in mind the surrondings play a lot in it as well.

Not only is there lots of light impacting your body, but you also have light reflecting off the counter hitting the bottom of your abs eliminating the shadows almost completly. Depending on how light or dark your walls are behind you. All this plays a part, if your standing back I'm assuming you're in a hallway or something, therefore you have now moved away from lights in front of you, the counter, etc. and are now 'under' lights instead of 'in front' of them.

-Mimic