… so why do we photographers let other photographs screw up a photo?
No seriously though. Is it because we’re competitors? It doesn’t matter. By not telling the photographer what they’re doing is wrong, it’s allowing the subject to think they look ugly without photoshop. You are allowing this subject to continue to feel ugly. Now I most certainly HATE using myself as an example but I’d rather have it be my picture than somebody else’s. I’m taking one for the team. This photo below is straight out of the camera. Should’ve I used chap stick that day? Yes, probably but which photo looks the best?
No photoshop
Semi Photoshopped
Holy Caked Face Photoshopped
You may think that the middle photo isn’t that bad and I’d say most photoshopping photographers do photoshop with that consistency. But there is a time when they don’t realize just how much they’ve done and it looks like number three. I can give you handful’s of photographers that over do it when they didn’t need to do anything at all. It hurts. It hurts me as a photographer, seeing this kind of graffiti. It’s a subtle but definite type of graffiti. And it hurts our clients. They are walking away thinking that the only way they look pretty is with a magic tool on the computer. We are teaching these young children, seniors and men and women that, your freckles are ugly. Your age marks are hideous. Your teeth aren’t white enough. Your eyes don’t POP enough. Your beauty marks should be called ugly marks. What has become of us? Like I said the second photo isn’t that bad but it’s still wrong. Do you know a good way of telling if it’s been photoshopped? Look at the brightness of my eyes to the dullness of my skin. I didn’t touch my eyes in the second but it still pops. That’s what this “magic tool” does. It smoothes and dulls the skin and inadvertently makes your eyes pop. The third photo is when photoshoppers – ahem- I mean photographers go the extra mile and still make the eyes pop. You want to know another way you can tell? Because your Auntie Mary didn’t look that young and was 50 lbs heavier last week when you saw her. Who are we kidding?
I love my freckles. I love the texture of my skin. I love looking human.
I beg of other photographers right not to stop smoothing skin. STOP! PLEASE! People can pick it out like a two year old picks their boogers.
You’re not fooling anybody!
But please stop. Especially with children and babies. They have the smoothest, prettiest skin to begin with. Why mess it up? I can understand baby acne but don’t make them look inhumane. Git rid of the baby acne but leave the texture of the skin. It’s so beautiful. Don’t mess with it. Do you want your girls thinking that flawless skin is beautiful or do you want them thinking that what they look like now, no matter what, is beautiful?
Congratulations Leticia!
