To Photoshop or not, that is the true question. With magazine’s plastered with stick thin, airbrushed celebrities and girls with perfectly poreless skin, the need to achieve (or at least appear to) perfection is greater than ever before. Of course, a change in lighting exposure here and a bump in saturation here and there never hurt anyone, but where do we draw the line?
In our opinion, there is a difference between touching up a photo and altering it. Touching up a photo merely involves improving the quality of the image such as brightening that group selfie you took with the girls when out last night or even increasing the sharpness on that totally artsy (but slightly blurry) flat lay. It is the equivalent of applying an Instagram filter to your photo as it only changes the coloration, lighting, and clarity of the image.For example, take a look at the images below. Both photos feature the same subject with identical features. The only difference is minor changes in lighting and hues as her body and face remain untouched.
Image via Isabelle Lee
So then, what’s altering a picture and why is it so harmful?
Altering an image is when you use editing applications to change the original properties of a photo. Apps such as Facetune offer users the opportunity to change their faces and bodies into what they want them to be including leg lengthening, eye brightening, hair color changing, breast boosting, and nose shaping abilities. Heavily altering images is often done in an attempt to conform to society’s unrealistic beauty standards, but it is crucial to remember they are just that: unrealistic.
Image via iPhone Photography School
Although it may seem harmless to have a perfectly smooth and skinny beach body shot on your social media, the real problem is that nearly everyone has the same mentality. As a result, seeing countless heavily distorted images with unrealistically smooth skin, big eyes, and slim waistlines on your feed can begin to feel like that beauty standard is the norm when in all actuality, it isn’t.
So the next time you’re getting ready to edit that Instagram post, ask yourself ‘Am I just retouching the image or altering who I am in it?’ Because the truth is beauty comes in all types of shades, shapes, and sizes and it is about time we start embracing Photoshop to highlight our strengths instead of hiding our weaknesses.