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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Photoshopping school photos?????

30 replies

Mangobubbles · 27/11/2014 18:50

So DS comes home with his school photo order form and it has the option to photoshop it, just circle the area and annotate..... AIBU to think this is awful? Maybe in very specific circumstances, this could possibly be acceptable but surely, children face enough pressure from media to look a certain way to fit with our modern society. Eating disorders and depression are becoming frighteningly common in young people. What kind of a message does this send them? Is this normal for school photos these days? Am I just old fashioned?

OP posts:
TinklyLittleLaugh · 27/11/2014 18:52

Think my Mum would have welcomed the opportunity to photoshop out the school dinner stains I have down the front of me, in many of my photos.

Shockers · 27/11/2014 19:07

I think if your child has an enormous cold sore, they would probably love it if it could vanish rather than be there, framed over the dining table for all eternity...

madhairday · 27/11/2014 19:09

I'd quite like to photo shop ds' latest as he has two great black eyes from a fall at skating last week!

MistAndAWeepingRain · 27/11/2014 19:14

I think the vast majority of parents who make use of this will do so to remove the ketchup stain from Johnny's jumper or a crusty chicken pox from Jane's face. I highly doubt people will want to change eye colour or disguise a double chin!

I didn't buy DDs picture last year as she had custard down her jumper. I might have Photoshoped it out if I'd have had the option.

mrspremise · 27/11/2014 19:14

The photographer who comes to the school I work in offers this as an option; e.g. to remove dinner stains and bruises as pp have already said. Birthmarks, scars etc are not routinely edited out, ime

PrettyLittleMitty · 27/11/2014 19:16

Ds1's school photo is shockingly bad, I would love the oppurtunity to photoshop the red paint on his forehead (that the teacher tried to clean off bit only managed to smear accross his face) or the green stuff under his nose that looks like he has a huge bogey hanging out Shock Sadly Photoshop was not an option available to us lol

JadziaSnax · 27/11/2014 19:20

I had a massive cold sore on one of my school pictures. My mum would have been delighted if we'd have had the option of photoshop.

OwlCapone · 27/11/2014 19:22

I had one of DSs photos digitally alters. They removed some glare from his eyes.

Why do you assume it has anything to do with body image? Confused

thanksamillion · 27/11/2014 19:31

We were abroad until fairly recently and it was standard procedure to Photoshop the pictures there. They kind of brightened the girls eyes and gave them a slightly dewy look. They also edited out DD1s freckles which aren't considered 'pretty' in that culture Hmm

Younger DD could chose a princess/fairy dress from a large selection of pictures and her head and arms were Photoshopped onto it, and DS could chose an army uniform complete with Kalashnikov Shock

FishWithABicycle · 27/11/2014 20:03

I doubt it's about photoshopping their actual physical features. I regularly buy the digital copy rather than physical prints so that I can photoshop away the dribble from the chin or the snot-encrustation from the nose or the stain from the jumper.

Sprink · 27/11/2014 20:11

thanksamillion, Kalishnikov? Nice one.

I helped at primary school photo session a few years ago. Tried to tidy hair and jumpers as I know most parents would rather pay for a "good" photo.

Photographer told me not to worry because she photoshopped in advance of photos being sent home to be ordered.

The cheek! The presumption!

Having said that, I quite like stains and stray hair and goofy looks. Captures a moment in a child's world, doesn't it?

(Definitely don't like eradication of the freckles. Feck off.)

mumofboyo · 27/11/2014 20:38

My dc, who are still in private day nursery, had their photos done recently and they're lovely - except for the big river of snot running down dd's nose. If they could Photoshop that out it'd be great.

Original poster
Mangobubbles · 27/11/2014 21:14

I guess I am old fashioned and unreasonable. As a child I often had cold sores and had hay fever and puffy eyes every summer and my parents always bought our school photos and that was that, I don't remember being that bothered. That's what I looked like. But I guess if DS' photo had come home with him covered in paint with snot running down his face, the photoshop option would have been a good one.

OP posts:
strawberrie · 27/11/2014 21:21

My DD clashed heads with another kids on the way from her classroom to the hall where the photographer was. I'd happily have the rosy pink splodge on her forehead photoshopped away!

Sprink · 27/11/2014 22:15

Why have it photoshopped away, strawberrie?

If it goes, so does your anecdote.

mum9876 · 27/11/2014 22:18

I think it's great myself. Last year dd have a scabby nostril from picking her nose and a bit scrape down the side of her face from falling over. Edit them out, lovely photo. Three out of five years we get a completely unusable photo with them not smiling or with glasses frames obscuring eyes. If we can get one half decent one every few years we'd be elated.

YesIDidMeanToBeSoRudeActually · 27/11/2014 22:20

OP, I agree with you, it feels odd to me.

It's artificial isn't it? If Jonny hadn't brushed his hair perfectly or Jane had banana on her shirt, so what? They're children having a school photo!

World's gone mad....

whois · 27/11/2014 22:21

We have to have a set of head shots done for work. One set jacket on, one set jacket off. Smile, half smile and serious.

The photographer didn't like my (tied back) and hair gripped hair (it's a bit fly-away at the front sometimes!) and kept coming over trying to flatten it and 'tsk'ing. I said it was ok, it's an accurate reflection of how I looked. He photoshopped bits of my hair out!

Anyway mum would have probably liked to have had some of my school photos photoshopped. Back in the day ore digital and I normally had my eyes closed!

Ineedmango · 27/11/2014 22:36

Some of the things mentioned above, like stains on jumpers, snots and cold sores I think are ok to be edited out if the parent asks for it.

What is not ok were on our school pictures, where it was not made widely known beforehand that some pictures would be photoshopped whether parents asked for it or not. Mine wasn't too bad, my skin just looked a little more glowy than usual. But one of the girls in my class had absolutely brutal acne. Her face was really severely affected by it, and when she was handed her school picture it was like looking at a completely different person. Smooth glowy skin, not a spot or scar in sight. I think it really humiliated her because it was such a drastic change, Its just insulting. If she had asked for it it would be different but in my opinion really bloody rude to just decide who needs photoshopping and who doesnt.

BoomBoomsCousin · 27/11/2014 22:36

I can see the desire to photoshop out the food stains, but I think it's a bit of a shame to photoshop out the playground war wounds. It captures a point in time an some of those points are going to have reminders of falls and scrapes.

My mother has a photo of me when I was about 8 with what looks like a huge, greyish-redish 'tache from cutting myself while trying to walk along a wall in the rain. I love that photo now. I remember the day really well. I was with friends and we'd been playing all afternoon and were doing a sort of assault course/follow my leader game. It was great fun and then I fell and cut myself, everyone had to go home, I had to go to A&E. It was lots of drama and I was up until nearly midnight, then on Sunday my mum made biscuits and hot chocolate so I wouldn't feel bad because she wouldn't let me go out and play.

I remember all that when I see that photo. I can't remember a single thing about my other school photos.

manicinsomniac · 27/11/2014 22:38

I feel like I'm in another school photo world! Where I work we simply wouldn't take a photo of a child in stained clothing or with paint, snot or mud all over them. Before the shutter clicks our children tidy their uniform and brush/tie back their hair. If they were covered in snot, paint, blood or anything else then they would wash and change if necessary but I would presume that they'd wash at the time of the incident not just because they were about to have a photo. I'm amazed that this appears to be unusual.

SpringBreaker · 27/11/2014 23:22

I had a port wine birth mark on my neck, it had faded by the time I was a teenager, and looked like a huge love bite.. I would rather it not there on photos too.

Thankfully by the time I was in my 20's it had completely gone.

KatyN · 28/11/2014 06:23

My son's nursery photos are photoshopped before they are sent home. They remove snot which I understnad is present on a lot of 2 year old's faces.

They didn't make him slimmer or change the colour of his eyes or anything!

LindyHemming · 28/11/2014 07:04

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

manicinsomniac · 28/11/2014 08:23

Katy wouldn't it have been simpler to remove the snot from the child's actual faces before they took the photo?? The mind boggles at schools letting kids wander round like this! Photo day or not!

Euphemia - of course! What school doesn't have spare uniform? If a child spills their dinner down their clothes or has a nosebleed all over themselves etc then of course the school will (or should!) be changing them. And brushing your hair before a photo is not 'preening yourself in the school loos' Hmm