To think photo filters are going too far?

[IGiorni]

You literally can’t tell what some people on social media look like in real life, and I don’t mean celebs. Someone has put a photo in a Facebook group saying she’s been told she looks like a Disney princess and everyone’s replying with comments about it being because of her big beautiful eyes. She actually doesn’t have eyes like that though, it’s a Snapchat filter A relative is plugging weight loss shakes and keeps putting ‘after’ photos of herself on, they literally look nothing like her at all - she doesn’t even look real in some of them. Why do people do it? Is it an attention seeking thing?

I take pictures of my DS with the animal face ones because he finds them funny and loves looking at photos of himself lol

Totally understand that! It's the ones where its just changing the looks to look 'better' I find bizarre on babies

It’s counter productive because it’s so obvious when a picture has been filtered because the subject always looks slightly alien. Oh well each to their own but I personally like to have a picture of me warts and all when I have my picture taken even if it’s not perfect. It’s a record of a time and I like to remember the past unadorned.

I know someone who used that blurry face-smoothing one so much that she has no nostrils in any photo she’s taken of herself 😂

I'm in a Facebook 'mummy' group (I don't know why, 99% of the posts annoy me). They have a fairly regular 'selfie thread'. Often guess my age or rate my selfie type thing. Every single photo is filtered. Then they all 'hun' eachother about the compliments that they look late teens/early 20s

Although my phone likes to apply beauty face even when I don't want it to.

I have friends in Facebook who look nothing like their photos. I don't understand why they do it? Surely everyone knows they look nothing like that?

Can someone point me in the direction of these filters? Thought everyone was being a bit OTT on here (though the snapchat bunny ears on adults is ridiculous) but now I’m not sure what you’re all talking about because I thought filters meant just turning a photo to ‘teal’ or black and white, I’ve not seen anything that has someone’s nostrils edited out

I like the filters that mimic professional photography, like on instagram you can make the picture pop like it does in real life.. a regular picture doesn't do the reality justice. But yeah the smooth skins ones are terrible, really obvious as the skin has no texture anymore! And the snapchat ones are fun but so many people have them as their profile picture now.

I read once that sometimes when young girls go missing, the police don't have any recent photos they can use as they're all snapchat filters.

@MissionItsPossible filters can be just snapchat (they have options to not have cartoons over it and just improve your face), Facetune white I think is a blurring/teeth whitening one, beauty filter which is android camera option to blur your face, general Instagram filters and just picture editing from your phone settings?

There is probably hundreds of apps tho, they are just what I think when people say editing

I've got to say, after saying I hate filters, I do filter my instagram.

My DD is ginger and some of the filters make her hair pop brighter which I love.

I don't blur her face or anything 😂

The filter thing boggles my head, they're post awful. All of them! No you don't look cute with bunny ears!

But it's not harming anyone so I just scroll past.

My phone's camera is weird as well. It takes lovely photos but automatically clears any imperfections or marks on the skin. It wasn't until I was studying one photo wondering why it didn't look right did I realise it had erased all my son's freckles. that's just the camera with no filters.

As PP pointed out, this isn't a new thing. It's surprising how much 'editing' you can do to a photo in the dark room and even by experimenting with different film, etc. And the term filter refers to an actual filter put over the lens of a camera which used to be used a lot more when photography was black and white.

However seeing people here saying their phone camera gets rid of marks automatically is very worrying. Fair enough if you have to put some kind of effort into getting rid of them, but this will just end up with people obsessing (more) over their looks as they different when they look in the mirror.

Why do people do it? Is it an attention seeking thing?

Isn't the whole selfie-posting thing attention seeking?

My son calls it 'filterdysmorphia' or 'snapdysmorphia'. He reckons its an actual mental health issue for the future!! He is 15