To dislike photo editing apps

[dimelo1996]

I don’t mean improving the resolution of an old photo or removing flash. I mean those apps like FaceTune or BodyTune (there must be hundreds of them) where you can “beautify” yourself, like altering your eyes/nose, or synching in your waist, etc. It’s even easy to edit videos and they look realistic …

I know so many people, and pretty much every influencer, use these things a lot, but there’s something about it I find uncanny and just don’t like. I also don’t understand how people feel flattered by compliments on images/videos that aren’t truly them but an “enhanced” version.

There isn’t a back story to this, I was just wondering if anyone else feels the same.

I feel the same. It's like you say, getting a compliment for a picture that isn't actually how you look is pointless. My sister does it a lot in her pictures and I'm just like, you don't look like that, you're not ugly so why are you basically showing fake photos. And it really is that the person in the picture looks better in real life than in the edited photo. The internet has really fucked up body image and it's a shame that young girls are growing up trying to look like someone who doesn't even really look like that in real life

Someone I know is always posting pictures with a really unnatural blurred glowy look. It just makes her and her family look strange. I’m always amazed she thinks it looks good.

YANBU
Someone on my FB posted a pic, and she had so many gushing comments about how amazing she looked... then she said it was a filter.

Exactly. There are so many women (and men to an extent) who are presenting an AI enhanced version of themselves online. I don’t think there’s any good that can come of it.

I’m genuinely curious as to what the people who voted than IABU think. Are they people who like editing their photos/videos? 💁🏼‍♀️

@WhatWouldTheDoctorDo Many people think that and other editing look good…. Or they feel they need to look that way online.

Don’t use them, then.

It’s not up to you to decide what other people should do with their own photos.

I don't mind what people do with their own photos; I dislike the editing of other people in photos, that the people concerned might not have particularly wanted to be taken in the first place.

I agree that it's a hollow compliment and pointless.

I agree. I never use them. I'm nearly 60.

This is me.

People have been editing photographs for as long as there have been photographs to edit. It's just easier and quicker now. And more common. It used to be only the "experts" who did it, now anyone can.
And before that, people would commission a portrait and expect it to be highly flattering. And the painter would comply of course - if they wanted to get paid anyway.

And you see it in many portraits. All of the ones (particularly of women)
from a certain era have a tendency to look alike in many ways. As if the artist was following a certain pattern of fashionable looks considered attractive at the time. Just like with editing apps now making "everyone look the same"
The technology has changed but human nature has not.

No, that’s Margot Robbie.

I think the poster knew and was joking?

True, but the technology years ago wasn’t there. Apps like Bodytune and AI didn’t exist in the 1950s, 1960s. So I do think that photo editing is a lot worse because it’s just so much more advanced.

I don’t use them, never have.

And I am not telling anyone what to do, I am
just expressing my opinion (which I’m
entitled to, as is anyone).

It’s ok to not trust what you see on social media. Not sure what your problem is.

i struggle as a remote worker. I go in occasionally to meet people and sometimes I can’t identify them. I’ll have an image of them based on their email picture or whatever and it’ll bear so little resemblance I then end up accidentally ignoring them, asking who there are when they greet me or trying to work out who is who in a group! It’s not even that they are less attractive, just different. It’s awkward.
My manager for example is a pleasantly pretty woman with naturally fresh soft features. When I occasionally meet her I feel like I’m talking to a stranger as I see her photo daily as a woman with a new face shape, different hair who is generally quite corporate, sharp featured and highly styled. I wouldn’t necessarily be able to match the photo to her in real life if I had a selection to chose from!

I get what you mean tbh. I don’t mind basic editing like fixing lighting or sharpening an old photo, but the whole face/body altering side of it does feel a bit uncomfortable.

There’s a difference between enhancing a photo and completely changing how someone looks. I’ve used things like Remini just for improving clarity on old or blurry pictures, and that kind of use feels fine to me because it’s not really changing the person, just the quality.

But yeah, the heavy “beautify” edits where people don’t even look like themselves anymore can feel a bit fake.

Yanbu

YANBU

And it's not just people either.

I'm in some Facebook groups for a beautiful coastal area that I intend to retire to.

It's full of rugged coastline, natural beauty and gorgeous sunrises/sunsets.

Yet almost every photo for the last year or so has been heavily filtered, so the sand is more orange, the grass is ridiculously green even during hot Summers, the sea looks like the bloody Mediterranean and the sunsets look like the Chernobyl.

It's pointless.

YNBU. I have fb friends who look COMPLETELY different to how they do in real life. Typically these altered pictures get loads of “omg you look amazing/great” comments. It’s totally ridiculous. I appreciate that people that post such pictures have every right to do so, of course but I do think they need to give their head a wobble. In all seriousness though, I think it’s sad that people feel the need to do this, it smacks of insecurity, not feeling good enough which ultimately is really sad. I blame social media as a whole really & acknowledge that this is a complex subject (just to clarify, I’m talking about Extreme editing where the person really doesn’t look like themselves)

I don’t really like any beautifying editing which alters a person’s features or body. Improving lighting, ok fine.

You’re right about people looking significantly different to how they do in real life. I just think about complete strangers and all those influencers (hate that name but it is what is), whose followers don’t even know what they really look like so maybe believe it. So damaging for young women and men’s’ perceptions of women.