I’ve hemmed and hawed about whether editing photos is something I should do. Not color correcting and cropping; those are things I do with lots of my photos, and without a second thought. What I’ve wondered is whether I should be erasing people’s blemishes, smoothing forehead lines, lightening shadows beneath their eyes.
The reason I think about this at all is because my mission as a photographer is self esteem. Your self image. It’s important to me, first, that your photo experience makes you feel great about yourself, and second, that the finished product is wonderful. (Which isn’t to say that the loveliness of the final outcome doesn’t matter to me. It does, just not as much as your personhood.)
I’m learning that this isn’t the way all photographers operate. I once had a client tell me that her last photographer told her she was “unphotogenic”. Can you imagine having someone who’s there to take your photo (an intimate, vulnerable situation in the first place) tell you, in essence, that you’re not beautiful on film? By the end of that photo session, she said, she was very nearly in tears.
My mission, both as a photographer and a coach, is to show people their beauty and help them share it with the world. And so when it comes to photo editing, I wonder: should I smooth lines and cover blemishes? I’m outraged by the out-of-control photoshopping seen in women’s magazines and (let’s just admit it) everywhere else. Does smoothing a client’s undereye shadows make me a part of the money-hungry machine that tells women (and men) that they’re no good as they are, and that they need to be smoothed and tugged and tightened to look beautiful?
I think about this. A lot. Almost every time I edit photos, in fact. And I’ve come to some tenuous conclusions:
I don’t smooth lines or erase freckles unless someone explicitly asks me to. The first proofs I send to clients are them, in all their beautiful, imperfect glory. To me, imperfection is what makes our beauty, not what detracts from it. And I’m in love with wrinkles. I could write odes to them, and maybe I will, someday. But I know not everyone feels that way, and for many complicated, deeply personal reasons.
I don’t tell people what to do with their bodies. I believe in people making their own choices, and coming to their own conclusions. What’s right for me and my body isn’t the same as what’s right for you and your body, and vice versa. And I feel like photos are a bit like an extension of our selves, because they’re so very personal. So as much as possible, I give my portrait clients power over the way their bodies are depicted through my lens.
I don’t share clients’ photos on my website without their permission, because I know that having your photograph taken can make you feel very, very vulnerable. While I’m the artist depicting you, meaning that the work is my own, I want to honor you and your agency (your ability to act as well as to be viewed) as a person and a portrait subject. I want you to be able to be you when we’re having a photo session, and that’s more likely to happen if you know you’ll have first say in where these photos get seen.
. . .
Those things said, if someone wants her or his photos edited slightly, I do that. For now. Someday, maybe it’ll be something I decide against. But because I know how much more I like a photo of myself when it doesn’t feature a zit I may have had when it was taken, I understand how those teeny weeny tweaks can help you to feel at ease with yourself.
And more than anything, I want you to feel supremely at ease with yourself.
. . .
That photo up there? Yup, that’s me. Unedited. Super-duper photo snapping skills courtesy of Mary.
11 Comments
I’m pretty much in agreement with you and yet…
What if all the tweaks you describe are done with lighting and lens choice rather than Photoshop? Does that make them unacceptable to you?
I could use fill light or a reflector to fill in under the eyes, put on a diffusion filter to mitigate wrinkles, slightly overexpose to smooth out skin, or use a long lens to decrease the depth of field thereby also smoothing the skin. All of that would be acceptable to me.
It’s the shots that don’t quite look like the people they’re of that bother me. A covergirl ad with Ellen Degeneres, e.g., that I wasn’t quite sure was her. That’s too much for me.
Guess it’s all a range of what we consider acceptable, but I agree that what’s most important is the person feel good about the photo they’re in.
hallelujah! “my mission as a photographer is self esteem. Your self image.” I have never thought too much about the role of photographer and her connection to self image. But of course: it makes perfect sense. Thank you for bringing this to your work, for sharing your perspective, and for making me think about it.
And that’s a beautiful picture, by the way!
All I have to say is that I love all of this. Way to bring so much integrity into the amazing work you do. Keep going!
Bravo! I wish we lived on the same coast, I would have you take my photo in a heartbeat and that’s saying alot (for me).
I would never want my lines (wrinkles or whatever you want to call them) erased. I’ve earned every one of them – they are a story of my life. With that said, I also don’t want to look like my grandmother either. I have yet to find a photographer who feels like you do. I will keep searching.
I love your integrity and you’re gorgeous just the way you are!
yay! as a photographer myself, I’ve never been a fan of over-photoshopping. i think it just promotes this unrealistic ideal. I mean, skin should have textures after all!
But as a wedding photographer, I definitely take out zits and smooth lines a little bit. I’m not a professional retoucher and don’t even have those skills. I know that years from now those photos will be your memories of the day and I want you to look like the best (realistic) version of your self.
I think it’s a good choice to present clients with pictures before any editing is done – let them make the choice. Personally, I feel the same way as Sherree… I have earned all my wrinkles – I want to see them damn it!
Claire: Good point, and one I hadn’t even thought about. I tend to overexpose most of my photos a bit, actually, so that’s definitely a stylistic “tweak” I make without even realizing it. To me, it’s more about being mindful and thoughtful about what I’m doing. I’d rather put the thought into it than simply make changes without considering whether or not I find them problematic. And I agree with you — pretty much, my point is that I want people’s photos to look as deeply them as possible.
Lori-Ann: Thanks, sweet pea! This is definitely something I’m working on integrating, business-wise. How can I integrate self esteem into everything I do, whether it’s writing or coaching or photography?
Tiffany: Yay! Integrity’s a good word to remember. And I guess a commitment to having these tough conversations that don’t have black and white answers is a big part of that.
Sherree: Ooh, I wish we were on the same coast, too! I’m glad you love your wrinkles. They’re so darn wonderful. And perhaps the next time I’m on the West Coast, we can make it happen.
Erin: Most definitely! And that’s a great thing to think about — on one’s wedding day (or even simply one’s photo shoot day), one doesn’t want to be worrying about a zit, right? So if we as photographers can ease just a bit of worry and allow people to have a better, more confident experience, we should seize that.
Sunde: So true. Particularly because some people, like you, love their wrinkles, while others don’t so much. Both photos look darned gorgeous to me, so it’s best for them to be able to decide and think about how they see themselves.
As a fellow photographer and lover of people, I completely agree. In fact, I knew from the start that I would never, ever airbrush or photoshop anyone’s face, including my own. Thankfully I’ve never had one of my lovelies that I’ve photographed ask me to. Only one person wanted to conceal their tattoo for personal reasons, and I did so without photoshop.
I love that photo of you. Yay for unedited photos!
I recently modelled for an experienced portrait photographer who said that being photogenic was really being able to be comfortable and yourself in front of the camera. Which would make ‘being photogenic’ much more the responsibility of the photographer.
This is an interesting knot. I take photos of other people, self-portraits and model for other photographers. One reason I like photographing myself is being able to have total control over the images, and strangely enough this involves be doing much less editing than in photos others take of me.
Personally, i dislike the assumption that my moles or scars need to be removed to make an image presentable – although I will change what I edit of myself depending on the mood of the image, the way I’ve processed it. So sometimes I will deliberately process in an image in a way that darkens my undereye circles (allergies, meh), whereas another day I will lighten them.
It’s one reason why I would never want to step into a genre like glamour. I can’t see the appeal of photos were someone’s face is drained of everything that makes it them.
Sui: Yay, indeed! I like the process of thinking with care about issues like this. No matter where you stand on the issue, I think it matters just that you give it thought.
Jane: I think that photographer was right on. I agree with you on photographing myself — I generally like the resulting images much more than those taken by others. I know what I like, and I can accentuate that, where as others might see me differently. And I agree with you on keeping things like freckles, scars, etc. Particularly wrinkles. I think their shadows are stunning, particularly in indirect, cloudy-day light.
Agreed. On Facebook, my friend posted shiny-shiny photographs. But I saw the shots that included “blemishes” and characteristic marks. I would prefer perhaps different lighting or composition, so those elements wouldn’t be so prominant. In real life, she’s lovely, and blemishes aren’t so noticeable, but the photographer used high-contrast lighting, and then used photoshop to give her baby-skin. So the pictures didn’t have the bold “i love my body” vibe that she carries around her, and I missed that.