SOCIETY

Say ‘Cheese!’ And Now Say ‘Airbrush!’

More photo studios are offering to retouch your child's flaws away. But is digital perfection good for a kid's self-image?

By Jessica Bennett | NEWSWEEK

Feb 25, 2008 Issue

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Discuss

Posted By: katb46 @ 05/03/2008 9:23:24 AM

Comment: I am a professional photographer with a small studio. I do retouch protraits but only making sure colors are correct and removing blemishes(most times lighting does it for me)I do nothing
to change the individual. I was appalled a few ago when a school picture company, with out my checking the box for retouching, retouched my daughters school picture and botched it
making a minor flaw in one ear more noticable. It was something we had never made a big
deal about or even her peers. She really didn't know she had it until they botched her photo
trying to cover it up. It so horrified me I only get the smallest package so she get a class pic.
We generally throw the other images away as I take her school pictures now. It was very
traumatic but as shows the ineptnes of those companies to regulate their employees and
follow their own order sheets.
Posted By: katb46 @ 05/03/2008 9:23:06 AM

Comment: I am a professional photographer with a small studio. I do retouch protraits but only making sure colors are correct and removing blemishes(most times lighting does it for me)I do nothing
to change the individual. I was appalled a few ago when a school picture company, with out my checking the box for retouching, retouched my daughters school picture and botched it
making a minor flaw in one ear more noticable. It was something we had never made a big
deal about or even her peers. She really didn't know she had it until they botched her photo
trying to cover it up. It so horrified me I only get the smallest package so she get a class pic.
We generally throw the other images away as I take her school pictures now. It was very
traumatic but as shows the ineptnes of those companies to regulate their employees and
follow their own order sheets.
Posted By: katb46 @ 05/03/2008 9:17:33 AM

Comment: I am a professional photographer and own a small studio. I do include retouching basically
just making sure that colors are correct and blemishes kept to a minimum(most times lighting
can do that) Unless a customer asks for something specific I don't do it. I do remove anything
that would detract from the subject in the background. I horrifed on year when a school photo
company retouched my daughter photo covering up an ear which us mildly deformed. Until
then she didn't know there was a problem after that I stopped school photos except for her
to get class picture and do my own. This problem was barely noticable and no one ever made
an issue of it now no thanks to the photo company there is a small issue and the fact I didn't check the box for retouching and they botched it making it more noticable!
Posted By: oilman79707 @ 05/03/2008 1:38:21 AM

Comment: Just imagine how incomprehendable this whole thing is to a woman with children in Darfur just trying to live until tomorrow.
Posted By: oilman79707 @ 05/03/2008 1:38:06 AM

Comment: Just imagine how incomprehendable this whole thing is to a woman with children in Darfur just trying to live until tomorrow.
Posted By: oilman79707 @ 05/03/2008 1:37:07 AM

Comment: Just imagine how incomprehendable this whole thing is to a woman with children in Darfur just trying to live until tomorrow.
Posted By: oilman79707 @ 05/03/2008 1:36:58 AM

Comment: Just imagine how incomprehendable this whole thing is to a woman with children in Darfur just trying to live until tomorrow.
Posted By: oilman79707 @ 05/03/2008 1:36:42 AM

Comment: Just imagine how incomprehendable this whole thing is to a woman with children in Darfur just trying to live until tomorrow.
Posted By: oilman79707 @ 05/03/2008 1:36:01 AM

Comment: Just imagine how incomprehendable this whole thing is to a woman with children in Darfur just trying to live until tomorrow.
Posted By: oilman79707 @ 05/03/2008 1:35:42 AM

Comment: Just imagine how incomprehendable this whole thing is to a woman with children in Darfur just trying to live until tomorrow.
Posted By: oilman79707 @ 05/03/2008 1:35:33 AM

Comment: Just imagine how incomprehendable this whole thing is to a woman with children in Darfur just trying to live until tomorrow.
Posted By: centerforeatingdisorders @ 03/07/2008 1:58:49 PM

Comment: It???s really frightening how few parents truly understand the importance of supplying our kids with a positive, natural body image. Services like these can cause major problems for teens self-esteem and can eventually lead to eating disorders. It???s our job to help children recognize and appreciate their own beauty without seeking alternatives like this. Here are some ways that we can help kids overcome the pressure to ???be perfect: http://www.eatingdisorder.org/blog/
Posted By: girl1992norway @ 03/03/2008 10:59:13 AM

Comment: If nothing's wrong, then what's right? Without fails no one's perfect. (it sounds better on my launguage.)
Anyway.. My point is: No one can be perfect, but at the same time.. Everyone is perfect in their ways.. Thats what we got to focus on.. The good things.. Retouching doesn't solves ANYTHING.. It only make things WORSE for the next generation!! PARENTS REACT!!! PEOPLE PROTEST!! We live in a really crazy world..
Posted By: girl1992norway @ 03/03/2008 10:50:24 AM

Comment: Wow.. It's scary what some people are thinking (sorry if my spelling is wrong)
I really hope some one can stop this, 'cause no one is perfect, and we got to live with that..
The only thing USA does now, is to destroy the worlds image of America.
I wanted to go to school in USA, but now? NO WAY!!
So my advice as an 15 years old girl, is to lighten the inhabitants self-confidence instead of destroing it!
Why not take the children to another country where people hurts, where people dies because they got no home, where people is sick 'cause they got no medicins, etc.. I think that will be a smart idea for the self-confidence.. When I understand how great my life in Norway is, I really don't think much about my look. No actually, I feel sorry for the children in Africa who starves everyday and fight against the death, trying to get food. Do they care about theire look? I don't think so..
The rich countries in the world really got a bad life-image now, we only think about ourself, we wish to be a star who everybody loves, but what about trying to be that star who everybody loves while trying to help others?
Hope you people understands what I mean.. and that you understands how importent it is to alway tell your childrens how proud you are of them, how pretty they are, how much you love them, etc.. And maybe let them see the world and understand that life perfect ain't perfect if you're only a good looking person.. 'Cause being smart and being kind and being a good person is so much more important than being good looking..
I really want to say so much more, but I'll let it be for now. :)
Posted By: euroman @ 03/02/2008 11:55:33 AM

Comment: Incredible. What is it with you Americans? It seems you have become absolutely obsessed with this. Poor children, having to live up such unnatural standards and even from their parents. It seems the ideal American society is a population of exactly alike, Perfect People. Very boring, and quite scary.
Posted By: SharedThought @ 02/26/2008 11:47:57 AM

Comment: If I received in my mailbox an altered photographed of a relative, I wouldn't necessarily mind. Suppose the reason for the alteration was to fix a bad haircut that was different than the usual hairstyle of that relative. Or, suppose the purpose was to remove something else that was temporary by nature, such as a cold sore. These kinds of fine-tuning of family photos would not bother me. (They aren't necessary in my mind, but they also would not bother me.)
Posted By: Dr. Gordon Patzer @ 02/22/2008 3:11:57 PM

Comment: Jessica,

Beautiful article. A valuable sign of our times.

We are ever-more evolving to greater pursuits to perfect physical attractiveness of those we most love. The underlying importance placed on physical attractiveness is not new. It has long existed, albeit usually in shadows.

On one hand we hold good looks in high esteem. On the other hand we know that ugly undersides can accompany beautiful surfaces. People increasingly expend unreasonable efforts and energies to enhance their level of physical attractiveness, for themselves and for those closest to them. It is now new. What???s new is the technological capabilities, financial resources, and loosening of customary norms that increasingly permit new actions (but not necessarily new wishes) to enhance our inherited looks.

It is much better to acknowledge reality than to brush it aside. For too long, people have either failed to admit or outright denied the importance of a person???s physical attractiveness. But, yet, much research as well as simple pedestrian observation of the world around us reveals that people of different levels of physical attractiveness are treated differently through ???lookism.??? These differences nearly always favor better looking people with benefits throughout life ranging from cradle to grave and disfavor people with less good looks.

Whatever our indignities and publicly declared ideals that looks don???t matter because what counts is inside of a person, we can neither avoid nor eliminate the reality of physical attractiveness in our. The proverbial cliché that actions speak louder than words is very pertinent and accurate in this aspect of our society. In life, we interact all the time with people who do???consciously or unconsciously???make judgments about us based on what we look like and then behave toward us accordingly.

Intentional or not, ignorance, denial, and turning a blind eye did not vanish discrimination due to racism and sexism, and will not vanish discrimination due to lookism. And, that is why I say, this article is beautiful as it provides a valuable sign of our times???yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Dr. Gordon Patzer
author of "Looks: Why They Matter More Than You Ever Imagined"
http://www.GordonPatzer.com
Posted By: Dr. Gordon Patzer @ 02/22/2008 3:11:28 PM

Comment: Jessica,

Beautiful article. A valuable sign of our times.

We are ever-more evolving to greater pursuits to perfect physical attractiveness of those we most love. The underlying importance placed on physical attractiveness is not new. It has long existed, albeit usually in shadows.

On one hand we hold good looks in high esteem. On the other hand we know that ugly undersides can accompany beautiful surfaces. People increasingly expend unreasonable efforts and energies to enhance their level of physical attractiveness, for themselves and for those closest to them. It is now new. What???s new is the technological capabilities, financial resources, and loosening of customary norms that increasingly permit new actions (but not necessarily new wishes) to enhance our inherited looks.

It is much better to acknowledge reality than to brush it aside. For too long, people have either failed to admit or outright denied the importance of a person???s physical attractiveness. But, yet, much research as well as simple pedestrian observation of the world around us reveals that people of different levels of physical attractiveness are treated differently through ???lookism.??? These differences nearly always favor better looking people with benefits throughout life ranging from cradle to grave and disfavor people with less good looks.

Whatever our indignities and publicly declared ideals that looks don???t matter because what counts is inside of a person, we can neither avoid nor eliminate the reality of physical attractiveness in our. The proverbial cliché that actions speak louder than words is very pertinent and accurate in this aspect of our society. In life, we interact all the time with people who do???consciously or unconsciously???make judgments about us based on what we look like and then behave toward us accordingly.

Intentional or not, ignorance, denial, and turning a blind eye did not vanish discrimination due to racism and sexism, and will not vanish discrimination due to lookism. And, that is why I say, this article is beautiful as it provides a valuable sign of our times???yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Dr. Gordon Patzer
author of "Looks: Why They Matter More Than You Ever Imagined"
http://www.GordonPatzer.com
Posted By: phiomalibumalibu @ 02/20/2008 12:35:28 PM

Comment: Actually if you walk around the malls these day, you do see that the body is perfectable. I think it's true what Jackson Browne said "it's who you look like, not who you are" ALL of us make judgements instantly on how ourselves and others look. It's human nature..take a look at Simply-Gorgeous.net
- Posted By: sjbrock80 @ 02/20/2008 15:01:01
  
  Comment: SimplyGorgeous.net uses underage models and abducted children for their pictures, or so I've heard.
Posted By: ahageman @ 02/20/2008 8:55:04 AM

Comment: I found it ironic that an article about the damage retouched photos could do to a child's body image has an ad on the page for 'Smarter than Botox - iQ SkinTensive'. This product shows two images of an adult face - one with wrinkles, age spots, and sagging skin, and one presumably after treatment. Fix the adults, and the children will follow.
Posted By: dewcooper @ 02/20/2008 8:40:56 AM

Comment: Reading this closely, you realize this is not about the children but about the insecurities of the parents. Unfortunately, with many parents, it is not about the children but about them.
Posted By: skwhite @ 02/20/2008 6:47:41 AM

Comment: That is a scary website. I am going through intense therapy to lose the need for perfection, Boy the therapists are going to be busy in a few years. As a side note. That site is about perfection and attention to detail...they have typos in their package descriptions. I guess one man's perfection...is another's obsession, or visa versa.