It saddens me to hear of women hiding from the camera because of embarrassment, low self esteem and image despair. It seems this epidemic of photo phobia is causing poor enjoyment in capturing memories and a huge lack of photos of one’s personal history.
As Leah Hardy puts it in the article that inspired me to write this post, she has a friend that said “From looking at our photographs, you’d think my husband was married to the au pair. If I died tomorrow, my children would hardly have a single photograph to remember me by“. What a shame!
So what is photo phobia?
The top reasons I have gathered why people don’t like having their photo taken are:
- Feeling Inadequate e.g
- Shyness
- Lack of confidence as to what to do in front of the camera
- Embarrassment of the way we look, or think and feel we look
- Fear & Trepidation e.g.
- Having to relive the embarrassment once the photos have turned out
- Fear of seeing the photo and thinking it will have turned out terrible
- Feelings of despair from seeing previous terrible photos of ourselves
- Body image issues making us feel like the photo will be awful
What can we do about photo phobia?
Firstly, if we can think of a photo as a static snapshot in time then we might be more forgiving towards ourselves. A photo is merely one tiny instance of who we are. In a photo we are generally standing or sitting still, and sometimes caught off guard. As such photos are not always very representative of what we look like in reality.
Also, if you remember that a poor camera angle can add a few pounds to a person, it may ease your embarrassment a little when you see a photo that isn’t close to your real self or the way you feel.
Adding to our photo phobia
If you add to that, being captured by an inexperienced photographer, or at the hands of bad lighting, and you can begin to see that perhaps our embarrassment is not entirely all own fault. Doubly add lack of knowledge about how to pose or model in front of the camera and you can begin to feel the discomfort.
Finally throw in a bad hair day or the fact a spot had an untimely appeared, then we have a perfect mix for a not so perfect portrait!
Can photo airbrushing really help?
The causes of photo phobia are varied but it may help people to know that everyday photo retouching now exists and can be a solution.
Since starting my photo retouching business, I’ve become more relaxed in front of the camera. If I know if I’m not happy with the photo, I’ll get it retouched - simple! It means I’m happier to let people take photos of me, and it also means I have more photos to choose from. Quantity as well as quality is necessary to create a perfect portrait!
I’ve also become aware of how difficult it is to get the flattering shot you want. I’ve done a composition course and after reading up on photography, I’ve realised that taking a ‘wow photo’ is a science (or can be) with rules, tricks, does and don’ts. If you don’t know those, or the person taking your photo doesn’t, then photo retouching can help by fixing your photo from a photographic point of view.
There are many other reasons why I think photo retouching can help with photo confidence, but I think I’ll leave them for another post.
If you haven’t tried airbrushing, then take part in the retouching revolution by uploading your photo to Photolate. If you are keen to share your thoughts on the experience with me, I’ll even do the photo treatments for free!
This article was written after reading Leah Hardy’s ‘why do women hate photographs of themselves?‘.
