Last weekend Photolate was exhibiting at a Beauty Show, where the stall was visited by Dr Christian Jessen of Supersize vs Superskinny fame.

Examining the before and after retouched photos, Dr Jessen seemed amazed at the difference between the everyday photos, despite knowing that celebrities - including himself - have had their photos airbrushed for years.

Amazing Retouch

Most women at the show were also blown away by the difference between the before and after retouched photos that we showed them.

My own experience in starting Photolate, was one of surprise by the extent of retouching. I’ve taken great enjoyment since, looking at photos and front covers of magazines to see if I can spot where changes have been made!

Spot The Difference: Have You Played Yet?

It pretty much goes without saying in this digital era that every photo we come across will have been retouched in some form or fashion.

Whether that’s a few tweaks to colour and contrast or a full body transformation, the photo will have been run through Photoshop at least once.

Since the people at the show were divided between those that knew about photo airbrushing and those that didn’t, I’m interested to find out a more.

Have Your Say

Do you know when a photo has been retouched?

Do you think is it important to clearly state when a photo has been retouched?

I’d love to know your answers, if you’d like to leave a comment.

This weekend I saw a video on photo retouching and how it is used everyday by celebrities.

Tim believes that 99.9% of images used in magazines are retouched. But how many of us really know that?

When I had the idea for Photolate I wasn’t really aware of the extent to which photo retouching is used in the beauty & fashion industry or the reasons why. I was approaching photo retouching from a photographers point of view and because I was unable to find the time to colour correct my travel and landscape photos (and these didn’t even have people in!).

Of course I’m a lot more aware now of how photo retouching can be used having studied the topic for the last 8 months! However before starting Photolate, although I knew that magazine covers were airbrushed I did not really know. More on this in future blog posts…

According to Tim a lot of celebrities have staff or freelancers on demand to retouch every photo of them; not one photo of them is released without their permission. They want to be viewed by the world to have this perfection. That’s the reality of it.

Knowing this, I also want my photo retouched! It was wanting to see what I would look like having my photo airbrushed, and how it made me feel, that led me on this journey of founding Photolate.

I’d love to hear from you on this topic. How does knowing that a probable 100% of magazine photos are retouched, make you feel?

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?‘.

I was asked the other day why I thought photo retouching is so popular.

For decades, models and celebrities have been driving the airbrush trend. All the advertising or magazine photos we see these days have been digitally enhanced.

But now it seems 75% of us retouch our pics before putting them online.

According to the Kodak’s Photo Futures Report, 75% digitally enhance our photographs. This compares with just 46% of Germans, 40% of Italians, 38% of Spaniards and a mere 28% of the French.

And British men it seems are twice as likely as women to airbrush their shots!

A Kodak spokesman said: “Over the last two years, we’ve seen a real leap in the number of people digitally enhancing their images.”

On second thoughts, it makes sense in a world where so much of our networking and business is done online that we want to make a good first impression still.

Photo retouching allows you to create a photo where you look your best.

Have a look at Photolate’s retouching packages to find the right retouch for you!

“In the pages of Vogue and Instyle, leading boys and breakthrough girls appear as if they might have had liver conditions or a critical vitamin deficiency judging by their skin tones”, wrote Tyler Brule for the Monocle in March.

As an enthusiast of digital photography, I found his comments about nobody being immune from the pasty skin syndrome of digital cameras quite interesting.

It seems that digital just doesn’t cut it like film does when striving for a healthy facial glow of the photographer’s model.

Tyler coins this time “between 2005 and 2010 as the ‘pasty period’ in the dash to do things faster ad cheaper”. “Take a really good look at yourself in your latest party pictures shot on your digi, and you might not be so keen to ditch the 35mm film camera”.

OK, that’s fine for professional photographers and “high profile (read: high-maintenance) stars” to use and be shot exclusively on film, but what about us party goers and our nice digital cameras that fit in our handbags?

I think that’s where photo retouching comes into its own.

Photo retouching is not only about beauty enhancements, but also about completing a digital process and fixing camera inadequacy.

Photolate’s party glam retouching package does just that. Our retouch experts carefully evaluate and retouch your skin tone to make your skin come alive.

If you are like me on a night out, taking photos with a glass of wine in one hand and camera in the other, the final photos are a far cry from ‘picture perfect’!

That’s why I thought up the Party Glam Package - we’ve made an effort with our appearance, now let’s make an effort with our photos to also look healthy.

Anyone else spent holidays wrestling with their bikini top to avoid strap marks? It’s either that, go topless or live with the suntan marks.

I say live and let live! Holidays should be relaxed and enjoyed. However, if you do have a photo that you wish wasn’t spoilt by sunburn, upload it and let Photolate do its magic. Here’s a photo we recently retouched to remove strapmarks.

This retouch was the natural package with a bespoke add-on treatment costing just £5.50.

It’s just like using an airbrush tanning kit isn’t it?