Airbrushing School Photos

[Woody]

Here's another to get some conversation going.

Professional School photographers "air brushing" kids' school photos. The best I got at school was to tuck my shirt in on class photo day.

School photography and airbrushing

Is this just the advancement of modern technology or are our kids just a bit too precious?

Cheers,

John W

[Peter Ahrens]

That sounds pretty silly. They're kids, and they don't need to be airbrushed like the fake supermodels of society.

It's not what's on the outside, it's what's on the inside...etc etc

How often will you be looking at your old school photos anyway. Perhaps for a laugh because most kids do look geeky in their teenage years - it's a part of growing up.

[douglas]

In my day it was film photos, and st school we did not have individual pictures. They were pictures of the rugby team, rowing fours or eights, cricket teams and etc. They are fun to look back on occasionally, because the theme was always the same... clean kit, all posed tallest at the back the rest sitting in front, arms all crossed the same way, same for legs. And we all looked proper Charlies!!!

[i speak in math]

The kids don't want to see themselves full of acne. You clean them up as if they had no acne. Skin should look natural and clean, not blurred smooth. They should look at the photo years later and think, "man I looked pretty good back then". Their birthmarks and natural skin characteristics should not be touched.

[WooD]

I shoot a lot of high school photos. I always clean up any blemishes on the kids faces. Some kids have really bad skin.

At the request of one mother I used the liquify tool, and it was on a guy.

[Dangelica]

Originally Posted by WooD

At the request of one mother I used the liquify tool, and it was on a guy.

I would have added mascara blush and a handbag too....

[jeff.amadon]

Well if I had this option back in my awkward teen years I would have done it. Not to the extreme of course, but I had typical teenage skin and could have used a touchup. I don't see the ethical problem here, it's not photojournalism.

[Jim Bryant]

My wife does the clean up work...........kids are so vain these days and care way too much about how they look. If only they knew that it's what's on the inside of a person that counts, but all that went away with plastic surgery.

[Murtasma]

They need to take Gaussian blur out of photoshop. If I see another skin smoothing tutorial that uses this filter to make the skin look like a doll I'm going to barf on my keyboard. It looks extremely tacky on every single photo I've seen in my personal opinion. Using the healing brush to clean up some acne or skin blemishes is one thing (my impression of the articles is this is what's being done). I don't see a problem with that, after all many women apply generous amounts of make up before they go outside to cover up less then perfect skin. I do however see a problem when you start try and make the skin looks like a doll.

[digirebelva]

Folks understand this, retouching class photos was going on before photoshop was around...I knew a photo retoucher many years ago, they were valued for their steady hands and attention to detail (by hand)..its not something new, its just that most never knew it was going on..they were that subtle..