I Did Not Wake Up Like This

While I was in New York visiting my sister (which I’ll share in a later post), she showed me a couple of photo editing apps. It’s crazy what they can do. She did a quick bit of filtering on a photo of me and here is the before and after:

I had lipstick on but no other makeup. She was able to fill in my eyebrows and give me eyeliner. She was also able to narrow my face and shoulders a bit. The changes were subtle but they definitely ‘enhanced’ my look. I felt pretty cute without the changes but seeing myself a bit thinner and more put together did seem to be an upgrade.

Facetune 2 and Meitu were the two apps she used. Recently, I decided to play around with a few more photos of myself to see what these apps are capable of.

First, I found two unflattering photos of myself (had more than enough to choose from). Second, I uploaded each one into Facetune. I played around with teeth whitening, concealing, and smoothing. I also tried narrowing my jaw and width. The reshape tool was quite useful for picking and choosing where I wanted to narrow myself. Third, I saved these edits and uploaded the photos into Meitu. Meitu seemed a bit more powerful in my eyes. The makeup tool worked well. I like the dark circle tool a lot - I have terrible dark circles. I also played around with the eye enlarger, body shape tool, and firming feature (smoothed out my wrinkles). Here are the before and after stages:

These tools are powerful. If you want to make a few tweaks to a photo you look great in, these apps can help. Hide a pimple, smooth out a wrinkle, add a bit of color to your lips. But, it is frightening how much these apps can alter a person’s image. Anyone can make themselves younger and thinner. How many of the photos we see today on Instagram and in magazines take advantage of these capabilities? How are we supposed to feel about our faces and our bodies when we compare before and after photos?

I know myself. Spending too long in these apps does nothing good for me. It’s probably best if I just stay out of them but sometimes that’s easier said than done. Since I just spent the last hour zooming in on my flaws, I’m going to refocus and think about reasons why I love myself. At least, I’ve got to try, right?