Dove Canada, Photoshop, Woman & Real Beauty

My current disappointment……. Dove Canada!

Dove Canada has created a new photoshop action – Beautify. Well what does this action do you ask. It reverts an image back to its original state. That is it nothing else. Oh I almost forgot it also adds a banner that reads “”Don’t manipulate our perceptions of Real Beauty.”  My issue with this is that that’s not what women want.

Want to know what the majority of women say to me when I’m photographing them? Can you make me skinnier? Can you make my ass smaller? Can you make my boobs bigger/smaller? I look at this woman and see these beautiful gorgeous strong women but that’s not what they see and you know what – what they see and feel that’s what matters the most. So if a little photoshopping helps then so be it.

Yup the tallies are in and the majority of woman want to be photoshopped!

I know I’m ok with being photoshopped. Not many woman want to see straight out of the camera images of themselves. I cringe every time I get a Facebook notification that someone has tagged me in a picture on Facebook. Does this make me vain? I don’t think so. I think it’s more that I don’t want to see a scary ass picture of myself. Therefore, I’m not going to do that to my clients either. A month or so ago I passed along a proof gallery that wasn’t edited – never ever again. Those women were hard on themselves. I won’t be making any other women feel that way again anytime soon.

I do not change things completely. I enhance or subtract with a light hand. The funny part is that things I’ve been accused of photoshopping in the past haven’t been touched. As I continue on my photography journey I am constantly learning tips and trips with posing. Posing women have a lot of benefits. Lots of women say after a session “ok maybe models do work harder than I thought”. Make no mistake there is a lot of stretching and awkward movement involved. Getting good pictures isn’t easy we all need to work a bit.

When we are correcting an image there’s a lot more done than nipping and tucking. We add and subtract light, we colour correct, we change the feel of an image with the temperature – these are all parts of enhancing an image. The term photoshopping does not only mean changing someones appearance.

The thing that I find really ironic is that fact the Dove pushes out this Real Beauty campaign but yet they are owned by the same company that makes Axe body spray. Have you seen the Axe commercials? Maybe Dove cares but it would seem that Unilever certainly doesn’t about their costumers body issues. One of my other huge issues with Dove is that they focus their Real Beauty campaign on girls and woman. Do they not think boys and men have the same issues? I know a lot of guys that suffer just as much from poor body image.

For me beauty is a lot more than what photoshopping can do!

Dove I haven’t used your products personally for a long time but I now won’t have any of your products in my home either.

You Are Beautiful!

 

I’m curious to know what are your thoughts on this Dove action and what do you think Real Beauty is?