Skinny Apps and Lies: Don’t Be Fooled by Photo Trickery
We’ve always railed on Photoshop and photo-editing snafus that happen on the internet — like the Target error that led to a model missing a chunk of her leg. We’ve even talked about how to spot fake before and after photos. We criticize it because this sort of photo-editing trickery is dishonest, and it sends a bad message to people, particularly young girls and women that there is a certain ideal form of beauty and that a natural state of being and body isn’t good enough. The message is not only that you’re too fat or not skinny enough or have too much of a thigh, but that these usually quite thin models are even “too much” of something (thighs, forearms) or not enough of another (boobs). Most of us know enough not to be fooled by magazines these days, but now it’s not just famous photographers and publications that have these editing abilities — it’s the girl next door.
I’d heard vaguely of “skinny apping” photos, but I’d never looked into it too much because I wasn’t really interested in it for myself (kind of hard to ‘shop out pregnant bellies and such). But bogus photos are running rampant these days, and even the amateur can pretty easily manipulate a photo for the beauty benefit. After seeing some recent blogger photo manipulation on the internet, I was dumbfounded. We’re talking bloggers who look half their size when showing their own photos on social media — and looking like completely different people when photographed by someone else. After going down a rabbit hole of photo-craziness, I was of course, interested to see what could be done with a cheap and easy photo editor. So I downloaded a free app called Spring so I could be a guinea pig.
The Spring app has several different editing possibilities, which I’ve labeled above: Slim, Spring and Small Face. While you do have to watch for some distortion of background lines and angles, Spring let me go to some pretty far extremes without dramatically distorting background. The Slim edit let me squeeze my whole body in, making everything appear thinner. When you use the Spring edit, you can mark your shoulders, hips and ankles, and the app will let you lengthen yourself on a continuum: I tried 50 and 100 percent to see the difference. The 100 percent version definitely makes me look taller and thinner. Small Face is funny because it lets you make your face larger or smaller and then move it — I presume to hide double chins or to further edit a photo when Slim or Spring has distorted you to the point where your face looks to large for your body. My body actually looks larger on the Small Face edit version because my face is smaller compared to my body.
None of these photos looks dramatically altered — which is kind of the point — but you can definitely notice the difference when you’ve got all of the versions lined up. They’re a subtle manipulation that can easily fool someone who isn’t highly skeptical. These types of photo shenanigans are just one more reason you shouldn’t compare yourself to others: it might be a lot of smoke, mirrors and skinny apps.
Be honest: Have you ever used photoediting to make yourself slimmer? This is my first time, and while it’s kind of fascinating in a weird way, I prefer au naturale! Real is best! —Erin
Comments
That’s insane! I didn’t even know things like that existed. Being a graphic designer, I live my days in Photoshop – but no, I’ve never edited my own photos. Ive actually been accused of it (because of my extreme weightloss) but thats ridiculous.
It’s sad but true to think that online media (from bloggers) and the like can be just as damaging from “professional media” as well.
Guess I’m not that good at noticing since I don’t see a difference in the pics. I’ve never even taken a selfie before though either–don’t use my phone for that. I’d rather look at sunsets or animals than people though, so I’m a bit different.To each his or her own.
I totally agree with you. There’s totally a lot of trickery going on in the world and a ton of different apps you can use to create the “better” appearance. At the end of the day though I think people need to remember those apps should only be used for fun and not to trick anybody into thinking you look a certain way when you really don’t. If people are deceiving then it’s probably really a matter of their own self confidence and self worth and they should probably look into that. Once your in person with somebody than any picture you may have means nothing anyway..
To answer your question, yes I have used these “type” of apps before but only to motivate myself. I find that they can be useful in giving some self motivation to see what you COULD or MAY look like if you got into better shape. I know though however to take it all with a grain of salt and know at the end of the day its all fun and games.
Oh! one other thing I forgot to mention is that when I do use the apps I never share the photo with anybody but myself. I would never put out an image of myself out to the public that wasn’t 100% me. I prefer people to see my flaws and journey along the way to a better version of myself so that they can relate better with me 🙂
I admit it… after I had my son I photoshopped myself a couple of times. I had gained so much weight I was on a diet while pregnant (true story). Afterwards I felt so awful. Before I would post certain photos I would cut down the fat on my stomach a bit. Maybe smooth a role. That was about it – just enough to make myself feel better. After I finally lost some of the weight I stopped doing it. I’m that insecure…. but an app? No way. I’m over changing how I look.
I don’t like this app! it kept my photos that were altered!!!, I want them back!!!
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