You're magical just the way you are :)

Your appearance is magical just the way it is...

...regardless of whatever the demons in your head say to the contrary :)

The other day during a portrait session, I was capturing some closeup photos of a female client.

After a round of shots, I showed her the back of my camera to give her a sense of what they looked like. She loved them, and we moved from that setup to get ready for another one in a different room.

While walking in between rooms, she brought up the wrinkles on her face. 

The moment I heard the word “wrinkles,” I thought to myself, “oh shit, she’s going to ask me to Photoshop all of them off of her face!”

Which, by the way, I don’t do, but I didn’t want to get into that and possibly disrupt the wonderful flow we had established up until that point. 

However, I was in for a wonderful surprise. 

She continued her thought by saying that she would NEVER want those wrinkles removed from her face because that’s how she looks, who she is, and when she works conferences and other events, she wants people to be able to recognize her.

My response?

“Well, I’m glad you realize that already - you’re saving me the trouble of having to tell you the same thing!” :)

Here’s the deal, folks. 

When it comes to retouching photos, the rule is very simple:

If the blemish on your face is temporary - skin reaction, pimples, scratches, etc. - it can be removed without issue.

But if it’s a permanent thing, and it can’t be covered with makeup, it stays in the photo. 

When you hire someone to do plastic surgery work to your photos with Photoshop or one of the 9 million Facetune-esque apps for your phone, you’re baiting and switching your audience. 

You’re presenting yourself in a way that you perceive as ideal, but is impossible to live up to in real life. 

How do you think people will react when they meet you in real life? 

More importantly, how do you think that will effect the level of trust they feel towards you? 

Remember, regardless of your expertise, you’re in the business of building relationships and transformation.

And the only way people will invest their time in money with you to help them get past their roadblock is if they trust you. 

Now, I’m not suggesting that overly-edited photos will ruin every potential gig or client booking ever again, but why run the risk of putting question marks in prospects' heads with something as avoidable and unnecessary as this?

They’re not hiring you for your looks - that’s in your head, not theirs.

They’re hiring you because of how you can help them. 

Put your best foot forward by focusing your attention during your next portrait session on how you can bring out the confident, empathetic, empowering and approachable aspects of your personality in your facial expression so that it draws them in…

...and forget about all that extra shit slapped onto your face in post-production to make you look like someone else to satisfy your own vanity-driven motivations.

Yes, you want your photos to look flattering, otherwise you’d never use them. But there are levels to this, and if you step one foot beyond realistic, you might find yourself alienating a large group of potential clients because they lost their trust in you.

At the end of the day, you're magical just the way you are :) 

What are your thoughts on this? Agree? Disagree? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.