Another child image thingie

[Racket_Man]

along with the reveling dance moves and costumes, pre-pub skimpy bathing suits, pre-pub slut outfits and underware,l pre-pub makeup, etc.

A NEW image thing going on

Photoshopping childrens grade/middle school photos

OK I can see airburshing off that new scab or scar or scrape the child got 2 days before school pic were taken. but this is going a bit too far. parents wanting create a "perfect looking child" via digital airbrush or some similiar tools.

and the trend is increasing. the article states that by HS over half of the photos taken are being altered to "supermodel" Vogue type quality.

I like this quote from the article

Even in portrait photography, however, Nash tells ParentDish, doctoring photos is a slippery slope. Physical imperfections are part of being human. How long can you remove little flaws before you have created a fictional character, rather than a portrait?

[Andara Bledin]

I don't see the "slippery slope" he's discussing.

Honestly, we've been using makeup, costuming, lighting, and artistic license to create fictionalized accounts of ourselves for as long as we've been doing this, which goes all the way back to cave paintings.

In the case of things such as yearbook photos and other such journalistic works, I can see adjusting for minor and temporary things such as scabs and bruises, but everything else (including bad hair) should be left alone.

There is a line, and it doesn't move, even as our technology gets to the point where we can cross it with ease.

^-.-^

[blas87]

Kids are full of freckles, scabs, dirt, leaves, and spaghetti sauce on their faces. That's part of being a kid. Let's just take it away from them so they all look so stiff and prim and proper like in old fashioned photos where no one is smiling.

I couldn't imagine wanting a child who looks so perfect that they appear to look like a porcelain doll.

[anakhouri]

I agree with blas- every time we have professional pictures taken of Khan, he always seems to fall down or get otherwise injured two days before. So his 12 month pics have a cat scratch on his face, his Halloween pics have a huge scrape on his finger...

And he's still cute. And we still love him. And we can look back and say, "Oh, remember when we had those taken...he tangled with the cat right before and was all scratched up."

I guess if you want to Photoshop yourself the perfect kid, that's your choice...but you'll be missing out on real memories of your child in favor of some fake version.

[lordlundar]

but you'll be missing out on real memories of your child in favor of some fake version.

Plus you'll be missing out on some prime blackmail potential when said kid starts dating...