Airbrushing kindergarten photos...WTF?

[fireheart17]

http://www.news.com.au/national/char...-1226427577593

Quick background: "kindy/kindergarten" down here is for 4-year-old children (and now 5-year-old children) who are ready to go to school the next year. first year of schooling is now known as either the Foundation Year, Prep, Pre-Prep or Reception down here.

/end background


Basically, a mother received some photos of her 3-year-old son from daycare, with the extra note that they would touch up said photos for a fee.

In all honesty, W.T.F. They're KIDS, of COURSE they'll get dirty.

Although I do applaud the mum for actually letting her kid get dirty

[TheHuckster]

At first I thought it was something even worse, like making them "thinner" or applying CGI makeup to make them look like kid pageant contestants. I'm actually relieved it's more about removing runny noses and scrapes. Although I could easily see this quickly devolving into more shallow uses.

For "dirt", I think it's really silly, but not necessarily offensive to me. IMO, airbrushing out some dirt or messy hair is not as bad as airbrushing out freckles or other body features. I think it's because that's a truly shallow and awful thing to do (since it tells your kid that you're ashamed of their freckles and birthmarks). Whereas something like this is about at the same level as expecting your kid to take a shower and put on some nice clothes before they do their family photo shoot.

This is really the question of the day: If dirty kids are such a problem on school photo day that you offer airbrushing services, why not just do school photos at the beginning of the day before recess or art class?

[HYHYBT]

That would involve the use of common sense. Photoshop is more readily available.

[anakhouri]

I agree with the mother in the article. Kids are dirty, scraped, and generally gross. My kid is usually dirty and scraped up. That's who he is, and how I will always remember him at this age, and I wouldn't want fake photos to try to convince me otherwise.

When we had some photos taken around his first birthday, he had a nasty scrape on his hand. I commented on Facebook about it, and a friend said, "Can't they fix that at the studio?" I said, well, it's JC Penney, not the fancy expensive professional photographer you use, so probably not, and anyway I would never want that.

[AdminAssistant]

Retouching a child's photo is ridiculous, of course. But I'm pretty sure our teachers gave us the once over to make sure our faces were clean before picture time.

[draco664]

Basically, a mother received some photos of her 3-year-old son from daycare, with the extra note that they would touch up said photos for a fee.

In all honesty, W.T.F. They're KIDS, of COURSE they'll get dirty.

Although I do applaud the mum for actually letting her kid get dirty

We got a similar note when whe got the proofs from my 3yo's child care photographer. Given the day the photos were taken the playground was basicaly a muddy puddle, we figured it was just an offer to make sure the parents could actually recognise their child in the photos...

[Seifer]

Meh, I'm on the fence with this one. I can see retouching graduation photos (you "graduate" from kindergarten as well as high school) since they're considered the "special occasion" ones. Regular end-of-the-year photos don't require retouching, since you can easily pack face wipes and extra clothes for your child if they're prone to making a mess of themselves. I can see how people could take it too far, though.

[jackfaire]

At first I thought it was something even worse, like making them "thinner" or applying CGI makeup to make them look like kid pageant contestants. I'm actually relieved it's more about removing runny noses and scrapes. Although I could easily see this quickly devolving into more shallow uses.

This actually makes sense to me given how fanatical my mom was on picture day. "Don't go playing outside like you usually do, make sure they take pictures before you eat, etc" Basically something like Photoshop would have made taking pictures as a kid better because I could have gotten as messy as I wanted to and not have to hear my mom whine "you ruined the pictures!!!"