This week I promised short shorts all week. Here’s round two in short shorts even though I may be too old to wear them. But, I don’t care. Yes, I’m ageing, and my legs are too, but I’m still going to wear short shorts. Even older, with dimples and wrinkles, I still like my legs, so yes, I’m going to embrace short shorts. By the end of this post however there will be a BEFORE and AFTER of edited legs. I have promised to keep the edits real this week, but I have provided an example of what an overly edited pair of legs could look like…. In my opinion and to be honest with my audience, I do take editing liberties with my images. While I don’t over edit my pictures, I do take out blemishes and soften some areas of my skin at times.
Before I get to the edits however, I’d like to speak about the purchase of these very trendy shorts. During one of my recent Mong Kok trips to Forever 21 41, I found these mustardy yellow shorts, and since this color is both on trend yet looks awful next to my face, I picked them up. It’s my theory that if a color doesn’t look all that good on me, I can at least wear it on the bottom away from my face’s coloring. While a top in this color and print would make me look sickly, white does not, so I wore white up top and kept the cute but difficult for me to wear color down below.
It’s obvious that Gigi is my photographer with these pictures. I love the way she’s been creatively framing the pics. Just last night, Gigi graduated from 8th grade; she’s going to be in high school next year. And yes, photography is on her class list!
I don’t want to assume anyone’s thoughts, but I do often get told that I have nice legs. I am always gracious and thank people for these compliments. And obviously I do embrace my legs as this whole week is me sporting short shorts on Kremb de la Kremb. Yet, there is cellulite, and I am ok with this. My 16 year old self probably never would have, but the 46 year old version of me is just fine. It’s authentic, it’s real, and it’s life. I can find beauty in the bumps. This doesn’t mean I don’t take advantage of the editing tools available to me when I go to edit my pictures: in the image above and the image below the little dimples are noticeable. Usually I do soften, therefore, I’m showing a before and after of the same image.
BEFORE
Here on the leg you see on the right (my left leg), the dimply bumps are noticeable through the different coloration. The other leg also shows my big age spot freckle above the knee and the onset of knee wrinkles that start to occur over 45. When I go to edit, I heal some of the colored spots with the healing tool and then I take a softening brush to smooth it all out as seen below. It’s definitely a slippery slope! With too much softening it becomes completely obvious as seen below. I won’t lie: I do edit my pictures, but I do try to make my edits subtle and on the more natural side. This after shot is too edited for my taste, but I wanted to use it as an example of what can be done.
AFTER
In this edited version my left leg (the one as seen on the right side of the picture) has been overly softened. My other leg is missing the age spot and has also been softened. It’s amazing what can be done on with editing software these days. The term “Facetuned” is an actual term for a picture where the skin has become too perfect. While I don’t want to edit to that extent, I am not against taking out a blemish here and there to increase the aesthetic appearance of my pictures. For this week however, I have promised not to touch my legs–except for this AFTER photo.
What are your thoughts?
What do you think of a blogger editing their pictures? Do you think they should be raw OR do you allow for subtle edits in order to increase the appeal of the pictures?
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