I can’t believe I am outing myself like this. But I think you should know, just in case we ever meet in real life.
This is me. The real me.
That is the raw and unedited version of me.
But, of course, I would never actually put that on the Internet for the world to see (except for today). I only put my best face forward. The face of five years ago. The face that actually got a full night’s rest before I began to breed like it was some sort of Olympic sport.
The face that I think see in the mirror.
You see, I have reverse body dysmorphia disorder. I think I am just hot-to-trot, until I see a photo of myself.
When I see a photo of myself, I am like, Crap! DOWN SHOTS PEOPLE, DOWN SHOTS!
And then when they do a down shot, I am like, shit, is that really what I look like?
I look soooo… tired.
So then? Then I fix it. And, for about $30 per year, you can fix your pictures as well.
I love Picnik. Picnik is a magical place where even the dullest folks can make some magic happen. I am pretty sure the site is run by Leprechauns.
Let me take you through it step-by-step…
ONE: Upload your photo.
TWO: Go to “Create” and then to “Touch Up”.
THREE: Pick “Wrinkle Remover”. Ladies, this is your new best friend. Let’s focus on this. I am going to do some screen shots below to demonstrate.
Zoom in on the photo in the bottom left corner. Let’s do my eyes first.
You can see my settings on the left. My brush size is 60, and the fade is at 12%. Just take your mouse and swoop over those wrinkles, girls. It may look weird at first, but we are about to work that out.
Once you are done, press the “Apply” button. Don’t be scared, you can always undo anything in the top left corner.
FOUR: Airbrursh out any pores by selecting the “Airbrush” feature under “Touch Ups”.
Airbrushing will also even out skin tones and blend things that you have done together. I always tone this down a bit. So make your brush a bit smaller, and fade it out more.
Don’t forget to hit “Apply”!
FIVE: Get rid of that double chin with the “Wrinkle Remover”.
Make your brush smaller, and zoom in to make sure you are accurate. Just swipe that line away.
SIX: Watermark your stuff so people can’t steal it and pretend like your pretty mug belongs to them.
Watermarking is easy. All bloggers should do this, as well as those on Facebook and Flickr.
Simply add text and fade it out so as not to distract from your photo.
If you have a website, just use your site address. If you don’t have a site, then use your name. Really, you are protecting yourself. There are a lot of CAH-RAZIES out there, and you don’t want them to pretend like your kids are theirs.
SEVEN: Crop that photo!
Have a dirty house in the background? Want to take that ex-boyfriend out of there? Does your shoulder look awkward like mine does? CROP IT OUT!
You can move your watermark around after you crop. So don’t worry about that thing if you think you are chopping it off.
Those are the basics.
You can also make yourself thinner. I always stay within 25% thinner, or else you end up looking like a Cone Head. I did not do that to this photo. I think taking out that double chin made me look dramatically better.
I did do an advanced move. I am not sure if you noticed, but I had a hair across my chest, and I took that out. I am going to share this last, because it is a bit confusing, and I think just those basics will be enough to get you going.
But, for the advanced, here you go…
CLONING: Make one part of the photo the same as another.
Cloning is great for adding leaves to trees, taking out power lines, making an arm thinner, or removing a hair that is out of place. It takes some practice.
You need to take the first circle, and place it on what you want to clone. Click your mouse. Take the second circle and put it over what you want to remove (in this case the hair). Drag your mouse over what you want to remove and it fills that area with the clone circle’s area.
So I am removing the hair by going over my chest in an area that is of similar color and has no hair. It is best to do this in small areas at a time.
Okay, so now I am all done.
May I present to you…
THE HEAD SHOT THAT I USE FOR EVERYTHING!
Happy Picnik’ing!
you look stunning (before & after!!)
EXACTLY what I was going to say. No editing needed for your hot self!
Thanks! Stay tuned and I will tell you about the power of Spanx.
Oh my God. You are so my new best friend. Bookmarking this post for future use. On all pictures of myself.
Yay!
I think you look amazing in the before photo (and the after as well). You are a beautiful woman and even without editing/touch ups the world can see that.
P.S. I will so remember that double chin removing trick!
The double chin trick is a gift from Heaven. I mean, others may not ever notice, but I was so sick of seeing that line and hating every photo of myself.
You just SAVED my facebook profile pic. I hate being that girl, but my profile pics are either from my wedding (almost 2 years ago) or my favorite pic of myself (um…7 years ago?? I’m embarrassed to write that!)
Thanks!!
*sigh* I was going to write a comment about self-acceptance and honesty but then the strap to my padded bra which smooths out my aging, sagging breasts slipped off my shoulder. Which makes me not much different that a re-touched photo myself – which also makes me feel horribly sad. What an unpleasant start to a Monday.
I prefer to look at it as a confidence builder. A padded bra. A photo that doesn’t make me cringe when I see it. A pair of spanx.
Sometimes it’s good to feel good about ourselves.
I think that may be what makes me feel sad about it. I’m finding it painful to realize that I actually DO try to get confidence from these things. Don’t get me wrong – I wear Spanx and make-up and all that too so I’m not condemning them. It’s more like I’m lamenting the fact that we’re conditioned to think we have to go so far as to alter our photographs, editing who we actually are (even with our make-up, padded bras and spanx already on), in order to feel good about ourselves. Where does it end?
She is drop-dead gorgeous in her before photo, but something in her inner-self tells her that is not good enough, that she could be better. She has to alter that beauty to something she could not possibly be in real life in order to feel beautiful and confident about her presentation.
I’m sad because I do the exact same thing and it just sort of hit me like a ton of bricks. I don’t accept the beauty I am prior to the photo editing either and yet I cannot possibly ever be in real life the pore-less, gently blurred woman in my photos – I am now clearly realizing that anyone who ever saw those photos and then saw me in person would know that in an instant as well.
I think I need to work on accepting my before photo with confidence (while still wearing my make-up, padded bra and spanx!) than on honing my photo editing skills.
Here is my problem…
In my head, I am the edited version of me. I see that version of me when I am looking in the mirror every single day. Isn’t that weird? I look better in my head than I do in real life.
So when I see a photo of myself, I am like, “Is that REALLY what I look like?” So then I take out that crows foot and that double chin and put it out there for the world to see.
I think when people meet me in real life, they will know it’s me since it’s not actually that far off from the truth. But in my head, I know that I looked damn good today on the internet.
Also, in real life, my personality really comes through. It’s kind of hard NOT to fall in love with me. Just ask my husband, my co-workers, my boss, my friends, my family, and ME! I LOVE ME! And that is a great feeling.
And at the end of the day? What’s a little photo editing if it makes you feel better about yourself? I mean, you should see me without Spnax, a spray tan, a push-up bra, make-up, hair products, and fake fingernails. My husband would tell you I am hot without any of that, but me? I like to have all of that stuff because it makes me feel like a woman. And it makes me love ME.
I hope this doesn’t sound snobby. Because OMG, I hate people like that.
What Brittany said. I’ve always said that I’m the opposite of photogenic: I look best in front of you so you can see my eyes sparkle when I crack a joke and how my smile changes when I laugh – pictures just don’t capture the essence of ME (and always make me cringe to boot), so if a little prettifying makes things a little less horrifying (for ME!), I’m all for it.
TOTALLY bookmarking this post: I had no clue there was a wrinkle remover on Picnik, nor that I could get better “fix” results by zooming – knew I was doin’ it WRON-GUE. heh
I would KILL to look like your before picture. You are one good lookin’ lady!
OMG. Can you just follow me around ALL DAY LONG?!
Wow, you look great. I’m trying to work this year on building more confidence and this helps.
Thank you for the insight on Picnik, I’ve always meant to head that way and now I finally will.
Okay so seriously, before AND after you look gorgeous. But I agree, Picnik is my addiction. My husband bought me the pro version for Christmas even I love it that much. My favourite tool is the eye bright. It just makes things POP!
Love this!!! I’ve never been a picnik user … but I am now!!! Even bought the premium membership because of the features. Thanks so much for sharing this!
Sweet!
I struggle with my looks, too – although I don’t worry as much about people stealing my picture. I’ve also made it a point to upload more unedited pics of myself in the last year, as well as working through some self-portrait work. I am adjusting to how I look to others, and it’s not bad. Self-acceptance begins with lots of baby steps.
I swear to god, I do not see a difference.
Like, at all.
I love you like I love gas station hotdogs. And that is a lot.
I love Picnik, but I had no idea what the clone thing was for. It makes so much more sense now. Yay!
That’s funny. I was just commenting this to my wife the other day. I asked her why can’t the camera capture the me that I see in the mirror while taking the picture. I am pretty hot if I do say so myself. And I do. Often. Until some skinnier prettier bitch (and I don’t mean this personally to any skinny pretty girls out there) crosses my path…but that’s another story. The point is…I like the me in the mirror – the me in the camera looks old and has crow’s feet and looks very similar to my mother. I mean…maybe I am 30 years old already. And I have popped out a kid. And I have lost 50 pounds so my face has a few more lines than it used to…but UGH!!!!
This is great! I bookmarked it
Gimp does all these things, and its free! An amazing program, very similar to photoshop
Plz help me i want to real picture remove dress whose softwere best plz friend tell me
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