To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera
In my job as a photographer, and in daily life, on and offline, I hear so many self-hating, negative comments about people’s appearances, coming from millennial and Gen Z women. I’m 33 years old myself, and find it really concerning on a societal level. Since the popularity of Zoom especially since the pandemic, people have been staring at their own (mirrored) faces for potentially hours each day, picking their flaws apart. And then there are all the selfie filter apps that are so easy to use… after a while, it feels like everyone looks so amazing, but what many forget is that everyone is using the filters!
I wanted to create a project that explores these experiences, and also normalizes filter-free looks.
So I found some brave women to take a phone selfie and edit it as they wished. Then I photographed them too, so that we could compare their chosen and controlled angles with an unretouched portrait, taken by me, using a lens that closely mimics the angles and detail seen by the human eye.
More info: barbasboth.com
The setup
Image credits: james-greenhalgh
Viewers are invited to consider the similarities and differences between how each woman prefers to portray herself (whether that’s using filters or not) and how an impartial stranger/photographer (aka me) sees them.
I interviewed each woman about her personal experiences with selfies and whether her self-confidence was affected in any way by the wide availability of filters to enhance appearances
Image credits: james-greenhalgh
These interviews give a diverse and honest insight into the women’s individual experiences, which I thought was very eye opening.
Half of the women were found online in advance, and half of them I asked to come in off the streets of London on the shoot days!
Image credits: james-greenhalgh
The ladies I chose in advance seemed either passionate about self-love and acceptance, were heavy selfie takers/filter users, or admitted to struggling with their self-image and wanted to step outside their comfort zone. I wanted to represent a good range of all these facets of selfie culture through the photos.
Here are some of the interview quotes and fully unretouched portraits. The only thing I adjusted on the photos was the contrast and some tones to be true to life.
Laila, 29
Image credits: Barbara Asboth
“The only way I can represent myself in a comfortable way is when I’m in control. On social media, there is no personality and looks are the only way you can represent yourself.” – Laila.
I’ve met many women who tell me they hate having their photo taken, because they are ugly. When I ask them why, they start listing everything they think is wrong with them, some break down crying from this, or are visibly upset. I sometimes ask, are there ANY photos you like of yourself? And the only photos they show me, are selfies, but even then they often add that they use a filter and took lots before being happy with just one.
I also found an article online at Forbes.com talking about how so many more women are asking for plastic surgery to make them look more like their filtered selfie face!
What people forget is that phone cameras have lenses that distort your features because they’re wide angle. It means they aren’t showing your proportional face the same as a human eye would actually see them. That’s why I chose a lens specifically with a similar view to the human eye.
Cheri, 43
Image credits: Barbara Asboth
“Most often other people’s selfies look good, but I wonder what’s been done to them. You see people in reality and they don’t look like that.” -Cheri.
The reason I wanted to compare a selfie and my own photos was because I think a selfie is often the kind of photo the person thinks society wants them to be like. What others want to see. It includes things like being smiley, trying to look cute or sexy, and accentuating positive features and hiding or filtering those they dont like as much. In my own photos, I wanted to have a contrast with that, trying to pose the women in more powerful and serious ways. I wanted to show how different they could look, and make people question what is their true appearance? How do you know which is closer to real life? Do we see what we want to see? I didn’t want to take just another “pretty, cute” photo of the women – the selfies do that already.
Isabella, 25
Image credits:Barbara Asboth
“I grew up in the ballet world, so from a very young age, my friends and I had a very hyper-focused vision of body image. We’d look through magazines and talk about the dancers with their beautiful cheekbones and say, ‘if only we could change that about ourselves.’” – Isabella.
The interviews with the women (the full text is available on my blog for all of them) were just as important to the project as the photos! I wanted to give each woman’s photo a context and share her experiences and thoughts. There seemed to be two main groups – the women who used to be unhappy with their appearance but are now more confident, and those who are still not quite as confident as they’d like, which was a shame. It was also difficult to find women who weren’t confident and relied a lot on filters, because naturally they didn’t want to be seen in an unretouched photo! This was hardest when I asked women on the street, the only ones who said yes at that time were the confident ones, I think.
Ayumi, 30
Image credits: Barbara Asboth
“I do feel there’s an expectation to present yourself a certain way. The picture has to be good and it has to look like you’re having fun. It has definitely become a lot of work.” – Ayumi
Alexandra, 31
Image credits: Barbara Asboth
“You can see all my imperfections here, which you can’t in the selfie, but this is my face. This is how I look. This is what I see in the mirror.” – Alexandra.
Esther, 21
Image credits: Barbara Asboth
“Mostly, I just want to be okay with how I am, rather than how I am with a filter.” – Esther.
Megan, 26
Image credits: Barbara Asboth
“When you’re looking at people’s images, even though you know they’re their most perfect images, it’s still hard not to get influenced by what you see. I try to remind myself that you’re not seeing all the ones that were deleted. But it’s also hard when you think someone’s best is still 10x better than your best.” – Megan.
Rachel, 19
Image credits: Barbara Asboth
“Selfies are a very raw picture. I see many very beautiful girls who edit theirs. It seems kind of backwards. But I think they’re reaching for perfection while I’m just trying to be me.” – Rachel.
Ginger, 19
Image credits: Barbara Asboth
“There are unattainable standards that people are putting out and that’s kind of terrifying. I have body dysmorphia, so I can’t really register what I look like within my brain.” – Ginger.
Swathi, 35
Image credits: Barbara Asboth
“I don’t think I’m perfect, but I’ve accepted everything I’ve got.” – Swathi.
Kat, 27
Image credits: Barbara Asboth
“I’ve used some filters every now and then. It’s usually smoothing filters. Being in the photo industry, we tend to know what’s real and what’s not, so I have the knowledge that other people are doing it, and I know what I’m seeing isn’t always real.” – Kat.
Xin Yi, 21
Image credits: Barbara Asboth
“People have the right to change their own photos to feel how they want it to feel, even if it’s very different to the original.” – Xin Yi.
I must note that the project was made possible with the help of the FUJIFILM UK team
Image credits: james-greenhalgh
They allowed me to use of their studio in London at the House of Photography, provided an amazing medium format camera to use, and an assistant to capture BTS photos of the shoots. Thank you to the team for this.
I definitely want to do another round of this project. I’ve got lots of experience photographing strangers on the streets of big cities, so I want the next set of photos to be taken outdoors in a street environment, with only women who I approach on the spot. But it takes a lot of organising and planning to do it right and ask the questions in a tactful way that’s not leading them to think they should answer a certain way. Once the weather is warmer here in the UK this year, I would like to give it another go and see what happens. It’s trickier to find street locations and put people on the spot like that, so I might struggle to find willing participants, but we’ll see! There’s of course always things that could be improved in any project, and the whole idea and approach are a bit fluid in my head. This project is a labour of love, there’s no client or brief to satisfy so I am free to explore wherever inspiration takes me!
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The photographer's photos seem to bring out the character of each woman - I think these are all exceptional and I applaud the project. As women, we're so often taught we're not okay unless we look like (highly stylized) models.
Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed it!
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The difference between the selfies and the professional photos is subtle, which I expected - I'm really utterly confused by commenters who are upset by the pro-photos being "worse" than the selfies... are y'all not aware of the purpose of the project? Didn't you read the abstract? The non-selfies are intended to be simple reflections of reality - if the photographer made effort to make them flattering pictures, it would defeat the purpose completely. It's also cringeworthy to suggest that all photographers do is "turn on the camera, operate the flash, and think they're masters." Even in simple, non-enhanced photos like these, much more goes into the process. TBH I expected there to be even more of a drastic difference between the reality photos and the selfies and it's super bizarre that so many people seem to have expected it to be switched. r/whoosh for a bunch of pandas here.
Lovely photos, good contrast, I get the point of the project... but wow, the professional photos are just badly lit. They're good pictures, just very dark and flat.
Please check out the uncompressed ones on the link at the top. Bored Panda compressed them very heavily :(
Load More Replies... I'm afraid I don't understand what was trying to be achieved here? if you want natural shots of women why do it in a studio environment, most bizzare!
To make sure the lighting is controlled and consistent, to bring out the details evenly across their skin especially. Sadly the image quality has been reduced after the upload, I will ask the Bored Panda team to see if they can update.
Load More Replies... Interesting that every single woman’s selfie is more interesting and a better picture, imo!
Yes, a common phenomena that can be observed often. And it always makes me kind of sad and a bit angry to see photographers being worse in photographing people than the people themselves. What happens is that these people figure out the basic rules of portrait photograph for themselves because - surprise - they like to look good on a picture. A photographer should learn this too. But most don't, they learn how to operate the camera, turn on the flash, think they are masters now. But are completely clueless about body language and setting a mood. Now good models can do that by themselves so they look good photographed by the very same photographer. And as a result people think they don't look good and that it requires their phone filters, no it's all about perspective, making people feel confident & comfortable and proper light setup. The minimum requirement for a photographer should be that their pictures look better than the selfies of a person.
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To the photographer, there's some pretty harsh comment, people don't seem to realise you posted this yourself and a looking at the comments. 😅 I like the project. The only thing I'm reacting to is calling these women "girls", since many of them are 30 or older. To me (35) it's a long time since I was a little girl. But maybe that's cultural (not from US), or even just me. 🤷♀️☺️
I don't mind the criticism, there will always be those who disagree with anything creative, there is no pleasing everyone and to me if someone feels so strongly about the project that they felt inclined to comment and spend several minutes of their time on that, then, maybe it struck a nerve or they want women to be smiley all the time... :) I don't need people to filter their opinions based on knowing whether I'm reading it or not, it is a reflection on them and not me if their tone is disrespectful :) I'm not sure where it says girls BTW, the Bored Panda team edited the text a fair bit, I agree they aren't girls! I called them women everywhere in the original text. 😊
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As A former model, let me tell you what is really going on here. You will not take a good picture if you feel uncomfortable or as in this case, unfamiliar with the space and photographer. You can put on your best smile and do your angles, but the camera never lies. When you take a selfie, all the muscles in your face are relaxed and the eyes are alive because you as the subject, know the photographer quite well and feel safe to be yourself. Add flattering filters on top and boom, you've never looked so good! To the poster regarding a lack of up-to-date training among professional photographers - it's not the equipment or level of skill, it's the ability to establish RAPPORT with the subject that will make or break you as a professional photographer.
Tbh, I think most of them look better in the photos you took. There’s something real about them that the selfies didn’t have. Also, I liked the lighting you had.
People here are majorly missing the point of how people angle and warp themselves for selfies vs how they look like to others irl. Like the point is literally not which one looks better because duh of f*****g course the one manipulated by the person in the photo is gonna look as flattering to the masses as possible...
Load More Replies... Honestly, I prefer half of them in their non-selfie forms, some of the selfies look more akward and weirdly more masculine?? Face wise. Feels kinda similar to how the popular Instagram heavy contour look often made girls more masculine looking because it was a method directly stolen from drag queens and most of the beauty gurus being men doing what makes their own face look the best. Tried it out myself a few times but outside of photos it always just looks off on myself and other women. As well as many models being gaunt because they have to starve themselves. And also just phone cameras being s**t and warping pictures to become longer. Because of s**t like this you now have women doing s**t like getting completely unnecessary buccal fat removals to look more 'fashionable'... Like I just wanna know who out here made it so that women having a completely normal amount of cheekfat for women is a bad thing Like what kinda opposite world are we living in were the beauty industry pressures girls to look older, less feminine and/or more underweight than they actually look irl
To the photographer, I am curious as to what the point of the project was. I know you stated it was to see how they portrayed themselves in selfies and filters vs how an impartial stranger sees them. But you chose to pose them. So was it more a comparison of how they take a self portrait vs. how a photographer would pose them? Also, did you have the conversations with them before or after shooting them? I am asking to see if the poses you chose for them were selected after you got to know them a bit. Finally, why did you opt for a medium format camera? You may have stated it and I missed it, but lens did you use?
Thank you for asking! There's a link to the higher resolution photos and full process and interviews on my blog, at the top of the article which shoudl answer most of those questions :) I agree, they were posed to an extent but the main goal was to make them slightly more serious, trying to challenge the common idea that a "pretty" woman is someone who smiles and looks friendly/cute/sexy in a selfie. I wanted to make people think about why they might prefer the selfie or my photo, and wonder, which is actually closer to the real person's vibe on the day, since they will never meet the women? There isn't really a right answer, necessarily. Let me know if you have any other questions though, happy to talk about it with those who have a genuine interest.
Load More Replies... I'm honestly surprised how once they put on the filters, they managed to appear less attractive. I'm aware how I sound, but hear me out. The filters made them look almost like plastic. And I've always been someone who admires natural beauty. Great job on this.
I really appreciated this. I personally like the photographer shots on every single one of them - they look like real people, people I meet and know every day. The selfies look like just that...selfies. My generation grew up with the former, not the latter, on the walls of our childhood homes. Perhaps that's why.
I think this is a very interesting project. While the photos by the photographer don't look extraordinary – in terms of light, pose etc. – I don't think that was the goal anyways. Yes, the people often smile more in the selfies. However,often you can see it's a fake smile – the eyes don't laugh, only their mouth. For me the comparison between two photos often feels like "You're smiling in the selfie. But did you actually feel like smiling or was it only to look good? If you don't feel like smiling, you shouldn't." I looked at the selfies first, then at the photos by a photographer. I see the person on the selfie and think "Yeah, she's quite pretty" though nothing more. Then I looked at the other photo and thought "Wow, even though she's not smiling in this picture, she looks way more likeable and even prettier." Because it's NOT about taking a pose and trying to look the best they can. They don't have to do that. They're pretty anyway – all of them, no exceptions – even without trying.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I'm so glad it made you think a bit. That was the goal that I think some people missed. I agree, my photos werent' meant to look extraordinary or dramatic at all (I could have done that... but then that would be trickery in its own right, surely), I wanted it to be quite smoothly toned and the poses a contrast to the often cute/sexy selfie looks.
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A smoothing filter, is just like using blue make up. It's when, say the Kardashians (in all of their extreme hatred for themselves), use professional photoshopped photos, that on top of the constant plastic surgery, make young girls think a tiny waist is perfectly natural with a 48 inch butt. I'm not sure who, or why anyone thought those butt implants on ANYONE was normal, but it's sick! And as 40 some year old women, you should know better, do better!
Hm, but, at what point do we also accept that some people like extreme body modification? There's this balance, I think, that we need to address: when is it unhealthy, and when can we just say, "that's not for me, but you do you."? I don't think we should shame a person for doing something ,"unnatural," just because some people feel forced to do what they don't want to do. I think we need to encourage self expression, the way we want to express, and not force others to express naturally, or unnaturally, because we think we know better than they know themselves.
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I was surprised to prefer most selfies over the professionally taken photograph. But when you think about it, it absolutely makes sense. The women know themselves well, the photographer don't know them. The women are in charge while taking a selfie, they are not, when someone else is taking a photo. I'm wondering how the results would have turned out, if the photographer would have extended the shoot a little bit so the women would have had more time to acclimatize and the lighting was nicer.
But that wasn’t the point of this project. Of course the ‘selfies’ - taken with a phone camera that already distorts/lengthens the image, and then filtered beyond any semblance of reality - are going to be perceived by the modern selfie culture to be ‘prettier’. The point was to capture an image of the subjects that would more closely represent what a casual passerby would see in reality. Also, as the photographer/poster has pointed out multiple times throughout these comments, BP heavily edited the text and the images in the article have been compressed. There is a link at the top that will take you to the full text of the interviews and the high-resolution photos.
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People really are mean, and that’s crazy to me that they are dishing out this much hate. You can tell that the images aren’t retouched, but that’s also one point of the project. Forget the lighting, focus on the point. I, as a photographer, always encounter clients who like to take behind the scenes photos and videos SO CONFIDENTLY, but when it comes to getting in front of my dslr they tense up. I LOVE THIS PROJECT, and thank you for sharing.
Thank you! 😊 Luckily it seems that there are also plenty of positive comments, and there has been some interesting dialogue around the project, which I'm very pleased about! Haters gonna hate :)
Load More Replies... I love this project, and I didn't know that phone cameras have a different lens than the human eye (which suddenly makes sense why pictures I take of people on my phone never look like "real life") 😅🤦♀️ I really appreciate this article and interviews, and I really hope you do more!! We're so used to seeing the "reg selfie vs professional photo shoot" type version of this project that it's really refreshing to see "selfie vs human eye"! I feel like the women seem so much more 'uniquely them' in the photos you took than the ones they selected (in the best of ways). I'd love to see a more expansive version of the project pulling in more women who are less confident, as well as having women select their "favorite selfie" instead of just taking one on the spot - the difference would be enormous.
Thank you Sarah, I really appreciate your feedback and glad the project resonated with you! 😊 Your point about selecting a previous, favourite selfie, is great and I am indeed thinking about something like this for round 2!
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Excellent article Barbara! Really nice insight. I kind of wonder how many people in the comments actually read the article? These women, natural and selfie, are all attractive. In my eyes. Isabella and Xin Yi, stick out a little more to me though💘. You should do one with guys. It would've been more fun if you added yourself also. Isabella, forget those magazines, you are absolutely gorgeous💘.
Thank you! We did chat about what it would be like to do with men. In my opinion, and from what male acquaintances have told me, for men it's not usually their face but more about their muscles and body shape, especially upper body. So, it's kind of tricky territory for me as a cisgender heterosexual female to do that without potentially sending the wrong message, and the men would perhaps be even less willing to take shirts off for me, you know what I mean? 😂
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they are all so beautiful!!! you are a wonderful photographer and an even more wonderful person. keep up the amazing work!<3
I do understand how filters and social media could give people image/body issues. But always feel it's way overblown. Good photographers will use lighting, makeup, backgrounds, poses, touchups even a smile to make someone look "better". I found it interesting that it took me a moment to realize which were the selfies. In many cases they all look good or very similar. I think you hit the nail on the head with the problem being people staring at themselves ALL the time.
So, the ones on the right are the selfies, and the photographer's pic is on the left? Or is it the other way around? The ones on the left certainly look better to me.
Why aren’t older people included in this kind of BP post? Over and over.
This is strictly a female thing. Not only do most straight guys not care about their own photos, we really don't care if a female used a filter or not. The pressure that women feel to look a certain way is entirely imposed on them by themselves and other women.
Of course they do, but that’s not what they would look like to a person passing them on the street. That’s part of the point.
Load More Replies... What I found interesting is that in every case a person with a fair complexion looked better in the picture taken by a professional. The selfie did not look flattering. People with darker complexions typically photograph better than people with fair complexions under most conditions.
Very interesting idea. May I ask - were you approached by, or did you approach, any women over the age of 50?
I didn't, mainly because that generation doesn't tend to take selfies or use filters, as they didn't grow up with social media being insidious in their lives from a young age. It's not because I don't think their thoughts on appearance aren't relevant of course!
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I like the selfies a lot better. All those women look a lot more comfortable and goofy on the selfies.. which is not a bad thing to me
Which ones are selfies? I was assuming the ones on the right, but I wasn't super sure with some of them. Honestly, I think they all look good.
Brave women? Effects of filters? These all seem pretty natural to me. To be honest, I was expecting a more "devastating" difference/effect. Like how many filters can really change the look, making the whole idea of "beauty" fake. Like how many women (already beautiful in their way as they are) use filters and look like a completely different person. These women are very photogenic and their selfies don't seem very filtered to me. I was expecting the full-on 'enhancing' filters Vs a natural woman with her natural facial complexities or something like that.
That was something we couldn't anticipate (how heavily each one would filter their selfie, although the project is also about the selfie angles themselves, not just the filters). I think it says a lot that those women who would probably use heavier filtering, did not even want to participate because they'd be shown without filters. Which is a takeaway from the project, too.
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I honestly think almost all the women look better in the selfies than in the professional photo.
Of course they do - they are warped, filtered versions of their images. That is not what they would look like to a casual passerby on the street. That’s part of the point of this project.
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Why are these women called "brave"? I am sorry but genuinely don't get it! I absolutely see the same people in both pictures. And mirrors don't have filters. I don't get it. Maybe it's because I don't have Instagram. Can someone walk me through? Again, honest question
A lot of modern society lives, and breathes, entirely online. To be willing to allow a stranger to portray your self image unfiltered, to the public, is brave. It puts yourself on display for (possibly millions of) others to analyze. You will see people making judgments in these comments about whether the people are attractive in each version of the photos, what they are wearing, how they are posing. This is something their employers and families could see, and that can affect their lives, directly. It's why many high powered, or famous, people hire PR companies. How people see us can shape our day-to-day.... And people are very. Very. Very. Judgmental.
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Of course they do. I’m positively astonished at how many people are making this comment, indicating they have NO IDEA what this project was about. Sigh. Selfies - distorted with a phone camera lens, filtered to a plastic appearance, and often posed in a cutesy, sexy, pouty fakeness. This is not what people passing them on the street would see.
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Not to negate the efforts of the photographer at all, I really appreciate their intentions, but also these people look equally good in either photo imo
The aim wasn't to make them look better or worse in either photo - it was to get people thinking about the contrast of the two, and think about why they, the viewer, may prefer one or the other personally. :=
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Some of the women here actually look pretty much the same. Isabella, Xin Yi, Swathi, Esther, Alexandra....
This certainly didn't make me normalize filter free photos. It made me feel worse about having my picture taken by anyone but myself. If you, the photographer, as well as other random people, see me as badly as you apparently see those women then I'll just stick to my selfies so I can at least feel somewhat good about myself and the way I look.
I'm so sorry that society has made you feel that anyone in the above photos looks "bad" in your words, and that you have to resort to selfies to feel okay about yourself. This is the reality for many women nowadays and the whole reason for the project. The aim (if you read the original article via the link, or my comments here, as the article here was edited heavily) was not to say one is necessarily prettier or less pretty than the other. It's to get you, the viewer to question, why might you think the non selfie ones are "bad" if you think they are? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder goes the saying, and in this case it is more apt than ever. If you're not in a mental position to be able to see the beauty of a person regardless of specific features they accentuate or minimise... Then that is mostly about you, not the subjects. I hope you find peace with your own appearance some day.
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Without sounding rude, what is brave about taking a selfie followed by a professional photo? Brave is battling cancer; chronic pain; high risk pregnancy; surviving abuse, etc... surely?
The interviews that go with each photo (which were quite long - only a short snippet was published here for each photo) in many cases exposed their insecurities which I think is brave to do, when you know a project will potentially be in the public eye.
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No its brave for them to sign up to have their flaws exposed and likely hated on for
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The photographer is shallow... Why only use pictures of skinny women? 😤
First of all, I wouldn't call most of them skinny, most are average size I think. Some expressed concerns about their weight as it was. I would also invite you to consider perhaps why it was these women who applied? I did not see what they looked like before they came into the studio, they weren't chosen based on appearance except the ones I approached on the street. I did approach a variety of sizes and sadly, those you would call "plus size" looked offended or just declined saying they hated photos of themselves. This was a challenge, indeed, and I wish we had had some more plus sized ladies too, however they did not wish to be included.
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Every single woman looked better in the photographers picture. Women, please understand real men want real women. The only men that are interested in you looking perfect are ones who will use you.
Please understand not every woman is looking to get you. Or any man. Or anyone. You sound like a creep when you talk like this
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Wow that is some flat lighting especially from a professional photographer. But I guess anyone can be a professional these days and still not seem to know what they are doing. Interesting.
Say you didn’t understand the assignment without saying you didn’t understand the assignment.
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I should just copy/paste at this point. Did you people read ANY of the text? OF COURSE the selfies look ‘better’ (at least in terms of what is expected in modern selfie culture - image distorted by phone camera lens, filtered into a sort of plastic faux reality, and an attempt to pose in a cutesy/sexy fake projection). The professional photo is meant to show a blunt reality; what people would see if they ran into these women on the street.
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There was an intent to the way it's posed or lit. Not everyone will agree, and that's OK. There is no pleasing everyone. You're welcome to check my full portfolio for proof of my knowledge of posing and lighting if you are worried about my credentials of course, but I don't think it's relevant. :)
Load More Replies... I'm sorry that you appear to have missed the whole point of the project, which was not to criticise women and their face or body, instead to show a natural look. The lighting was meant to be relatively flat, to even out skin tones and show the way the women look naturally without using any lighting tricks or drama to change the way they would look to the human eye. That is the whole reason. If I had designed more dramatic light, it would look more "artistic" but would have lost the idea that we are trying to show them as natural as possible.
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The photographer's photos seem to bring out the character of each woman - I think these are all exceptional and I applaud the project. As women, we're so often taught we're not okay unless we look like (highly stylized) models.
Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed it!
Load More Replies... The difference between the selfies and the professional photos is subtle, which I expected - I'm really utterly confused by commenters who are upset by the pro-photos being "worse" than the selfies... are y'all not aware of the purpose of the project? Didn't you read the abstract? The non-selfies are intended to be simple reflections of reality - if the photographer made effort to make them flattering pictures, it would defeat the purpose completely. It's also cringeworthy to suggest that all photographers do is "turn on the camera, operate the flash, and think they're masters." Even in simple, non-enhanced photos like these, much more goes into the process. TBH I expected there to be even more of a drastic difference between the reality photos and the selfies and it's super bizarre that so many people seem to have expected it to be switched. r/whoosh for a bunch of pandas here.
Lovely photos, good contrast, I get the point of the project... but wow, the professional photos are just badly lit. They're good pictures, just very dark and flat.
Please check out the uncompressed ones on the link at the top. Bored Panda compressed them very heavily :(
Load More Replies... I'm afraid I don't understand what was trying to be achieved here? if you want natural shots of women why do it in a studio environment, most bizzare!
To make sure the lighting is controlled and consistent, to bring out the details evenly across their skin especially. Sadly the image quality has been reduced after the upload, I will ask the Bored Panda team to see if they can update.
Load More Replies... Interesting that every single woman’s selfie is more interesting and a better picture, imo!
Yes, a common phenomena that can be observed often. And it always makes me kind of sad and a bit angry to see photographers being worse in photographing people than the people themselves. What happens is that these people figure out the basic rules of portrait photograph for themselves because - surprise - they like to look good on a picture. A photographer should learn this too. But most don't, they learn how to operate the camera, turn on the flash, think they are masters now. But are completely clueless about body language and setting a mood. Now good models can do that by themselves so they look good photographed by the very same photographer. And as a result people think they don't look good and that it requires their phone filters, no it's all about perspective, making people feel confident & comfortable and proper light setup. The minimum requirement for a photographer should be that their pictures look better than the selfies of a person.
Load More Replies... To the photographer, there's some pretty harsh comment, people don't seem to realise you posted this yourself and a looking at the comments. 😅 I like the project. The only thing I'm reacting to is calling these women "girls", since many of them are 30 or older. To me (35) it's a long time since I was a little girl. But maybe that's cultural (not from US), or even just me. 🤷♀️☺️
I don't mind the criticism, there will always be those who disagree with anything creative, there is no pleasing everyone and to me if someone feels so strongly about the project that they felt inclined to comment and spend several minutes of their time on that, then, maybe it struck a nerve or they want women to be smiley all the time... :) I don't need people to filter their opinions based on knowing whether I'm reading it or not, it is a reflection on them and not me if their tone is disrespectful :) I'm not sure where it says girls BTW, the Bored Panda team edited the text a fair bit, I agree they aren't girls! I called them women everywhere in the original text. 😊
Load More Replies... As A former model, let me tell you what is really going on here. You will not take a good picture if you feel uncomfortable or as in this case, unfamiliar with the space and photographer. You can put on your best smile and do your angles, but the camera never lies. When you take a selfie, all the muscles in your face are relaxed and the eyes are alive because you as the subject, know the photographer quite well and feel safe to be yourself. Add flattering filters on top and boom, you've never looked so good! To the poster regarding a lack of up-to-date training among professional photographers - it's not the equipment or level of skill, it's the ability to establish RAPPORT with the subject that will make or break you as a professional photographer.
Tbh, I think most of them look better in the photos you took. There’s something real about them that the selfies didn’t have. Also, I liked the lighting you had.
People here are majorly missing the point of how people angle and warp themselves for selfies vs how they look like to others irl. Like the point is literally not which one looks better because duh of f*****g course the one manipulated by the person in the photo is gonna look as flattering to the masses as possible...
Load More Replies... Honestly, I prefer half of them in their non-selfie forms, some of the selfies look more akward and weirdly more masculine?? Face wise. Feels kinda similar to how the popular Instagram heavy contour look often made girls more masculine looking because it was a method directly stolen from drag queens and most of the beauty gurus being men doing what makes their own face look the best. Tried it out myself a few times but outside of photos it always just looks off on myself and other women. As well as many models being gaunt because they have to starve themselves. And also just phone cameras being s**t and warping pictures to become longer. Because of s**t like this you now have women doing s**t like getting completely unnecessary buccal fat removals to look more 'fashionable'... Like I just wanna know who out here made it so that women having a completely normal amount of cheekfat for women is a bad thing Like what kinda opposite world are we living in were the beauty industry pressures girls to look older, less feminine and/or more underweight than they actually look irl
To the photographer, I am curious as to what the point of the project was. I know you stated it was to see how they portrayed themselves in selfies and filters vs how an impartial stranger sees them. But you chose to pose them. So was it more a comparison of how they take a self portrait vs. how a photographer would pose them? Also, did you have the conversations with them before or after shooting them? I am asking to see if the poses you chose for them were selected after you got to know them a bit. Finally, why did you opt for a medium format camera? You may have stated it and I missed it, but lens did you use?
Thank you for asking! There's a link to the higher resolution photos and full process and interviews on my blog, at the top of the article which shoudl answer most of those questions :) I agree, they were posed to an extent but the main goal was to make them slightly more serious, trying to challenge the common idea that a "pretty" woman is someone who smiles and looks friendly/cute/sexy in a selfie. I wanted to make people think about why they might prefer the selfie or my photo, and wonder, which is actually closer to the real person's vibe on the day, since they will never meet the women? There isn't really a right answer, necessarily. Let me know if you have any other questions though, happy to talk about it with those who have a genuine interest.
Load More Replies... I'm honestly surprised how once they put on the filters, they managed to appear less attractive. I'm aware how I sound, but hear me out. The filters made them look almost like plastic. And I've always been someone who admires natural beauty. Great job on this.
I really appreciated this. I personally like the photographer shots on every single one of them - they look like real people, people I meet and know every day. The selfies look like just that...selfies. My generation grew up with the former, not the latter, on the walls of our childhood homes. Perhaps that's why.
I think this is a very interesting project. While the photos by the photographer don't look extraordinary – in terms of light, pose etc. – I don't think that was the goal anyways. Yes, the people often smile more in the selfies. However,often you can see it's a fake smile – the eyes don't laugh, only their mouth. For me the comparison between two photos often feels like "You're smiling in the selfie. But did you actually feel like smiling or was it only to look good? If you don't feel like smiling, you shouldn't." I looked at the selfies first, then at the photos by a photographer. I see the person on the selfie and think "Yeah, she's quite pretty" though nothing more. Then I looked at the other photo and thought "Wow, even though she's not smiling in this picture, she looks way more likeable and even prettier." Because it's NOT about taking a pose and trying to look the best they can. They don't have to do that. They're pretty anyway – all of them, no exceptions – even without trying.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I'm so glad it made you think a bit. That was the goal that I think some people missed. I agree, my photos werent' meant to look extraordinary or dramatic at all (I could have done that... but then that would be trickery in its own right, surely), I wanted it to be quite smoothly toned and the poses a contrast to the often cute/sexy selfie looks.
Load More Replies... A smoothing filter, is just like using blue make up. It's when, say the Kardashians (in all of their extreme hatred for themselves), use professional photoshopped photos, that on top of the constant plastic surgery, make young girls think a tiny waist is perfectly natural with a 48 inch butt. I'm not sure who, or why anyone thought those butt implants on ANYONE was normal, but it's sick! And as 40 some year old women, you should know better, do better!
Hm, but, at what point do we also accept that some people like extreme body modification? There's this balance, I think, that we need to address: when is it unhealthy, and when can we just say, "that's not for me, but you do you."? I don't think we should shame a person for doing something ,"unnatural," just because some people feel forced to do what they don't want to do. I think we need to encourage self expression, the way we want to express, and not force others to express naturally, or unnaturally, because we think we know better than they know themselves.
Load More Replies... I was surprised to prefer most selfies over the professionally taken photograph. But when you think about it, it absolutely makes sense. The women know themselves well, the photographer don't know them. The women are in charge while taking a selfie, they are not, when someone else is taking a photo. I'm wondering how the results would have turned out, if the photographer would have extended the shoot a little bit so the women would have had more time to acclimatize and the lighting was nicer.
But that wasn’t the point of this project. Of course the ‘selfies’ - taken with a phone camera that already distorts/lengthens the image, and then filtered beyond any semblance of reality - are going to be perceived by the modern selfie culture to be ‘prettier’. The point was to capture an image of the subjects that would more closely represent what a casual passerby would see in reality. Also, as the photographer/poster has pointed out multiple times throughout these comments, BP heavily edited the text and the images in the article have been compressed. There is a link at the top that will take you to the full text of the interviews and the high-resolution photos.
Load More Replies... People really are mean, and that’s crazy to me that they are dishing out this much hate. You can tell that the images aren’t retouched, but that’s also one point of the project. Forget the lighting, focus on the point. I, as a photographer, always encounter clients who like to take behind the scenes photos and videos SO CONFIDENTLY, but when it comes to getting in front of my dslr they tense up. I LOVE THIS PROJECT, and thank you for sharing.
Thank you! 😊 Luckily it seems that there are also plenty of positive comments, and there has been some interesting dialogue around the project, which I'm very pleased about! Haters gonna hate :)
Load More Replies... I love this project, and I didn't know that phone cameras have a different lens than the human eye (which suddenly makes sense why pictures I take of people on my phone never look like "real life") 😅🤦♀️ I really appreciate this article and interviews, and I really hope you do more!! We're so used to seeing the "reg selfie vs professional photo shoot" type version of this project that it's really refreshing to see "selfie vs human eye"! I feel like the women seem so much more 'uniquely them' in the photos you took than the ones they selected (in the best of ways). I'd love to see a more expansive version of the project pulling in more women who are less confident, as well as having women select their "favorite selfie" instead of just taking one on the spot - the difference would be enormous.
Thank you Sarah, I really appreciate your feedback and glad the project resonated with you! 😊 Your point about selecting a previous, favourite selfie, is great and I am indeed thinking about something like this for round 2!
Load More Replies... Excellent article Barbara! Really nice insight. I kind of wonder how many people in the comments actually read the article? These women, natural and selfie, are all attractive. In my eyes. Isabella and Xin Yi, stick out a little more to me though💘. You should do one with guys. It would've been more fun if you added yourself also. Isabella, forget those magazines, you are absolutely gorgeous💘.
Thank you! We did chat about what it would be like to do with men. In my opinion, and from what male acquaintances have told me, for men it's not usually their face but more about their muscles and body shape, especially upper body. So, it's kind of tricky territory for me as a cisgender heterosexual female to do that without potentially sending the wrong message, and the men would perhaps be even less willing to take shirts off for me, you know what I mean? 😂
Load More Replies... they are all so beautiful!!! you are a wonderful photographer and an even more wonderful person. keep up the amazing work!<3
I do understand how filters and social media could give people image/body issues. But always feel it's way overblown. Good photographers will use lighting, makeup, backgrounds, poses, touchups even a smile to make someone look "better". I found it interesting that it took me a moment to realize which were the selfies. In many cases they all look good or very similar. I think you hit the nail on the head with the problem being people staring at themselves ALL the time.
So, the ones on the right are the selfies, and the photographer's pic is on the left? Or is it the other way around? The ones on the left certainly look better to me.
Why aren’t older people included in this kind of BP post? Over and over.
This is strictly a female thing. Not only do most straight guys not care about their own photos, we really don't care if a female used a filter or not. The pressure that women feel to look a certain way is entirely imposed on them by themselves and other women.
Of course they do, but that’s not what they would look like to a person passing them on the street. That’s part of the point.
Load More Replies... What I found interesting is that in every case a person with a fair complexion looked better in the picture taken by a professional. The selfie did not look flattering. People with darker complexions typically photograph better than people with fair complexions under most conditions.
Very interesting idea. May I ask - were you approached by, or did you approach, any women over the age of 50?
I didn't, mainly because that generation doesn't tend to take selfies or use filters, as they didn't grow up with social media being insidious in their lives from a young age. It's not because I don't think their thoughts on appearance aren't relevant of course!
Load More Replies... I like the selfies a lot better. All those women look a lot more comfortable and goofy on the selfies.. which is not a bad thing to me
Which ones are selfies? I was assuming the ones on the right, but I wasn't super sure with some of them. Honestly, I think they all look good.
Brave women? Effects of filters? These all seem pretty natural to me. To be honest, I was expecting a more "devastating" difference/effect. Like how many filters can really change the look, making the whole idea of "beauty" fake. Like how many women (already beautiful in their way as they are) use filters and look like a completely different person. These women are very photogenic and their selfies don't seem very filtered to me. I was expecting the full-on 'enhancing' filters Vs a natural woman with her natural facial complexities or something like that.
That was something we couldn't anticipate (how heavily each one would filter their selfie, although the project is also about the selfie angles themselves, not just the filters). I think it says a lot that those women who would probably use heavier filtering, did not even want to participate because they'd be shown without filters. Which is a takeaway from the project, too.
Load More Replies... I honestly think almost all the women look better in the selfies than in the professional photo.
Of course they do - they are warped, filtered versions of their images. That is not what they would look like to a casual passerby on the street. That’s part of the point of this project.
Load More Replies... Why are these women called "brave"? I am sorry but genuinely don't get it! I absolutely see the same people in both pictures. And mirrors don't have filters. I don't get it. Maybe it's because I don't have Instagram. Can someone walk me through? Again, honest question
A lot of modern society lives, and breathes, entirely online. To be willing to allow a stranger to portray your self image unfiltered, to the public, is brave. It puts yourself on display for (possibly millions of) others to analyze. You will see people making judgments in these comments about whether the people are attractive in each version of the photos, what they are wearing, how they are posing. This is something their employers and families could see, and that can affect their lives, directly. It's why many high powered, or famous, people hire PR companies. How people see us can shape our day-to-day.... And people are very. Very. Very. Judgmental.
Load More Replies... Of course they do. I’m positively astonished at how many people are making this comment, indicating they have NO IDEA what this project was about. Sigh. Selfies - distorted with a phone camera lens, filtered to a plastic appearance, and often posed in a cutesy, sexy, pouty fakeness. This is not what people passing them on the street would see.
Load More Replies... Not to negate the efforts of the photographer at all, I really appreciate their intentions, but also these people look equally good in either photo imo
The aim wasn't to make them look better or worse in either photo - it was to get people thinking about the contrast of the two, and think about why they, the viewer, may prefer one or the other personally. :=
Load More Replies... Some of the women here actually look pretty much the same. Isabella, Xin Yi, Swathi, Esther, Alexandra....
This certainly didn't make me normalize filter free photos. It made me feel worse about having my picture taken by anyone but myself. If you, the photographer, as well as other random people, see me as badly as you apparently see those women then I'll just stick to my selfies so I can at least feel somewhat good about myself and the way I look.
I'm so sorry that society has made you feel that anyone in the above photos looks "bad" in your words, and that you have to resort to selfies to feel okay about yourself. This is the reality for many women nowadays and the whole reason for the project. The aim (if you read the original article via the link, or my comments here, as the article here was edited heavily) was not to say one is necessarily prettier or less pretty than the other. It's to get you, the viewer to question, why might you think the non selfie ones are "bad" if you think they are? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder goes the saying, and in this case it is more apt than ever. If you're not in a mental position to be able to see the beauty of a person regardless of specific features they accentuate or minimise... Then that is mostly about you, not the subjects. I hope you find peace with your own appearance some day.
Load More Replies... Without sounding rude, what is brave about taking a selfie followed by a professional photo? Brave is battling cancer; chronic pain; high risk pregnancy; surviving abuse, etc... surely?
The interviews that go with each photo (which were quite long - only a short snippet was published here for each photo) in many cases exposed their insecurities which I think is brave to do, when you know a project will potentially be in the public eye.
Load More Replies... No its brave for them to sign up to have their flaws exposed and likely hated on for
Load More Replies... The photographer is shallow... Why only use pictures of skinny women? 😤
First of all, I wouldn't call most of them skinny, most are average size I think. Some expressed concerns about their weight as it was. I would also invite you to consider perhaps why it was these women who applied? I did not see what they looked like before they came into the studio, they weren't chosen based on appearance except the ones I approached on the street. I did approach a variety of sizes and sadly, those you would call "plus size" looked offended or just declined saying they hated photos of themselves. This was a challenge, indeed, and I wish we had had some more plus sized ladies too, however they did not wish to be included.
Load More Replies... Every single woman looked better in the photographers picture. Women, please understand real men want real women. The only men that are interested in you looking perfect are ones who will use you.
Please understand not every woman is looking to get you. Or any man. Or anyone. You sound like a creep when you talk like this
Load More Replies... Wow that is some flat lighting especially from a professional photographer. But I guess anyone can be a professional these days and still not seem to know what they are doing. Interesting.
Say you didn’t understand the assignment without saying you didn’t understand the assignment.
Load More Replies... I should just copy/paste at this point. Did you people read ANY of the text? OF COURSE the selfies look ‘better’ (at least in terms of what is expected in modern selfie culture - image distorted by phone camera lens, filtered into a sort of plastic faux reality, and an attempt to pose in a cutesy/sexy fake projection). The professional photo is meant to show a blunt reality; what people would see if they ran into these women on the street.
Load More Replies... There was an intent to the way it's posed or lit. Not everyone will agree, and that's OK. There is no pleasing everyone. You're welcome to check my full portfolio for proof of my knowledge of posing and lighting if you are worried about my credentials of course, but I don't think it's relevant. :)
Load More Replies... I'm sorry that you appear to have missed the whole point of the project, which was not to criticise women and their face or body, instead to show a natural look. The lighting was meant to be relatively flat, to even out skin tones and show the way the women look naturally without using any lighting tricks or drama to change the way they would look to the human eye. That is the whole reason. If I had designed more dramatic light, it would look more "artistic" but would have lost the idea that we are trying to show them as natural as possible.
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