I mentioned in my previous post that I wanted to share a little reflection on photos and blogging, and here it is.
Recently, I read a very interesting post on Catherine Daze's blog on realism in project pictures, which I recommend to anyone.
The points Catherine makes in this post got really stuck in my head and made me think a lot about my blog.
On the first question she presents, which is basically how clothes are styled in project pictures, we have very similar thoughts. She says she rarely wears the clothes the way she styles them for photos, because it's too impractical for every day life.
I must say I do exactly the same thing. In most of my photos, I wear a lot of makeup, I style my hair carefully, I never wear my glasses and I have heels on. It's very rare to see me so done up on an everyday basis: while I still feel overdressed most of the time, living in dresses and quirky prints, I am not a very glamorous person. I like to put some thought in how I present myself to the world, but I often have terrible hair, very little makeup on and most of all, I walk around a lot so I never wear heels.
So why do I dress up like that in photos? Because, as Catherine writes, that is how I'd like to wear the clothes, the look I'd love the most for them. I have fun playing around with styling and dressing up and I think the clothes look more interesting this way.
That means my photos are not 100% realistic, but I think they're much more fun and nice to look at.
I do edit my photos, basically since the beginning of my blog. By that I don't mean making myself look slimmer, or airbrushing the skin of my face when I have a breakout. I wouldn't even know where to start with that. And when a project didn't turn out to be so hot, I don't fake it in pictures, I don't hide its faults because I want to be honest in my blog and I think sharing failures is always more helpful (either for me, for readers or for both).
But I really like to add a dreamy, colorful aspect to my photos. I try not to alter the colors too much, so that the garment I want to represent is still close to reality. I think they look a lot more vibrant, fun and, once again, more interesting to look at.
In my last post, I left the photos almost unedited (just used the auto adjustments on iPhoto for contrast and saturation) and I kept my styling as casual as possible. The result? While I don't hate them, I'm not really crazy about those photos, I find them a bit dull compared to my usual pics.
As you can see in the examples above and beneath, the photos are not not incredibly different after being edited, but still they can't be considered 100% realistic. Does this cross a line?
Both what you like to see on other blogs (mine included, obviously) and what you think is fair and best to do with your own photos. Please let me know! :)
