Editing On Instagram - Are We Going Too Far?
Ignore the cracks in my phone, we won't talk about that.
Editing on Instagram isn't anything new, nor is it anything shocking, nor is it anything terrible. I do it*, you probably do it, your fav bloggers do it, your fav celebs do it, hell your next door neighbour does it too.
Editing on Instagram isn't a naughty word any more, there's a million and one apps to help us make our images just that shade of perfect. Once upon a time we were all relying on Instagram's built in fliters #XXpro #valencia but these days we've moved onto much more sophisticated editing. Personally I used to use VSCO and I edited all my shots the same way but these days I tend to either make sure my shots are top notch and don't need anymore editing than a tweak of the brightness or I use the iPhone's in built editing tool.
Blogging queen that is Hannah Gale mentioned this on Insta stories maybe? Or maybe on her blog but she said she almost exclusively uses the iPhone inbuilt editor and namely the brilliance tool and let me tell you it's a game changer.
*Although if you want to be really picky at it my latest snaps of seaside towns are all unedited.
But enough about how I edit - I'm here to talk about editing in general. Long gone are the days of filters, we scoff at an Instagram filter with a border these days. Long gone are the days of VSCO pre built edits, we're all about making our own. These days even using apps to edit alone is becoming a bit of a dead habit. We used to be all about upping the brightness, editing the contrast, popping those pinks, getting the whites white....but these days? These days it's like it isn't enough.
Now we can have Photoshop on our phones. Now we have 2012937234 apps to help us, now we can learn skills that rival the magazine editors. Now we can edit out our spots, we can airbrush our faces, we can slim down our thighs, our stomachs, crop out that double chin. Now we can photoshop stars into skies that weren't there, we can photoshop our bed into a room we don't have, we can put ourselves in places we never were.
I'm not innocent. I took some outfit snaps in front of our white walls at home and in the corner there was a broom I couldn't crop out. So I did a bit of Googling, saw Snapseed recommended and I edited the broom out. I photoshopped the living daylights out of that photo and if you go back and find it now I challenge you to find where it should have been.
I don't know how I feel about editing so far you omit or add something that was or wasn't there. I don't feel massively proud of myself for doing it but would I do it again if there was something that completely ruined my photo? Probs. I've seen bloggers admit to editing out fag ends, telephone wires, specks of dirt on a flatlay (also guilty of this one), security alarms on those houses in London, hell even people that walked into the corner of a shot.
It's harmless isn't it? But then if we accept that how much further do we go?
Do we ALL start Photoshopping out the imperfections on our bodies? The bits of our face we don't like? We condemn magazines for editing models to make them look thinner. For taking Photoshop too far and getting rid of an arm altogether. We acknowledge that Instagram makes us envious, that it can make us feel crap, that our self esteem takes a knock. We advocate for clothing retailers to use models that look more like us.
So are we hypocrites? Are we all part of the problem because we too edit on Instagram? I haven't branched into editing something that was or wasn't there on myself but can I say I never will? I said that about editing things out of landscape shots too and look where that got me.
Editing on Instagram, and in all elements of our lives, is here to stay - let's just not go too far shall we?
What's your opinion on editing on Instagram? How far would you go? Leave me a comment!
