Photoshop Use: How Much Is Too Much?

When it Comes to Retouching Photos, How Much Is Too Much?

You may do it without thinking. You select a warm filter from Instagram for that photo of you and your friends, or you hit the "retouch" button in iPhoto before uploading your headshot to your OkCupid profile. Glamour's independent survey of 1,000 U.S. women found that almost 60 percent of women think it's okay to alter personal photos -- and 41 percent of women ages 18-24 do it (the number dips slighty for women between 25-29; only 23 percent of women in this age group fessed up to retouching photos).

Glamour's Shaun Dreisbach partly attributes the findings to how accessible personal photos are now, thanks to digital photosharing platforms: "Think about it: Photos no longer live in a dusty box on a shelf; they live online, for the public to judge," writes Glamour's Shaun Dreisbach. And judge they do; the comments on Jezebel's "Photoshop of Horrors" section are filled with critiques of publications who retouch women -- women whose looks, un-Photoshopped, are the envy of many other women. But if the Glamour survey results are accurate and so many women do retouch their own photos, is it fair to criticize magazines for doing the same?

Tell us about your retouching habits:

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