Photoshop?

As part of my campaign, I needed to have my picture taken.  My neighbor across the street is a professional photographer and he did a fine job.  (I previously wrote about having my picture taken.)

I first posted a picture on my website and Facebook account, and then I submitted it for the Voters' Guide.  Now, I am at the step of getting campaign fliers made for doorbelling, where I knock on numerous constituents doors and ask them to vote for me.

In each draft of the flier, my photo kept getting bigger and bigger.  And I kept cringing and cringing.  I wanted a small tiny picture in the corner, something maybe the size of a dime, not a big more than half of the 5x10 flier.

The bigger the picture, the more I noticed my flaws, especially the little middle-aged double chin and the dark brown gum line above the tooth I broke in third grade.  I maybe could get plastic surgery to fix the chin, or lose forty pounds, but neither is going to happen before my campaign needs to print 5,000 fliers.  There is nothing to fix the tooth except Photoshop.*

I talked to my photographer to discuss my dilemma -- to photoshop or not to photoshop.

"I'll do whatever you want, Lauren," he said.  "I can do anything with Photoshop.  I can make you look like a Barbie.  I could even make you look like a man.  But I left it the way it was.  I think you look fine.  I take pictures of people without teeth and people who are wrinkled and disfigured.  You should own how you look.  "

I thought about Tina Fey.  She was knifed by a stranger as a child and she has a large scar on her chin which is covered up with make-up.   Tina Fey doesn't let the scar define her.  Does she cover it up at home, or go naked?  Has it faded significantly since she was a child?  I have no problem with Tina Fey covering her scar if it makes her feel more confident.

Before I said yes to vanity, I went for a second opinion.  I emailed a draft of the flier to my friend Susan, who thought it looked fine.  She didn't comment on the picture, so I asked.

"What do you think of the picture?  Is it too big?"

"No, you just aren't used to seeing glamour shots of yourself," she said.  "It looks great."

Glamour shot?  I was too busy looking at my gum line to see the picture as glamourous.

Then I thought about it.  Aside from the dark gum line from my broken tooth, I have a great set of teeth.  They'd be damn near perfect if it weren't for root canal and cap.  I have what is officially called a "winning smile," which is defined as having visible molars when I smile.  My photographer takes pictures of people without teeth, and here I am complaining about a tiny flaw in what otherwise would be perfect.

I ponder my double chin.  Sure, I could lose a few pounds, but I am far from obese.  Who am I to be so picky about my appearance?  I don't have a disfigurement, so I should be happy.  I let the picture go au naturale, and not photoshop.

* Poor Photoshop has to get a bad rap as the company that allows women to look twenty years younger, when they just make the software to enable such behavior.