That’s all well and go but I think you miss the point of the complaints. Folks are saying that Apple is basically airbrushing photos against folks will. As if to say that folks are imperfect and even ugly. Like the magazines that brush away cellulite, pump up cleavage etc.
if that’s what they are doing then their ‘beauty filter’ needs work cause my selfies actually make me look worse than I do in real life cause they flatten my face to make it look fatter (just like regular cameras in poor light always have) and every pore and pimple stands out rather than being brushed away. And I’m using a Xs. A proper ‘beauty’ filter should at least be covering up my pores and pimples and my genetic black under the eyes,right.
I think "against their will" is a bit of an overstatement. You'd think the British Parliament was taxing the American Colonies, a public school teacher was requiring non-Christian students to recite Christian prayers, or some prep school boys had dropped roofies into their dates' fruit punch. Of course, if you don't think "against their will" is overstatement, feel free to toss a shipment of iPhones into Boston Harbor.
ALL camera makers make this kind of decision, all the time. That's why camera reviewers make a point of evaluating things like a camera's JPG processing, color balance, and automatic exposure modes. All these things (and more) are an expression of what the camera makers think their users will like, rather than being in strict adherence to "reality." Because what is reality when it comes to any two-dimensional rendering of a three-dimensional world that's made with equipment that does not duplicate the sensitivity and capabilities of human senses (and the minds that process that sensory input)?
The manual controls on a camera are not there to allow a photographer to capture "reality." They're there for creative control. Adjust depth-of-focus to draw the eye to the key elements of the composition and push the extraneous farther into the background. Slow the shutter speed to turn a moving car into a ghostly streak. Under-expose the background to silhouette foreground objects... Photographers often grossly distort reality in order to convey a particular message or capture an unusual aesthetic viewpoint. The closest any photo can come to "reality" is the
semblance of reality.
In the Age of Photoshop, NOBODY is striving for truth or reality. We're far more interested in having our personal version of reality. The threshold of honesty isn't a matter of whether we can see someone's blemishes in sharp focus; not when we can't trust that the ultra-sexy selfie we receive is of the person who sent the selfie.
As to whether what Apple is doing is a "beauty filter," Apple hasn't sold it that way. That's what other people are calling it. And if Apple decides "the people have spoken" in favor of less smoothing and a cooler skin tone, you'll see it in an upcoming iOS update. No need to buy a new camera. No need for Apple to add additional settings and controls; they'll simply dial things back so that detecting the "beauty filter" will take a far more practiced eye. In the end, for the vast majority of humanity, a good selfie is a
flattering selfie, not a truthful one.
When it comes to distorting the shape of your face, it's all about wide-angle lens distortion. A selfie camera, by necessity, needs to have a wide angle lens, because our arms are too short to hold the camera at a distance that allows the use of a more flattering telephoto lens. Move the camera closer or farther from your face, and your face will look dramatically different. Raise the camera above your head so that you're looking up, and your double chins won't show. Tilt your head down to face the camera and your chin and jowls will be accentuated. It doesn't matter what smartphone (or DSLR) you use. Don't blame the camera, blame the photographer.
