I just sat through a video yesterday—a painful, excruciating watch—from an iPhone photographer I generally respect and admire. He walked us through his step-by-step approach to editing portraits on his iPhone. And not just editing. Oh no, this was a full-on “perfection workshop”, using 3rd party portraits apps to “perfect” your photos.
The instructor didn’t go through all of these things but easily could of.
Perfect, blemish-free skin
Perfect eyebrows.
Perfect eyelashes.
Perfect white teeth.
Perfect smile.
Perfect eyes.
Perfect cheeks.
Perfect lips
Perfect hair
Perfect breasts.
Perfect waist.
Perfect ass
Perfect thighs
Perfect. Perfect. Perfect.
I could scream.
There was so much damn “perfect” in this video, I wanted to puke-fucking puke. Like, physically wanted to gag.
I hate this.
We are human beings, not mannequins.
Listen, don’t misunderstand me here—I’m no curmudgeon when it comes to portrait editing. I get it. A tweak here. A little polish there. We all want our subjects to look their best. But for the love of all that’s sacred in photography, and for the love of all that is human and frail, enough with the perfection bullshit. It’s dishonest.
I don’t want to see any more of this shit. Nor do most people.
I hate it.
It’s fake, phony, and counterfeit
None of us—NONE OF US—are perfect. Not me. Not you. Not the models in front of our lenses. We are full of beautiful, radical imperfections.
And those imperfections? They are the story. They are the poetry. They are the essence of who we are. The laugh lines that map decades of joy. The scars that whisper tales of resilience. The asymmetry, the blemishes, the quirks that make each face a masterpiece of humanity. The awkward smiles. The not knowing what to do with your hands. The weird posture.The unmaid-up face. The crazy hair. All the things. Beautiful imperfections.
But no, apparently, those aren’t good enough anymore. Instead, we smudge them out. Erase them. We digitally sculpt faces into some sanitized, soulless vision of what society thinks we should look like.
And you know what that does? It’s a lie. It’s a big, crazy, unnatural fucking lie.
We do a grave injustice to ourselves, to the people we photograph, and to the world when we do this. We tell people—subtly but powerfully—that who they are isn’t good enough. That they need to be smoothed, whitened, reshaped, and corrected to be worthy of being seen.
And then what? The viewers of those photos—who don’t have the benefit of Photoshop or editing apps—look at themselves and feel like shit. They don’t have that impossibly smooth skin or those unnaturally symmetrical features. Hell, no one does.
None of us look like this.
Stop the madness. Stop feeding the machine that churns out these fake, unattainable versions of beauty. Get real. Be authentic. Be natural. Celebrate the flaws, the faults, the fallibilities. THAT is where the magic is. That is where beauty resides.
Let’s put an end to this obsessive pursuit of perfection. Let’s honor the perfectly imperfect.
So, yeah—enough with the perfect nonsense. You want to know what’s truly perfect? The courage to be real. The bravery to embrace imperfection. The guts to say, “This is me, as I am.”
And as photographers, isn’t that our job? To show the world as it is? To capture not just what’s seen, but what’s felt? To honor the humanity in front of us, instead of erasing it away?
Be better. Be real. Be perfectly imperfect.
I just came back from Cuba, where we spent the week creating content for a new online course on iPhone Portrait photography. Here’s a handful of my favorites from the journey.
No bullshit, over-the-top, unrealistic, unnatural editing, just some basic adjustment tweaks. Enjoy.
Perfectly imperfect—that’s the heart of photography. It’s not about chasing unattainable ideals or reshaping reality into something sterile and false. It’s about truth. It’s about humanity. It’s about embracing the raw, unfiltered, and beautifully flawed moments that make us who we are.
As photographers, we have the privilege and responsibility to reflect the world honestly, to celebrate the quirks and imperfections that tell authentic stories. Let’s reject the cult of perfection and instead champion the courage to be real. Because in the end, true beauty isn’t flawless—it’s fearless.
Click.
Jack.
