You can Goggle a picture if you have your doubts and want to trace its origin back. Just save the picture and past it on the Google image search tool. It won't trace back FaceApp processed ones, but actual GG pictures have a good chance to pop.
I also observe that pictures are far from being the only things that get embellished on this siteGood candidates for the Writers' section seem to accidentally end up in the MTF section from time to time...
Last edited by DianeT; 05-10-2023 at 12:30 PM.
The unprecedented connectivity that we have access to today presents a curious situation. So, you go on a platform like Reddit and connect to a community of tens or hundreds of thousands of CDs and/or trans or gender nonconforming humans. The fact that you scroll through 50 or 100 pictures of beautiful people seems remarkable because many of us will live our entire lifetimes without encountering 50 or 100 beautiful CDs or transwomen in person, in real life. Yet, those 50 people are only a tiny fraction of that community. Subsequently, those beautiful people who post their pictures inadvertently help perpetuate unrealistic beauty standards that cause us regular-looking people to shy away from posting our own pictures. This has a snowball effect.
The same thing happens on platforms like Instagram where you can spend weeks scrolling through tens of thousands of posts by absolutely stunning women, and then you go out into the real world and you would be hard pressed to randomly encounter anyone who looks that good. One example of the power and danger of getting too wrapped up in social media.
Fascinating stuff.
Last edited by MonicaPVD; 05-10-2023 at 02:20 PM.
I have seen the pictures on Reddit and have wondered as to their authenticity. As far as my pictures, no filter is used. It's just plain old me.
Please call me Jamie, I always_have crossdressed, I always will, "alwayshave".
I've mentioned my thoughts a bit before, but I'm still a little torn I guess...
On the one hand, SOME of the apps and enhancements are such that there's absolutely NO resemblance at all to the original picture or person. It's just basically a completely fabricated image.
Some of the other apps are more like wrinkle reducers, skin lighteners, etc... just basically an automated photoshop filter that used to be slightly less common? but still completely achievable.
But the other half of my conundrum is that first off, very few people would recognize any of us wearing makeup, wigs, pretty dresses, etc. The whole thing here is presenting a different image of ourselves in a way that we would like to be seen, and in a way, filters sort of help enhance that as well. It's sort of like when I see videos and pictures of amazing makeup artists who are able to transform themselves into completely different looking people.
I don't think there's an easy answer, and being proud of "unaltered" pics is fine too, but there's still angles, lighting, exposure, etc. that goes into account to take a "good" picture.
I have no doubt that the majority of those photos are fake or enhanced in some way. They are too perfect to be real, they are not just passing, but, more beautiful than most women, so hard to believe most of them are real. I don't mind people playing around with thes apps to make themselves look more feminine as long as they tell us.
However there are some that are genuine, some were just born lucky, have feminine facial features, slim builds and have become experts in make-up, feminine fashion, and lighting. Some of these girls are extremely dedicated, they spend hours and hours perfecting their makeup skills, remove their body hair, use high quality wigs, breastplates, padding, etc. They also buy high quality clothes, lingerie and shoes and practice their feminine mannerisms; how the walk, sit and pose, until it's second nature to them. As we all know the Internet is a huge resource for tips and tricks for passing and some of these girls have become experts in applying all of these tricks, so passing looks like it's come easy for them, but they've put a huge amount of time and effort into passing. I wish I had their time and dedication but, like most people here I have a life outside of crossdressing which severely limits my crossdressing.
In this modern times one has access to lots of things that were not available in the past, for instance: online makeup tutorials. Personally I've learned a lot from those YouTube videos of GG and expert crossdressers who teach us how to conceal imperfections and enhance attributes to the point of looking like a completely different person/gender. For me that's the main difference.
In addition nowadays everyone has an almost professional camera in their pocket equipped with amazing technology to select the perfect brightness, contrast, shutter speed, etc to get the best possible picture, and that most camera apps have a "portrait" filter which tends to hide all minor imperfections. Also, having the camera in the pocket allows us to take several pictures with different angles, poses, outfits at a time so at the end of the day if I want to post a picture I have several to find the best ones (I'm not going to post ugly pictures online, are you?).
Finally, today everyone has access to buy realistic breast forms, breast plates, even full silicone bodysuits, different types of body shapers, hip pads, beautiful clothes, makeup, heels, etc. I don't think crossdressers in the 90s had all these options, at least not only a few clicks away from getting those things delivered to your home.
Sum all that and then you get why crossdressers today have better photos that say 20 years ago, and I'm not even mentioning faceapp or similar apps which alter one's face digitally.
90's? Try 70's.
I agree with all that's been said. I do not like the enhanced pics. I've seen a few where the enhanced pic was posted along with the unaltered pic and I personally found the unaltered pic more attractive. I just prefer real to fake.
I also seriously think that boys are more feminine now. Fitness, skin care, genetics, influences, trends in appearance and grooming... the list goes on. Add to that that boys aren't so afraid to be feminine today. Their starting point is a little ahead of where it was for most of us. Pretty easy to see why someone starting with all those might want to see what he looks like in a dress.
This thought isn't reallly on topic, but for all our differences every one of us had that moment when we put on a dress and looked in the mirror for the first time. It still happens every day in much the same way. Maybe they're just better at it than I was.
To be fair, I don?t post any pictures of myself male or female on the net. For decades now I and many others have had sufficient image processing skills to doctor photos at will. Recent apps allow people who are not experts similar capabilities. So nothing fundamentally new here. I like to think of photos people post as artistic expressions of what they feel inside. Maybe call them pictures of the deeper ?reality? inside? The advent of deep fakes is rapidly pushed us to recognize that pictures are communications just like words. Neither pictures nor words are facts. Let?s enjoy the beautiful and nuanced communications we can fashion. . . . Vale
This is an interesting thread. I have to agree with Rhonda Jean that a genuine image is preferable to a digital creation. When gender swap filters first came out, I took full advantage of them because my wife prefers me with facial hair, which puts a real cramp in transforming into Bridget. MTF filters, at first, were good for filling the need to see my fem self. But over time I realized how they all created a cookie cutter version of a 20-something woman. The eyebrows were always just so, same for blush, skin tone, etc. I finally realized what they were doing wasn?t really me.
I do believe the technology has its place. I used FaceApp with my current profile picture, but just to replace the background from my less-than-attractive bathroom. I also played with the hairstyle filter where it added a touch of volume to my wig, but it also evened out my complexion. The surprise result was to make me look just a bit more feminine. I chose not to use that enhanced version here because I want to present myself as authentically as possible.
I think, in the end, we all just want to present the best version of ourselves. As has been pointed out, photo editing has been around a long time. There shouldn?t be any shame in using modern methods as enhancements. It?s up to each person to decide how far to take it.
I know nothing of face apos and such, other than what I have read on this forum. I do know that foundation and make up are far better at hiding my stubble and wrinkles, than that were 40+ years ago, I expect that makes as much difference as some of the apps.
In my pictures it is all me. However onetime I did a side by side picture of me using a Snapchat filter. Then me after my makeup. It was fun.
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