While we know that what we see on social media is usually not close to the true side of someone’s daily life, but is just the best moments of their life, it’s still hard not to scroll through Instagram and feel a rush of jealousy sometimes.
All those flawless photos. All the fancy dinners. All the beach-side vacations. One can’t help but feel jealous at the sight.
But one photographer has decided to break things down for us a little bit and actually prove to us that what you see on social media is not usually what it actually is.
Calob Castellon is a graphic designer and photographer from Calipatria, California, whose photos often seem a little too perfect to be true.
But rather than to trick people, he’s been upfront about his work on Instagram, letting us in on his tips and techniques for those perfect shots, such as using strategic backdrops and Photoshopping certain details, through to using light boxes to cast a glow on models’ faces.
Many of the photos he posts also include a few behind-the-scenes photos to help show what’s been involved in the finished result.
His creativity and him sharing his tricks about his work brought him a lot of attention, as he has gained almost 350,000 followers. However, Not all Instagrammers are quite so truthful.
Towards the end of last year, Swedish influencer Johanna Olsson was criticized after admitting to Photoshopping herself onto a backdrop of the Seine in Paris in a fake traveling Instagram photo.
Despite all of the ridicule and criticism, she still refuses to remove the pictures, saying that she has nothing to be ashamed of because a lot of other influencers do the same thing.
Addressing the criticism, the 28-year-old influencer posted an Instagram story that said, “I wanted to talk a little bit about the pictures I posted in Paris. So I did one picture, shot it and didn’t think it looked that nice… so I took a different background and put the background into it.”
“And when I put it up nobody noticed so I thought, ‘This is good.'”
“So I admit it wasn’t my finest Photoshop skills. Now in Sweden, this thing has gone crazy and TV shows want me to come on and talk about my ‘fake travelling’.”
She continued, “It’s a bit ridiculous I think. There are a lot of influencers out there that Photoshop in birds, rainbows or crazy skies and I could do that but I don’t like that.”
“I just wanted to make that clear that I was in Paris, but I did Photoshop the background, but I’m not going to take them down because it’s a collaboration and they’re nice pictures – it’s a good outfit!”
What do you think about fake photos on social media? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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