This subject isn't anything new, but I don't recall seeing a proper rant on the topic. Therefore, I'm picking up the mantel and including it in my Old Man Ranting Series
Technology has delivered to us digital camera technology that yields photos with amazing clarity and resolution. Today, even cell phone cameras yield superior quality, compared to high end digital cameras of even a few years ago. With all of this amazing capability, it would follow that dating profile pictures would be crystal clear, but sadly, this isn't the case. Someone created some filter app (maybe there's more than one; how would I know?) that allows the user to soft focus pictures to felony level, making it almost impossible to distinguish someone's features. And a considerable number of women are utilizing this filter to laughable results. Perhaps men are as well, but I don't look at their dating profiles. Seriously, I've seen so many of these that I almost scheduled a doctor's visit to be checked for cataracts. The worst are the ones who dial in eye liner enhancements to max level, making them appear ready for the next best horror film and causing small children to cry.
I'm sure most of my readers share my position that these filters have no place on dating sites. Unless you plan on meeting someone after consuming half a bottle of Don Julio, you want their photos to provide an accurate representation of who you're about to meet. Perhaps the only exception to posting such photos would be if someone had their portrait done by Annie Leibovitz and she incorporated some sort of filter. But the most gifted portrait photographer on the planet doesn't use soft focus, so there goes that excuse. Look, none of us become more attractive from our late forties onward; it's a fact of life. And try as you might, those filters don't fix ugly, so if you're using them, save yourself the guaranteed ghosting after (or during) your first date.
Some will never give up their squint inducing fog filters. I recently saw a profile on the Big T where not only were filters used in the manner I've described, but the woman was positively combative about using them. Apparently, potential matches challenged her on the subject and she was asserting her right to post pictures that didn't look like her.
While on the subject of filters, if you're past forty years old, leave the fucking snap chat filters alone. Unless it was a Halloween costume, bunny ears, cat whiskers, etc. don't paint you as playful or fun. It just screams immature. Worse yet, the majority of those you love the bunny ears typically run the picture through the Don Julio blur filter first, completely obscuring any facial detail. A forty something woman that does that screams she's trying to hide ugly.
Embrace who you are and be proud of it, people.
