As a photographer that specializes in making women look beautiful in images, you would think that I might be offended by this DOVE commercial. But I'm not. I fully support it!

The commercial is aimed, in part, to photographers and retouchers (which I do both). It carries a strong message to all of us about a woman's beauty. Beauty is not about body shape, body size, or age.

I use posing, special lighting techniques, and Photoshop to make women look their very best. I make them look beautiful. And I do use a few Photoshop Actions to help me accomplish that (the commercial explains what a Photoshop Action is). But normally I find women have a long list of things about their bodies that they don't like. And that list is much longer than what they do like about their bodies. It's not unusual that a woman won't care for a fantastic image of herself because she thinks her nose is too big, or something else about herself is ugly. But no one else can see that "flaw". It exists only in her own mind. Maybe because some kid teased her about her nose back in grade school or someone made a comment one time. Or she just came up with it on her own when viewing the beautiful women in magazine ads for beauty products (who, by the way, don't look that way in real life). And she's never forgotten it. She has come to own it. And now it is a part of how she identifies herself. Reality no longer has a part in her perception. I see it in almost every photo shoot that I do. It's time for a change in the way we think.

You can find the commercial HERE or by copying this link into your browser https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0JF4QxPpvM