mildlyinfuriating
Photoshopping BABY pictures?? What the actual F, I’m in disbelief
Discussion
It’s not even the same baby anymore, but also, it’s not photoshop, it’s AI.
The before photos are also Ai
The entire post is AI — the rest of the visuals and the drafting of the headline.
Do you know — how I know?
As someone who writes for a living and uses em dashes sometimes, I'm starting to get very self conscious about it. 😂
Oh my god same!! I’m an em dash addict in my writing and I’m getting worried lol
Yeah, this is where we find out that the emdashers were AI the whole time
Don’t be silly—beep boop
Yup. I tend to get a bit parenthetical, and had started to swap out some brackets for em-dashes, but it’s not a good option anymore for my mid-sentence asides.
As someone with AuDHD, who constantly has a dozen different branches of thought and various asides riffing off the original point, I LOVE em-dashes.
A normal dash is tiny, and doesn't leave enough space for my brain to process a "theme change" per se — but my precious em dashes just give the reader a tiny bit more room, some white space, in which we can more easily mentally split the parts of the sentence.
Normally I'd use them liberally, so my walls of text can include at least SOME precious white space, SOME room to mentally "breathe". But with the constant "IT'S AN AI / BOT!" hystrionics, myself and a lot of other autistics are now paranoid af and huddled in a corner, going "but we're not! Using an em dash is something real people do! Why should we have to stop using the good punctuation and let AI have it, in order to avoid being attacked by barely literate wankers who couldn't locate said em-dash on a phone keypad?!"
Further proof I'm not a bot: apparently I can't decide whether it's an "em-dash" or an "em dash".
So I've double checked, and the latter is the correct spelling.
Also, for those people who I've seen arguing that "you can't type a em dash on a normal keyboard" - yes you can. Merriam-Webster here says you just type two hyphens in a row and et voila an em dash is summoned. An en dash is the difficult one.
Source: How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-) | Merriam-Webster
If it helps, as another em dash user myself, remember that the AI is just copying from people like you, not the other way around.
This does help. Thank you.
Don't be, they're a grammatical marking like any other. AI hardly even uses them in ways that make sense either.
Isn't that supposed to be used after an interruption in dialogue? It should be attached to a word, not free-floating like this.
In America yes, in other places (like the U.K.) they use the space. Source: I am an American copyeditor who sometimes has to handle British manuscripts
The person buying this service is also AI (absolute idiot)
This is what confuses me about the photoshop sub. People asking for their marriage or proposal pictures to be shopped to a beautiful beach or something wildly different than the actual place.
It’s no longer a genuine memory, it’s now just a lie.
When I was young, a photograph was considered a legit form of evidence that you had been someplace or done something. It even was very useful for legal or insurance purposes if needed. -- Yes a photograph could be touched up, but that was the work of a professional with a studio, perhaps someone handy with an airbrush. Not something that the everyday Joe Blow on the street would be doing.
Nowadays, a photograph means nothing. Most of the time it's someone's fantasy, a lie, and can't be considered proof of anything.
This is probably irrelevant to the true conversation, but as an amateur photographer who knows very little about photoshop techniques, except to crop my photos, I find it unfair to put in or take out subject matter, airbrushing, and all the other stuff that can be done with photography these days. Granted, many magazines fluffed up their images of models and landscapes featured in their magazines, but it seems to have gotten out of control. That beautiful original photo of a vacation spot turned into something that really didn’t exist, is a lie. To touch up an acne mark is one thing , but to actually change the emotion of a person’s face from the original photo is all make believe. It’s not realistic. Therefore fake and not a true depiction of the photo. Also, I think it’s very unfair to a photographer ( amateur or not), to promote a photo in a contest that has been so altered from what the original photo was taken of ,is a form of cheating. It’s promoting a photograph that was not taken with a camera and the photographers eye, but an image that’s been artificially altered from its originality. These are the photos that are winning the contests, even contests that are for amateur photographers. Once these photographs have been altered to look like the most flawless pristine landscapes, etc., they should be considered computerized artwork and not photographs. Just my opinion!
One time on vacation, we went to a cave in Belize that didn't allow photography. Some tourist had dropped a camera on an ancient skull a few years back and knocked some of its teeth out, so now we were all required to leave our phones or cameras on the bus, and walk in our socks to make sure we were careful where we put our feet.
So we'd have this incredible, very intense vacation experience, but no pictures of anything to show family members when we were telling them about it. I wanted some pictures, but didn't want glossy, perfect fakes because "we weren't allowed to tell pictures, but here's an artist rendering" was part of the story.
So I went old-school and pasted snips of our heads onto random photos from before the camera ban. It looked fake as heck, but that was kind of the point. I guess now I could just ask midjourny to place me next to the crystal maiden skeleton, but it just wouldn't be the same
Yes but it will get a few more hearts by people you don't give a crap about on Instagram, sadly that's what it's all for.
But it gives good opportunities for some unhinged edits
True and true. The fact that it’s AI makes it even worse imo 🫠
This ad is so sad and horrifying. Can you imagine looking at your new baby and thinking they aren't cute enough? So much so that you need to photoshop everything unique about them so they can fit into beauty standards? For a fucking baby??
I know it's all ai. But like the dystopian nightmare that made this ad even possible is just insane!
I won't lie, I debated editing some of my first child's newborn photos using a magic eraser tool because she had lots of little scabs on her from all the medical treatments and blood tests she got in the NICU and it made me sad to look at them. I did opt to leave them as they were because it was part of who she was at that moment in time, but it was a real question I had for myself.
I also cropped one of her pictures because she had a blowout poop as the picture was being snapped, but her face was really cute so I didn't just want to get rid of it. That's not really the same though.
I feel like there's a big difference between removing an external thing on top of or around your kiddo and smoothing wrinkles/ editing their skin color/ eye shape etc. Even though you ultimately decided not to, I feel like your intention would have been to see MORE of your baby not change things about your baby.
Photoshop can be a good tool. But like, babies should look like babies, not like a Pixar movie.
I've magic erased distractions like an over-scratched bug bite off of pics of my son being cute. No need to have a big ol scab on his forehead from his baby devil claws being a visual distraction from the cuteness.
Edit: no reason you can't make a "for the wall" version with the little scabs edited out, so you don't have to have the NICU discussion with every curious visitor, but keep a raw version to document the experience
The second photo is also a single image if you look at the baby’s arm it goes into the other frame.
I didn't forsee photoshopped ai babies on my 2025 bingo card.
Neither did I. I think we need the dystopian reality bingo card, unfortunately
I think I'm just gonna repurpose my bingo card as kindling to toast marshmellows. That's about how much my predictions have been worth for this year so far. 😅🥲
Wow! Look at that.
toad-wrangler toasting marshmallows with a repurposed bingo card.
BINGO!!! 🤣
Glad to be of service 🤭
I was promised cool cars and lots of neon with my dystopia. I am rather disappointed.
If my crushing dystopia doesn't look like this, I don't want it!
its not even photoshop. its ai.
You know people have some bad body dysmorphia when they start pushing it on their kids. So sad
Dude I took a ton of pictures of my infant daughter with the selfie filter on by accident and they were hilarious. She had blush and eye shadow and looked like a tiny diva.
It cracks me up when people use the crying filters on their babies ngl lol
Hey, I didn’t foresee concentration camp merch, but here we were. Remember how long 2020 felt? Does 2025 feel longer already or is it just me?
2020 felt longer for me, but my family had non covid health stuff going on on top of everything else.
2025 feels like I blinked and the whole world changed while my eyes were closed for a second. It does feel weirdly similar though, but maybe that's because everyone is angry again.
... I'm sad that I DID see this coming... I would really like to have been wrong on it, but no, we're in the bad timeline.
Eep... any other predictions you wanna share with the class? Or do you think it would be better to just deal with the shock when it happens?
I think that pretty soon some techbro is going to come up with some kind of horrible AI/crypto amalgamation that goes horribly bad.
Also there's probably gonna be some major scandals going on with AI being used to produce even more believable fake images and videos.
On the bright side, at least if people AI edit their baby's face, it will give the poor kid a tiny bit more privacy than the ones with their little faces plastered all over the internet.
(Also the reason I expected the AI edited babies is because some people aggressively filter so much of their lives, of course they're gonna use it on their babies, because if it's not a perfect influencer selfie it's bad)
At this point, just put everything on the bingo card
World increasingly feels like a simulation as we go along.
I have a friend that uses a beauty filter on her kids everyone she posts them on her story it’s so WEIRD
... wow.
This really is just ... wow.
The absolute state of the world.
Your baby is bad and you should feel bad!
Why isn't your baby ripped? 9 ways to train your baby's six pack - click here!
It’s not even photoshop, it’s just plugging the photos into AI
I mean, both babies are AI
By retouch, they mean they get AI to draw a picture of a vaguely similar baby.
Welp
The "original" was also AI generated, so no harm done
No babies involved
Is this satire? Please say yes. I'm surprised there aren't duck lips on that after picture. They missed a step. I stand corrected, they did fill them out.
What the actual fuckity fuck...
"Moms, are your babies not uncanny enough?"
This isn't even remotely real.
The ad itself is real. I saw it on Reddit a couple days ago and had... pretty much the same reaction as this thread lol
I feel like there’s some sort of conspiracy about this because I saw the ad too and firstly who puts an ad like that out there?? And secondly they left the comments on. But why??
I really fucking hope not, but honestly nothing would surprise me. My nephew's ex puts filters on her kid pictures.
The pictures are clearly AI..
It's real. You can literally visit the website in the ad.
Those arent the same babies anymore
Neither is even a real baby, before and after both AI
There’s three ai babies. In the second photo it’s actually two ai babies next to each other with a “swipe” effect in between them. See how the one in the left has a bow and the one on the right’s arm is on the left side
I’d love to have some False memories to frame for my wall.
Our newborn photographer photoshopped off my baby’s forehead birthmark (“angel kiss”) and had the canvas printed before we approved the change. I don’t even have it hanging because it makes me sad to look at - it’s not an accurate picture of him.
Photographer thinks they are god lol
"Do you wish your baby wasn't your baby? Try this!"
If you really disappoint your parents they might start using AI to put the neighbor kids face over yours in family photos.
Next they will suggest Baby Botox. 🫠
Well, you gotta start early. Otherwise, you know, it's not as effective. Or so I've been told...
Baby buccal fat removal
Because chubby cheeks are so not in fashion 🤣🤣🤣
Is your baby a total uggo? Boy do we have an app for you
“Natural retouching” 🤣
Different skin tone, different facial expression or features, different posture, different accessories. Yup, all natural!
Why even bother with the pictures? Just ask some AI to generate baby photos for you.
These pictures clearly are AI
Well, Photoshop has been used by professionals to touch up the colors and such, but this is too much 😅 There is no "life" left in that picture!
This is more likely AI
They look like dolls
For when the baby you got as a fashion accessory needs to look its InstaBest
Gotta plant the seeds for low self-esteem as soon as possible...
/s
Why have your child look like a normal human baby when instead it can look like Recumbent Bike from Twilight?
They offer it in school pictures too and I would never retouch my baby it just feels wrong
Retouching little kids’ photos or changing features entirely? That’s wrong.
Editing out a giant pimple that just turned up on the morning of picture day? Totally fine and I wish we had that when I was in school…
We will raise a generation of intolerable narcissists. Although really, we're already there, aren't we?
We failed as a society we are fucking pathetic
Both before and after look AI generated
And after the pics, why not go for mommy and me botox , because... Instagram, I guess?
Even worse.. neither of those pictures are photoshopped.
Those were both made with AI 🙃
Oh no we wouldnt want our (AI) baby to have chubby cheeks and double chins now, would we? Reminds me of how pagent moms photoshop the hell out of their daughters headshots. 😒
Nice, now we are creating beauty standarts for the babies. People are already detached from reality and forgetting how real human bodies and faces look, because filters become more and more realistic day by day. So why not start as early as possible. Because pre-teens asking how to get rid of normal things like peach fuzz, freakles and creases on neck, eyelids and fingers is not enough.
The pictures with my baby making a weird face are my favourites.
The examples they show make the baby look like a doll more than an actual baby.
The obsession with absolutely soft and flawless face some photographers have is absolutely appalling. I had a photographer turn me into a fucking Ken doll on my HS grad photos because I had acne scars...
We have a niece who filters and shops every single one of her kids pictures. Day at the lake? Filter. High chair messy face pictures? Shopped. Playing at the park? Filter. Smoother skin, bigger eyes, tan.
I truly do not think I know what her children actually look like.
We don't live close and we've actively asked if we can have un-photoshopped pictures of the kids, but there's none to be had unless we ask other family who just happened to catch them in a photo of other kids.
The worst part, truly, is this is just another AI slop scam.
Like sure, photo touch up, removing a few errant hairs or blemishes whatever, but this wild.
All I can think about is little Radiator
Can I get a “fuck no”?
I can understand wanting to do some basic editing for lighting, contrast, or making multiple photos cohesive, but this type of editing can fuck right off. Babies are precious and I’d keep photos of mine the way they are so I can remember my child/children.
everything is a lie these days
What an abomination. Not even the most human of things are sacred anymore.
Both sides are fully AI-generated.
Why are people out here giving newborns digital nose jobs? Let babies be babies
They don't even look like the same baby in the 2nd pic 🫠 Way to start your kid's insecurities young! Imagine when the kid is old enough to look at those photos and then feels bad bc their skin isn't so smooth and clear.
Those are the fakest babies I’ve seen and if I grew up and saw how my mother “fixed” my pictures, I’d be pissed as hell.
As a father of a newborn and a 1 year old, I’m repulsed by the thought
"Does your baby look like an actual human? Pay me money, and I'll run it through AI software that immediately makes them look uncanny and off-putting."
Babies are supposed to be scrunkly little dudes, this is so upsetting
All these damn unpostable infants
Years ago someone in my town had a baby and posted a photo of her kid. Everyone on Facebook was saying how her baby looked like baby grinch and she had to take down the post because of all the hate. I just know if this was around then she would have retouched the photo.
That's not even photoshopping, that is 100% AI editing.
Then in 5-10 years when you you’re nostalgic for your baby’s early years, you go back, and don’t have any pictures of what your baby actually looked like. Just the ones you altered or had generated to post online because the actual pictures weren’t good enough
It’s honestly sad. Babies are beautiful how they are. I couldn’t imagine wanting to edit a photo of my 8 month old because of his baby acne. And I would never put my baby’s picture into an AI system.
Our newborn photographer has an instagram and before we booked with her, she had made content videos, where she said what she would or wouldn’t retouch or edit in photos, and apparently she has had so many requests about editing something about the baby, like one example someone wanted to edit out their babies birthmark or wanted to change the color of their eyes, someone even wanted to change the baby’s hair color???
Want your whole life to be a lie?
Try AI
As a mother, I get so sad when I see the baby experience boiled down to aesthetics. Editing baby photos is drastic for The Look(tm) but the whole “beige mom” thing is just as bad—taking color away from your child for The Look(tm) is so sad.
It's not photoshopped; the photo is smoothed through AI, and it makes it even more disgusting.
That has ai written all over it
This is fucked up
Let's ensure our children end up with body image issues
Wanna buy a picture of your baby, that looks nothing like your baby?
Imagine your parents showing you baby photos and they just go "yeah we photoshopped them because you're not aesthetically pleasing enough"
I got back pictures of my firstborn when we did a newborn shoot in 2016 and they were tweaked slightly. I was not impressed, I emailed to get the unaltered pictures... my husband didn't notice
They are not retouching these. They are running them through chatgpt and ruining them.
I used to do newborn and baby photography and I once had a family ask me to photoshop more hair onto their 8 month old's head for a holiday card photo. I refused. What kind of insecurities must you have if you feel the need to make your baby look like something other than themselves in a photo? Truly crazy.
They don't even look like the same babies.
I spent my entire life hating the big pores on my nose and little whiteheads on my cheeks.
Then my babies (twins) were born at 34 weeks (6 weeks early) with big pores on their noses and little whiteheads on their cheeks and it was like a punch to the gut realizing that THATS JUST WHAT SKIN LOOKS LIKE AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH IT.
I trashed the expensive skincare routine (still use sunscreen!) and learned that day that the “perfect” ideal people are striving for is AI and not real.
"does your unvaccinated baby have freedom freckles?"
"Are you a mom, or parent?"
This is insane.
FWIW, professional photographers have *always* edited photos. They don't make them look so ... AI, but they have always edited out flaws.
And yes, babies can have flaws. The one in the first picture has literal bags under his eyes, and his eyebrows look kind of angry.
Photo editing dates back almost as far as photography. Even Victorians were photo editing their waists to be smaller, and their faces to be clearer.
Turning a photo of a genuine baby into something that looks AI generated to the point people will think your lying about having a baby lol.
There's going to be a therapist shortage by the time these babies are older.
Why would I want my baby to look like every other ai baby
Is this episode of Black Mirror over yet? I want out so bad! I’m done.
That’s just sad and cruel and disgusting. It’s bad enough you do it to regular people cuz oh I’ve got whatever, but BABIES! No that’s just all kinds of wrong.
This reminded me of Rachel’s sister (from Friends). The one that wanted to be a baby stylist 😂
First of all. Why? Secondly, this isn’t a soft retouch. Nothing about this is soft
Make your baby look like AI!
It looks like a doll.
“Are your babies too ugly to be seen in public? I can help!”
That's actually disgusting 🤢
My baby is COOKED. How to make him look like Reborn Doll?
These are all AI 😭
Doesn’t even look like the same kid.
You wanna take this from mild to straight up infuriating? Those side-by-sides don't have a single pixel in common. Even the hems of the clothes are sitting different. That's not Photoshop, it's AI redraws.
It looks like it asked an AI to fix it too, not even did it themselves.
The “original” photos have clearly been tampered with. Either that or those babies have a bigger coke problem than me.
Now excuse me while I sniff a line and photograph some babies.
And the downhill spiral of never excepting ourselves as we are, continues. Sad.
This is what the masses wanted. Reality is tough, so they inject fluid in their faces and use filters on social media as well as lie to each other on the internet. Doesn't seem like any of it really makes anything better. Feel for all those folks.
I’m not surprised at all. Parents are often unrealistic about the attractiveness of their children, so making them even more attractive is an easy bet.
I’d also see this appealing to grandparents.
Yeah because this isn't going to mess up those kids by giving them body dysmorphia or anything 🙄
Your baby has measles?! Not anymore just photoshop it away now they’re perfect 😍
First of all, you can do this yourself on your iPhone
Second, “mom or parent” is crazy
Anyone who pays for that shit doesn't need a child 😂
Lol. I know a girl from high school that facetunes not just herself but her babies, too.
We had photos of our family taken for a Christmas card by a "professional" photographer when my daughter was 2 years old. The lady smoothed out all of our faces and gave my daughter red lipstick. I was furious. It took over a month to get the unedited photos from her.
Vomit-inducingly horrible. ”Would you like us to drain the humanity out of your baby pictures?”
Knowing that child beauty pageants are not only a thing, but a cultural phenomena, is this so surprising?
Don't get me wrong, its vile and obnoxious and this, albeit distasteful, is significantly less gross than the other. But...this is who we are as a society. If this person sells themself well, I expect they will be "successful" in this...unfortunately...
What's the point of photographing your baby if you're happy with a fake version of a baby. Babies already look similar, photo shopping then defeats the purpose. This is crazy. It's beyond mild.
People who do this are disturbed
God forbid babies dare to have wrinkles and not be smiling 24/7. Let's just ask chatGPT to generate babies to advertise my photoshopping business that midjourney helps me with.
"have you got an ugly baby?"
Gotta smooth out them...wrinkles? This is nuts
Can’t have that baby showing its age
I was just thinking, are they trying to age down an infant...?
It feels more like “yo your baby ugly lemme fix it”
It does. Ppl in real life are going to feel so catfished. This obsession is crazy; young women are using plastic in their faces that’s aging them!
Start the oppression soon as they pop out. Don’t give them a second to feel any self esteem /s
Smh I fkn can’t stand that aging has now become such a terrible thing to society and that agenda has been pushed ever since red pill Incel men have made the idiotic stance that passed a certain age you’re useless and it’s always better to be younger. I absolutely hate that aging is looked at as a terrible thing. We should all feel blessed we’re even able to age and that’s how the human body is supposed to work, it’s the circle of life and it’s a beautiful thing. I hate that they’re photoshopping and using AI for minors.
I hate to say it, but that agenda has been pushed long, Long, LONG before we had red pill Incel men. Like, decades, if not centuries longer.
You’re absolutely right! I only brought up the red pill stuff because I’m 24, and I’ve really noticed how much it’s fueled judgment toward women aging—especially over the years I’ve been online and watched that whole mindset become more and more mainstream.
To be fair, I feel like its only "mainstream" in 2) certain circles & 3) ages (esp. online.) The VAST majority of folks think it's BS, and, honestly? There's always been something stupid or immature for younger guys to grow out of. (Other genders have their stuff to grow out of too.)
Genuinely laughing at the idea of them converting one of these photos back into a sonogram.
Maybe that's their intention but it seems to be doing the opposite. Aren't newborns kinda wrinkly and they get less wrinkly as they age? "Smoothing" them out would make them older
Has to be baby girls, because only girls and women have wrinkles. Baby boys, just like adult men, don't have wrinkles, they have character 🙄
It looks like they’ve aged up the first photos as well, the second slide is especially bad.
The first one has that uncanny look like Renesmee from the Twilight saga
https://preview.redd.it/wjsj6y319wbf1.png?width=1400&format=png&auto=webp&s=895de3ff41d2c050beb5df5669d3616efcb92e33
It’s soooo bad!
It looks like one of those optical illusions where a face is carved into a wall so it always appears to be looking at you but you’re right on the border of where the illusion starts to break
Can't have that 7 month looking like he is 8 months now can we?
Not to mention emotion. That first picture changed from a real baby to a cookie cutter magazine photo. Like the first one was a baby who is concerned about something and the picture was taken with intent
Yeah, that's just messed up - thinking it's ok to put in fake smiles and to change the emotions in baby pictured is crazy. Might as well just ask AI to generate your baby's pictures for you instead.
These are AI generated.
Baby Botox
In the show Upload, which is set in near-future, 2 of the characters at one point connect over talking about their favorite reality TV show: "Botox Babies." One of the lines was like "Baby So-and-So had like 6 juice boxes! She's out of control!"
Babies looking like tiny angry old men is half the reason they’re cute.
And got to define that neck and get rid of the chin roll. We only want artistic, unlined chub on our AI-cherub freakshow babies.