Is this Instagram or Reality?

I love Instagram. I really do. If you follow me on Instagram you’ve likely seen just how much useless nonsense I share on the platform. My stories make zero sense. Anyways, quarantine has given me a lot of extra time to browse. There’s so much of a fake reality on the platform that I just breeze past typically, not giving it a second glance. But hey, now that I’m under quarantine, I’ve got lots of time to look.

Disclaimer: I have no ill will towards any of the people who posted any of these photos. I am merely sharing for the purpose of 1) Good Fun and 2) To remind everyone that a little brightening or lightening can make a photo pop, but please don’t take it too far. A curated life isn’t really a life… just bits and bobs of photoshopped memories that won’t mean as much as the over the years.

I really hope each of these people kept their originals. I bet their originals were so much better.

  1. PILOTS FLY THIS LOW?

Firstly, Paris is offended. One of the most beautiful cities on earth, where virtually EVERYTHING seems to be ‘Instagrammable’ so to speak, and you feel the need to do this?

Secondly, who do you think you’re fooling? Is there anyone on earth who would believe this realistic? Are there people in this world who believe that pilots fly this close to freestanding towers and internationally renowned tourist destinations?

2. JUST A BAREFOOT GAL IN ROME

“Don’t mind me. Felt cute just going on bare-foot frolic next to the Colosseum. How perfect is my life?”

ROME? ROME? You don’t think people are going to be able to tell when you’ve photoshopped yourself into Rome? I see what you did there, being on your toes and all. That’s a clever trick to make it easier to plant yourself on any surface. Next, lets take this exact same photo to… the Vowing Hands of Vietnam.

3. WHEN THE SKY AND THE CITY ARE ONE AND THE SAME

The caption said this was at the Chicago Skydeck. This photoshop is bad. Just baaaaaaad. The stitching around each of their frames is so evident, the sky has been far too saturated to look real, and somehow, they managed to catch a windy enough day… inside, for their gowns to blow.

Just ignore the bottom left and right corners where the city is the same colour as they sky. They did not photoshop the sky and accidentally photoshop small bits of the city too and hope no one would notice.

4. NORTHERN LIGHTS AND A UFO!

As someone who lives in Northern Canada and sees the Northern lights several times a year, I can assure you, this sky is not real. Can you see stars at the same time as you see the Northern Lights? Yes. Do the stars shine through the Northern lights like you can see in this photo? No. Because her stars are fake. Also, is that a UFO in the top left, or did she bring a spotlight with her, or is there absolutely zero light pollution from the moon?

There’s a big beautiful world out there filled with wonder and amazement. If you are one of the lucky ones who gets to see it, or at the very least pieces of it, and you feel like sharing it on Instagram, please don’t take the editing too far.

29 thoughts on “Is this Instagram or Reality?”

  1. Haha! Do they seriously act is if those are real photos?

    It’s hard to believe that none of them would be doing them tongue-in-cheek, or as art.

    In the last one you can see the shadow of her jacket on her leg, too, which fits with the location of the spotlight. And no way you could get both the northern lights and the foreground exposed like that in the same shot! The northern lights aren’t anywhere near that bright for a normal short photograph exposure right?

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    2. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people write things like ‘Amazing Pic Babe!’ and ‘I’d wish to see this in my lifetime!’ I just want them all to realize that it’s actually not the case.

      Can the Northern Lights be that bright with a normal camera? No. Could she have an expensive camera and lens to make them appear as bright as they are in real life? Maybe. But, given the other editing going on in this photo, and the fact that you can see stars through the northern lights… which defies the laws of physics… I’d haphazard a guess to say the entire streak of light is fake.

      Could she have seen the Northern lights? Probably. But, when they didn’t show up on camera the way she wanted she probably decided to fake it for the gram.

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  6. Chicago skydeck… lmao. Okay, so that is definitely photoshopped. As someone from Chicago a day windy enough for their gowns to blow like that is almost every day… however… the skydeck is INSIDE. LOL. The blue underneath them is probably the glass reflecting the sky, but it was definitely over saturated. Without them in the image, it was probably a pretty awesome photo, but they are definitely not there.

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    1. I’m not sure about the glass reflecting into the sky, only because there’s no sunshine in this photo, not on the left, right, or in the back… meaning that the sun is likely ‘in front of them’ so to speak, on the other side of the building. The sun would need to be behind them for a reflection like that. Also, their floofy gowns would have blocked the reflection right beneath them.

      Have you been to the Chicago Skydeck? I googled pictures of it, and it doesn’t look that wide? But you can also, if you look closely, see a faint rectangular box around out them where the colour stops/starts again, leading me to believe they might have copied the sky to extend the width of the photo using something similar to the clone stamp tool in photoshop.

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  7. Wow.

    Disclaimer: some photos on my Instagram (I just followed you now) are badly edited, mostly by crossing stuff out in a similar color to the surroundings, because most of what I write about is real except that the names are changed. Like, for example, my recent water tower picture, the university is not actually called the University of Jeromeville, and the real picture has the real name of the university on the water tower. But other than that kind of thing, I don’t think I have ever edited a photo for Instagram. That’s not my thing.

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    1. I did find you on Instagram after you said this. What I will say is… I have no issues with people altering their reality. If people want to photoshop fake lives, they can go ahead and do so. I just like to keep reminding myself that they are, in fact, fake lives. You know?

      As for your photoshop, I think you’re safe. I too edit out things from a photo that might give note as to my present location. I think that’s just good internet practice!

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    1. OOoooooh yes. I definitely need to check that out. I love looking at photoshop fails and people who fake their lives on the internet. haha

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