The 3 Times Using Photoshop for Online Dating Photos Are Acceptable

We've all heard the dating horror stories: two people decide to meet after some witty exchanges they made through a dating site only to be severely disappointed when one person looks nothing like their picture. There's more weight present--around the middle--yet their hair is missing all over. The men don't seem as tall and the women don't appear as fresh as their picture.

Currently, there's a trend to hire professional photographers in order to do away with the commonly used self- portraits taking in the bathroom mirror or the ones where you're extended one of your arms as far out as it can reach while simultaneously posing like America's Next Top Model. Are these professional photos false advertising or are they just the future?

If a make-up artist, stylist and a Photoshop expert are brought in for your photo session, then it should stand to reason you keep them around for your entire dating process. You want to deliver what you promised. Imagine shopping online for your favorite movie that just came out on blue-ray DVD but when you receive your package--it's a completely different movie. That's what the dating game has turned into for some: false advertising. But surely, rules are made to be broken--even when it comes to internet dating photos, right? Yes, and here are the 3 exceptions of when using Photoshop to enhance your internet dating photos are acceptable.

1. When you're covering a cold sore or a pimple. We're all human and it stands to chance that we will inevitably take a great photo while we're out with friends having a good time only to discover that the tiny blemish on your forehead seemed to have grown three times its size by the time the flash popped. If you're removing something that's not normally there--then that's okay. It's the opposite of false advertising if you let the photo be published with it and you're doing yourself a major disservice .

2. If you're removing a person out of the photograph. But I'm talking about completely removing them--not just cropping the photo to the point where there is a hand on your shoulder and still visible is the other person's hair and left ear. In fact, everyone should understand that in an online dating profile, the photos should only be of you--not you and your coworkers, or you and your friends. This is your profile, a place to shine the light on yourself and toot your own horn--take advantage of it. All shots in your profile should showcase you and you alone--no exceptions.

3. Adjusting the brightness/contrast. We've all seen the dark photographs that reign supreme on dating websites. It seems to be tradition, as well as the far away photos where we can't tell if that's you in the photograph or Ryan Seacrest. Adjusting the brightness of a photo is not cheating and no point will be taken away from you. In fact, there should be a business where people submit their photos and have them touched up for contrast and brightness and offer cropping capabilities for those who are Photoshop impaired.

The next time you're on an online dating site and looking through profiles, do yourself a favor and read what the person wrote. Try to make a connection with the person instead of just clicking through photographs and passing up a great guy or gal because you never know, the one you passed up might have just been a victim of bad lighting--but now, you'll never know.