After any event we host at work the most popular person in our office is Rachel, our Director of Communications.  She's a Photoshop whiz so people flood her with calls making sure that any picture they might be in is properly doctored before appearing on Facebook.  In other words she makes us all pretty, or at least as pretty as possible.  In the case of yours truly it's the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig, but I long ago learned to accept the fact that I'll never be asked to be anything other than a "before" model for some faux-plastic surgery scam so it doesn't really bother me much.  My attitude is that I'd at least like to be the best looking pig possible.

Before the pictures ever get to Rachel they actually have to be shot and thanks to the camera companies' arms race to make their cameras as idiot-proof as possible we're seeing an explosion of Ansel Adams wannabes and thus an ever rising tide of pictures being submitted.  I'd fear for Rachel's sanity (and time) if I wasn't so sure that at some point the camera companies are going to take care of the prettifying of portraits by introducing features that automatically "Photoshop" the pics much like they already automatically adjust for lighting conditions.  Think I'm nuts?  Check out the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FP7 digital camera (found via BookofJoe) with the "Beauty Retouch Mode."  From the NYT article that Joe references:

"The FP7, which costs just over $200, has a tool called 'clear skin' that blurs blemishes and wrinkles. Another, called 'shine removal,' is the digital equivalent of powdering your nose. A third whitens teeth. (There are still a few kinks to work out; an in-house test of that last tool whitened only the lower half of this writer's two front teeth.)"

"Another set of tools retouches makeup: digital foundation and lip color can be added, along with rouge and eye shadow. The effect can be surprisingly subtle (but downright clownish if overdone)."

Automated pig lipsticking…I like it.