Photographs never used to lie . . . these days, they seldom tell the truth. Dawn Collinson reports

EVER wish you’d breathed in and banished your bikini bulge, or spent less time in the beach bar earning that under-eye excess baggage?

Well, apparently you wouldn’t be alone because thousands of Brits are so disillusioned with their holiday snaps that they’ve taken to employing a little camera trickery.

Forget the body con dress, the body con photo is fast becoming a girl’s best friend. And with high street shops now offering air-brushing on prints, it isn’t a celebrity-only domain.

Liverpool fashion photographer Steve Collinson says the chance to see themselves retouched to perfection is obviously a tempting one for most ordinary women – and men.

“But honestly I think it’s just ridiculous that people would have their holiday snaps manipulated,” he says. “Surely those photos are about capturing memories, not about looking like models. They’re trying to convince other people, and maybe themselves, that’s what they actually look like, which just seems a bit sad.

“It’s the same with weddings. I’ve had brides ask me to airbrush them, but not the groom. The bride looks 10 years younger than she really is, and the groom ends up looking old enough to be her dad!”

Steve says the fascination with airbrushing has increased as more and more images in magazines and advertising campaigns are doctored.

Flick through a glossy and it would be hard to find a photo which hadn’t had some kind of work done, however subtle.

“You don’t see people looking natural in magazines any more, and that’s changed people’s expectations of how they want to look themselves,” says Steve.

“I was asked by a man recently to do a portfolio for him. He felt he looked like a particular famous person and wanted me to capture him in that way. I did everything photographically possible but, when he saw the pictures, he wasn’t happy.