Blacked out faces!

[plasphil]

I realise most people don't care but can I have a moan about something that's driving me mad - blacked or blurred out faces. Some pictures have appeared today on Regenfrakker of a lovely couple in black PVC rainsuits totally ruined by 'face painting'. There is a man on Flickr who even blanks out faces of images he has taken from e-bay!

With peoples worries about privacy these days I can understand and respect all the reasons why they do it but can I make an appeal to all would be picture contributors, buy a big pair of dark glasses, a face mask or better still a rubber hood or gasmask.

Is it just me or does anyone else feel the same?.....and don't get me started on 'headless' images!!

Phil

[Hugo]

I guess, ebay images get a face-off in other places to make them different (no apparent stealing, though it still is) and to make them look more private. Simply put: These pictures are duplicates anyway and useless spam. They are as interesting as those gallery pictures taken from online shops. I have seen forums, where galleries are crammed with such images, while originally supposed to have private images from the users.

[merv]

to be fair you were probably lucky to get to see anything on regenfrakker, its been pretty hopeless of late, rarely working, shame that site has gone so far downhill

[pvc_pete]

Ah they are not that bad, you can still see their mouths an they do both look cute and like they are going to have some hot sweaty fun

Pete

[plastic-london]

I can see both sides of the story, Phil.

But, my feeling is that if you don't care about your own image being misused or recognised, how come you haven't supplied any sort of photo for your profile/avatar here on Rainwear Central?

Phil, once you've uploaded a face pic of any description (sunglasses, etc or not) it's out there for all eternity - within hours it'll be on a back-up device somewhere at the site's ISP. Even if you delete your pic from the profile/site, there's no guarantee that the original won't be restored from the back-up device at the ISP should the site crash.

I always work on the basis that I supply a body photo, and if someone doesn't consider it too bad, and they like what I contribute, they'll contact me and in time get a face pic from me.

Like I say, I can see both sides of the issue.

[Rainwearboy]

I agree - if you cut out the face you might as well delete the picture - its useless.

[Hugo]

plastic-london, I have to agree, and I didn't read the initial thread properly. Face masks, hoods and the like provide an additional factor that might distort the original character of the image, and shades are simply not good enough, hairdo, mouth shape and the like can be revealing enough. I really wonder, why in newspapers and on TV - for example, a black bar over the eyes is considered enough to conceal the identity of someone. But perhaps, they don't really mean to hide the identity, but simply follow legislation or internal rules?

I found two filters in photoshop to be quite useful: "clouds" and "canvas". I select an area around the head (face, if under a hood), smoothen the selection, then apply one of these filters. "clouds" requires a good selection of back- and foreground colours, to blend into the background, "canvas style" can't be used on large images. This is not the perfect method, probably, there is no perfect method at all. But at least, I think, this looks better than black areas. "clouds" looks like real clouds, except for the colours, and they aren't see-through; this can be applied on a separate layer in order to preserve the original. "canvas" adds a structure into the image which distorts details heavily, must be applied to the layer directly.

Paul, useless for what?

[rainwear-experience]

If the point of posting images is to see others enjoying their rainwear then surely the face is very important in showing that enjoyment obviously the smile and eyes are very significant in this

If the point of posting images just to show off the rainwear, as in a catalogue, then maybe faces arent so important but in my opinion the images should be headless rather than blacked out

[Elerias]

I think we should be thankful for people posting pictures of themselves or their partner, no matter how obfuscated the image is. Those images are posted freely and there is no obligation for you to watch them. If we were only allowed to post photos were everything is shown I think a lot less material would be available. I have respect for people, like Paul for example, who post everything uncensored, but I like my privacy. Once you post an image on the internet you can't control where it will show up.

[rainwear-experience]

Hi

Of course you are right about everyones right to 'hide' their identity on personal pix, I was thinking more about the people who take images from other sites and think they are 'ok' to share them because they have disguised the image