These days almost every photo editing app on the market has a portrait feature whose purpose, whether or not explicitly stated, is to render such highly idealized depictions of subjects' faces that many times they end up bearing little or no resemblance to their real life counterparts. Indeed, some apps such as Portrait Pro have no other function. The popularity of the ubiquitous "selfie" has only accelerated the process, but the phenomenon itself is nothing new. Long before the invention of photography, portrait painters routinely touched up their work in order to flatter their sitters as far as common sense would allow. After all, those painters of yesteryear wanted to be paid just as badly as do modern day portrait and wedding photographers.
If, however, a photographer, especially one not possessing model looks, wants to express individuality and character in portraying himself, there are any number of alternatives to Photoshopping his images, though at the same time it must be admitted that a calculated use of filters and presets can often be successfully employed to call attention to those aspects of his appearance that he honestly feels best represent his true self no matter how unflattering the result. In the above self-portrait, for example, I achieved the extreme graphic effect that fully emphasizes my age by first applying the Dragan Effect script in Corel Paintshop Pro and then the Dramatic Black & White and Desaturated Grunge looks in Topaz Labs Studio 2. For better or worse, the resulting self portrait shows very well how I see myself at this point in my life.
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