The photographer told the family she used a smoothing tool to get rid of shadows.
A Missouri family’s portraits could be one of the worst Photoshop fails of all time.
Photos of the Zarings were edited so poorly, the picture-perfect family looks like a group of scary cartoon characters. In the shots, Pam and Dave, sons Connor, 8, and Cade, 12, and Dave’s mom Sharon Pentland, appear with laughably scrubbed faces.
Thankfully, puggles Oshie and Yadi were spared.
But the photos aren’t a joke. They are images produced by a photographer the family hired for $200 and who they believe had several years of experience.
The family posed for the pictures back in May of 2016 and just received these photos earlier this month. They’re the only photos they have of their blended family, said Pam, who married Dave three and a half years ago.
After the photo shoot, photographer Lesa Hall told Pam shadows caused problems with the images and offered a reshoot. The Zaring family “respectfully declined,” and simply asked to see the images. After months of back-and-forth with the photographer, Pam and her husband came to the conclusion they probably wouldn’t receive any images.
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Oh, but they were wrong.
Earlier this month, Pam received a disc with the 12 heavily edited images of seven poses from the shoot and “fell over laughing.” She shared them in a now-viral Facebook post last Friday, saying “you can’t make this stuff up.” On Thursday, Pam said she received another package from the photographer with printed photos and more new heavily edited images.
Pam has since talked to the photographer, who said her professor never taught her how to edit photos. She said she used a smoothing tool, but didn’t specify what editing program she used. The family never received a refund.
Websites associated with IMagery by Lesa Hall could not be found as of Friday. A LinkedIn profile for a Lesa Hall suggests the photography company has been operating for more than five years. USA TODAY was not able to reach Hall for comment.
Pam said posting the photos had “nothing to do with her” and were just for laughs.
“This has been fun for our family,” Pam told USA TODAY. “Before this went viral, we planned on hanging these. We have loved them from the start. We’ve gotten so much laughter out of them.”
Pam also said they’ve received an overwhelming amount of messages from people going through hard times, including breast cancer and the loss of a dog, who said these photos made them laugh — “that’s been the most humbling part.”
The family is planning to have new photos taken by a different photographer this year.
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