If you’re not familiar with it, FaceApp is a photo app that allows you to touch up portraits and selfies, but what it’s often used for by crossdressers is to turn a guy’s face and body into an attractive girl’s face and body, which it does very well. I’m sure the filter is fun to play around with, especially if you get turned on seeing yourself as a hot girl. But obviously FaceApp is not real. It’s a lie. And when someone sends me pictures using the app, I still don’t really know what they look like. My advice: never use FaceApp or similar filters.

There’s one crossdresser whom I followed for years on Twitter and who I suspected was using some kind of filter since she just made the cutest girl with the most lovely face. Sure enough, she eventually admitted that ALL her pics were heavily filtered, and I lost all interest in her. I’ll admit I use a little Photoshop here and there on my website to remove pimples or blemishes, but I avoid altering someone’s appearance. I want the models I shoot with to look how they look.

The popularity of FaceApp has grown so much the last few years that more and more I have to ask some of the people who write me to verify that they’re not using it. Thankfully I can often detect if a picture has been run through a filter, but not always. Sometimes people send me pictures that are simply too good. I look at them and think, “Wow, you should be a famous fetish model looking like that!” So if someone’s pics just look shockingly good, I often have to ask if this is an accurate portrayal of themselves. If someone has not transitioned and is not taking hormones – if they’re presenting as a crossdresser – then they’re certainly going to have masculine traits to their face and body. I certainly do, and no one is ever going to mistake me for a genetic woman when I’m walking through hotel lobbies or otherwise out and about. But if a crossdresser sends me pictures where their face has no flaws and has the appearance of a hot genetic female then I almost certainly know they’re using a filter. Or maybe they’re just one of the most talented crossdressers in the world! I don’t like to complain on this blog, since complaining’s not sexy. But receiving email with FaceApp pics is one thing that drives me a bit crazy, especially if someone is looking for a modeling gig. Obviously, don’t do that.

I know one CD from Fetlife who has written me numerous times and they’ve admitted that they use FaceApp on some of their pictures. I can usually guess which pics are the filtered ones, but because she has never come clean and told me specifically which pics are filtered and which ones aren’t, I can’t invite her to a photoshoot. I still am not quite sure what she really looks like. So in the long run it’s actually self-defeating to use filters. If you show up at a photoshoot and don’t look like your pictures the photographer is going to be annoyed at best. FaceApp might be hot and fun to play around with, but I’ve never used it for myself. I suspect I would just find it depressing knowing that I could never come close to that artificial image.

A related phenomenon that I sometimes run into – and this one doesn’t involve filters – are potential models who have a way of posing so that you still don’t really have any idea what they look like. I’ve received some truly baffling photos, usually of CDs, where they’re turning away from the camera so that you only get a partial glimpse of their face. Or they have their hair brushed down over their face with the kind of pose that looks like they’re basically trying to get away from the camera. I’ve had people send me maybe four or five pictures where I come away thinking, “You know, I saw your pics and I still have no idea what you look like.” So when I get nicely posed pics with someone looking at the camera with a nice smile or a relaxed expression on their face, with well-framed shots showing their whole body in proportion without the dramatic foreshortening that you sometimes get in selfies, it’s just such a treat! It’s like, “Oh, thank you for smiling and showing me what you really look like. Now I can give you an honest reply!” Most who write me with pics like that end up getting a yes since they’ve already shown that they can take a good picture. If you’re hoping to model, obviously never send bad or mediocre pictures of yourself. Send the good ones, as long as they’re real and there’s no FaceApp. That thing is a curse.