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Wedding photographer fat-shamed couple by Photoshopping engagement pics

Katie Liepold
Katie Liepold was surprised and hurt that her wedding photographer felt the need to alter her engagement photos. (Photo: News5 Cleveland)

An Ohio bride-to-be is the latest victim of unwanted Photoshopping, which is turning into an epidemic.

Katie Liepold hired a wedding photographer through Facebook. The $600 package came with a free engagement session, and, unbeknown to her, a judgmental photographer. During the engagement shoot, she, her fiancé, and photographer Linda Silvestri got along well. “We laughed, we talked, we joked, we shared stories,” Liepold told News 5 Cleveland. But Silvestri apparently wasn’t so fond of them. In fact, she wanted to change them.

When Liepold got the photos, she looked at two similar images placed back-to-back, which became like a game of Spot the Difference. That’s because in one of the photos, she and her fiancé are thinner. “She actually Photoshopped one picture of us skinnier,” she told the news channel. “She probably took like 30 pounds off each of us.”

Obviously, Liepold was upset. “That wasn’t asked for, and I just felt like that was really hurtful, and my pictures weren’t good enough to be left alone,” she said. And while Silvestri agreed to cancel the contract, she allegedly continued to berate them behind their backs. Apparently, no one ever taught Silvestri the art of subtlety — in photography and life.

Liepold stumbled across an Ohio wedding professionals Facebook group, where Silvestri apparently dissed the couple. In the post, which has since be removed, she called Liepold and her partner “morbidly obese” and “picky.” “It is extremely difficult to get Pinterest-worthy, lovey-dovey pictures when people can’t even get their heads close to each other,” Silvestri allegedly wrote.

“Bad lighting and blurry pictures isn’t caused by fat,” said Liepold, who is sharing her story to warn other brides-to-be and to get her deposit back. “I didn’t pay her $150 to have her make fun of me on a site,” Liepold said.

Model Tabria Majors knows how Liepold feels. Majors’s likeness was used in an app demonstration of how a person’s body can be edited in a photo using their program. The company, Body Camera — Fitness & Slim Photo Editor Pro, slimmed her down in the ad without her permission.

If you’re going to Photoshop a couple’s photos, unless instructed otherwise, stick to adding some cool Star Wars elements or hilarious face swaps.

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