Another airbrushed picture. Credit:Ten ‘‘My daughter said to me, ‘What was wrong with me mum? Why did they need to do that?’ It’s just sending the wrong message to the girls. Their self-esteem isn’t the best at that age.’’ The college today said the bizarre and embarrassing mix-up was a result of a break-down in communication, after it failed to check the final proofs of the portraits. However the company that took the photographs, National School Photography, this afternoon said the college had specifically requested for the portraits be photoshopped. National School Photography Peter Gillahan said college daily coordinator Julie Johannes had returned a number of portraits to the Richmond studio after they were taken, and on March 10 sent an email stating: "We have looked at some of the individual ID images and there are some that we would like to have photoshopped (if possible and preferable). The main issue we have with these shots is the bits of wispy hair hanging down/around/sides etc. We would like them to have hair clearly tied back".

Mr Gillahan said the studio re-touched the requested photographs, and was not aware the changes had not been approved by the students. ‘‘We wish to express our sincere regret and to apologise for the distress caused to those students and to their families,’’ Mr Gillahan said. ‘‘It is our longstanding company policy not to do re-touching on individual portraits without instructions from our clients. ‘‘We are disappointed that the college has sought to distance itself from having knowledge of and taking responsibility for the alterations.’’ It wasn’t good work. The students weren’t happy with it and I agree with it. The best way is to just get them re-shot. The enhancing doesn’t work at all.

This morning, principal Karen Jebb said the college had not authorised the company to make the digital alterations, which she thought were ‘‘terrible, absolutely terrible’’. She said the school had identified a number of portraits that appeared ‘‘really messy’’ and suggested they be re-shot. However this afternoon Ms Jebb said National School Photography had flagged to the deputy principal and school organiser that those photographs could be fixed digitally. ‘‘They said ... it wouldn’t be noticeable and it wouldn’t make many changes, and they went ahead with that,’’ Ms Jebb said. However Ms Jebb said the school then failed to re-check the photographs, which were then distributed to students yesterday.

‘‘The problem is we didn’t check the photos before they went back to the students, that final check. We just saw the originals and because it was a few weeks down the track we got them out to the students last night but we didn’t do a final check of those,’’ she said. ‘‘It wasn’t good work. The students weren’t happy with it and I agree with it. The best way is to just get them re-shot. The enhancing doesn’t work at all.’’ Ms Jebb said she had met with the affected VCE students today, and all agreed to have new photos taken. ‘‘The girls are fine and they understand the misunderstanding that’s there. Under no circumstances are we wanting to alter students’ body images or make enhancements or anything like that,’’ she said. Mary said her daughter wore two earrings in each ear, which complied with the school’s dress code, however the earrings had been hidden in the photos.

‘‘They’ve drawn the hair across her ear to actually cover those earrings and they’ve also drawn a ponytail on so that you can sort of see it on the side. It was just horrendous.,’’ Mary said. Another parent, Kelly, said her 15-year-old daughter was shattered that her appearance had been changed. "She came home from school yesterday very upset and she said that her photos had been Photoshopped, and I had a look at them and I was very distressed to see that they had in fact been Photoshopped," Kelly told radio 3AW. "Her hair had been totally changed, and my daughter’s a very sensitive young lady and she’s well aware of the school rules. When I dropped her off to school in the morning she followed the guidelines for photo day and went to a lot of trouble to make herself comply with the school rules and look nice and then she’s had the photos changed." Kelly said she contacted National School Photography and was told by an employee that the school had requested the changes.

Child psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg told 3AW the incident would be a blow to the girls’ self-esteem, adding that two Mission Australia surveys found that body image was the top concern for young people. ‘‘Tell me that this sort of thing is going to help that?,’’ he said. ‘‘This basically causes young people to feel even more insecure.’’ Loading He said a school photography company in Western Australia was offering parents the opportunity to have their children’s portraits re-touched for $15, and people were ‘‘taking it up in their droves’’.

‘‘I think school photos are supposed to capture you as you are. It’s just part of the journey and isn’t this erasing little childhood rites of passage?,’’ he said.