An Ohio couple is publicly accusing a wedding photographer of “fat-shaming” them after discovering that some of their engagement photos had been Photoshopped without their consent to make them look skinnier.



News 5 Cleveland reports that Katie Liepold found wedding photographer Linda Silvestri through Facebook and agreed to pay $600 for an engagement shoot and 2 hours of coverage at their wedding reception in May.

After the engagement photo shoot, while reviewing the photos, Liepold and her fiancé were surprised to find that the photographer had taken it upon herself to alter photos to make the couple look much thinner than they actually are.

“She actually photoshopped one picture of us skinnier,” Liepold tells News 5. “She probably took like 30 pounds off each of us.”

Liepold then contacted Silvestri, who informed her that she could cancel the contract. Silvestri ended up issuing a refund while keeping a $150 deposit for the 2 hours spent on the shoot. She also tells News 5 that she apologized for the unauthorized Photoshopping.

Days later, however, Liepold stumbled across a mean-spirited post written by the photographer on a Facebook page for wedding professionals.

“And people wonder why I have scaled back on my photography business,” Silvestri wrote. “Last week I did an engagement session for a morbidly obese couple […]

“It is extremely difficult to get Pinterest worthy lovey dovey pics when people can’t even get their heads close to each other. First pic she was upset I gave her a chin tuck. Second pic was as close as their heads can get without straining.”

Liepold fired back, telling News 5 that “Bad lighting and blurry pictures isn’t caused by fat.” She claims that many of the photos were blurry or taken at weird angles.

People also denounced Silvestri’s post on Facebook, causing her to pull it down and post a followup statement.

After word of this dispute spread through various news reports, from the New York Daily News to the Daily Mail, people began coming to Liepold’s defense online with a mob mentality, filling online review sites with bad reviews of Silvestri’s services. Silvestri has since deleted her website, Facebook, and YouTube from the Internet.

(via News 5 Cleveland via Fstoppers)

Update on 1/19/18: Here’s a more recent message Silvestri posted on Facebook after news outlets started picking up on Liepold’s story: