Photo retouching service zaps age lines, acne and more

As the summer winds down, you might gaze with regret on those beach photos.

Don't drown your sorrows with a pint of Haagen-Dazs. You're only a couple of mouse clicks away from a new you. Simply upload those photos onto PicWash.com, a online retouching service. Their PicSlim service will reduce your tummy bulge, slim those flabby arms and whittle those thighs, for $15 per photo.

Deceptive? No more so than makeup or hair coloring, says founder Daniel Ciraldo. There can't be anyone left on earth who thinks those glossy magazine photos of Brad and Angelina or Mariah or Tom and Katie haven't been airbrushed. Ciraldo says he's simply making this technology available to the mainstream consumer.

"We're really positioning this as a subtle change. It's not meant to be this drastic 'Swan' makeover," says Ciraldo, referring to the reality show where ugly ducklings lost weight and underwent radical plastic surgery.

Ciraldo, who lives in Miami, launched the site last year after witnessing his three sisters vainly trying to spruce up photos of themselves before uploading them onto Myspace and other social networking sites. Apart from removing the red-eye, there wasn't much more they could do, he says.

"I saw them spending a lot of time trying to retouch their photos using a lot of free software programs. They really weren't doing a good job with them."

Ciraldo began by offering a basic photo retouching service. For $7 per photo, his staff of five designers would remove acne and age spots, smooth out crows feet and age lines, even out skin tone and reduce shininess. He now has 30 designers on staff, he says.

Other applications for the basic Picwash service and the Picwash slim are family photos, including those that clients might want to use as their Christmas card. Other photo retouching services charge about $50, Ciraldo says.

"What we tell our designers: you look at the after photo, and if it looks like it was retouched, you have to do it again."

Susan Dunhoff, owner of the Modern Matchmaker, has mixed feelings about improving on mother nature.

"You want to look your best. of course," she says. "If a client comes and knows they're going to be photographed... you would hope that someone would have their hair done," she says.

"If you're lipstick is smeared, then a little digital correction is justified, she says. But minimizing wrinkles? Not so good.

"I believe in minimal retouching sure, but not anything that's going to change the look of the person. It's just deceptive," she says.

It's also a big waste of the other person's time. Dunhoff's clientele consists mainly of busy, successful professionals who pay to cut to the chase. She's heard from clients using online services who met potential matches who looked nothing like their photos. One man flew to Los Angeles to meet a woman he met online. He later told Dunhoff that the woman was so much older than her photo that he thought he was meeting her mother.

Visitors to the Picwash Web site create an online account and upload photos. They're retouched by staff and returned within 48 hours.

The PicSlim service is not for those who are significantly overweight.

"If it's somebody who's 300 pounds and wants to look like 150, that's not really a service that we offer," Ciraldo says.

But they will.

Coming soon: Slimspiration. For $30, PicWash will retouch a photo showing an overweight person at their ideal weight. The idea, Ciraldo says, is to inspire people to diet and exercise down to that photographic ideal.