• Facetune, PicsArt, and other apps have become popular among influencers and vloggers who want to edit themselves to look polished and unblemished before their content is published on the internet.
  • However, it's a little different for videos. Beauty vlogger RawBeautyKristi recently shared on Twitter that many YouTubers use face-smoothing filters built into their cameras, like the Sony A5100 and the Canon G7X Mark II.
  • Here's how the skin-smoothing filter on these cameras work, and why these particular models have become so popular among influencers.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

If you've ever wondered how some faces of vloggers and beauty YouTubers look so smooth and blemish-free, there may be a piece of tech to thank rather than simply good genes and expensive skin-care routines.

Tech companies are now selling digital cameras with built-in skin-smoothing filters that seem to particularly cater to the influencer industry, which is set to be valued at $15 billion by 2022. Some YouTubers have started to share online just how easy it is to use these features, revealing how mainstream this type of editing has become without fans and consumers even knowing.

The secrets to Instagram-ready photos have long been revealed and made widely available, thanks to photo-editing apps like Facetune, PicsArt, and VSCO. In the interest of transparency or appeals from fans, influencers are frequently upfront in sharing what photo-editing apps — and even particular filters — they prefer. YouTubers have followed suit, and many will put in their bios and video descriptions the specifics behind their tech, from what kind of camera they use for vlogging to what they use for the perfect lighting setup for makeup tutorials.

However, the details of skin-smoothing and softening features have not been as widely shared and reported. Beauty vlogger RawBeautyKristi recently shared on Twitter how widespread she's seen these filters used in videos on Instagram and YouTube. 

Two camera models with these built-in "skin softening" and "skin smoothing" effects are the Sony A5100 series and the Canon G7X Mark II. Both cameras have pop-out monitors that allow users to see themselves while filming, making these models perfect for vloggers and YouTubers.

While both Sony and Canon say on their websites that these camera models have "face detection" features, neither goes into detail to explain that these work as skin-smoothing filters. The simplest way to discover the existence of these camera features, and how to use them, is ironically on YouTube itself. There are less than a dozen videos that focus solely on the use of these skin-smoothing filters, and none of them surpass 100,000 views.

skin smoothing cameras
Sony; Canon; Paige Leskin/Business Insider

One such YouTuber who demonstrated the difference these skin-smoothing filters make is Julie Camille, a beauty vlogger with 40,000 subscribers. In a video back in 2017, Camille revealed how to turn on the Sony A5100's "soft skin effect," and offered side-by-side stills showing the difference the camera makes.

The difference in video with the skin-smoothing filter, as seen in the top image, reveals how difficult it would be to tell whether someone is using the feature or not in their videos. The result of the filter is perceptible, but hard to notice unless compared side by side with an original non-filtered video.

As YouTuber RawBeautyKristi said in her Twitter thread, vloggers' failure to disclose they're using such skin-smoothing features can help to feed into perceptions about what constitutes acceptable skin and beauty standards.

"I'm comparing [my face] to something that's not really real. I make videos and know these exist and STILL struggle with feeling that I am doing something wrong," RawBeauty Kristi wrote on Twitter. "People have texture, and the internet can be weird and make u feel like something is wrong and its not."