Dara Phung is a 17-year-old high school student who has been making rounds on the internet for her instagram account, which is filled with her partying to A-list celebrities.
However, if you look closely, you’ll notice that all she’s done is find a way to cleverly edit herself in her photos.
But she isn’t some expert on photoshop, the San Francisco teenager says anybody with a smartphone and a few photo apps can photo edit themselves next to Hollywood celebs too.
“I started editing photos on my phone and iPad after a friend and I joked about meeting Drake,” she told NextShark. “I made an edit of myself and the rapper as a joke between the two of us, and to my surprise, she thought it was real!”
What started out as a joke turned into a hobby. “Ever since the hilarious reaction to my first edit, I made more and more pictures with different celebrities as a joke between my friends. I decided to make an Instagram account dedicated solely to my editing work because I wanted a place to showcase my pictures to friends and family,” she told NextShark.
She revealed to the Daily Mail that it takes her approximately 10 minutes to edit any one of her photos.
Phung said: “I use my phone for all my editing. I don’t use my computer at all and I actually don’t use Photoshop either. I use a combination of apps like PicsArt, Enlight and Instagram to edit my photos.”
Phung taught herself to retouch and edit photos on her phone when she was 16. She said that she learned purely through trial and error.
It’s hard to blame them because her photo editing skills are pretty fantastic. She started her Instagram account to keep all the pictures in one place online. Each photo typically takes less than 10 minutes, but Phung says some can take up to half an hour. Phung explained to the Daily Mail:
“When I alter an image, I need to take into account the perspective and colors of both myself, the celebrity and the background.”
“I like Photoshopping myself with celebrities who have large fanbases like the Kardashians. Lots of users who come on my page actually believe I’ve met the stars I edit myself with and have a good laugh when they realize it’s digitally altered.”
Her skills are so good that Phung has been receiving requests from people to edit them into celebrity pictures too.
Phung tells NextShark that she’s excited to go to college to be a pre-med and music major. She aspires to became a piano teacher and/or surgeon in the future.
