7.7.12

PHOTOSHOP MANIPULATION

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Billboards, magazines, catalogues... don't trust 'em! We all know that Photoshop is a powerful tool; a tool that can be used for good or for evil. But where is the balance? I don't trust that any printed image I see these days is the 'original'. I use Photoshop daily, and it really is amazing how much an image can be transformed. Just for kicks, I got Ben to take my photo. I then spent about 20 minutes adjusting myself – colourings, face shape, eyebrow plucking, lip plumping, hair smoothing; the works!

And if that's just after 20 minutes, imagine how tweaked magazine covers are, when people are hired to retouch the images for a living? Too much alteration can border on immorality, as Kate Winslet has highlighted (and been subjected to) time and time again. I do love dabbling in Photoshop retouching. There's something really comfortable about working on one image over a long period of time, tweaking here, recolouring there... but not if it is used for evil!



3 comments:

  1. Agree with what you say.I guess the bad thing about it is lots of girls (and probably guys) look at magazine pictures and think that their bodies should look like that, without realising that any hint of a roll, lump or bump would have been "Photoshopped" away. I love your Photoshop pic, still looks like you, only brighter :)

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    1. Exactly righty, Nicola... a very unfortunate truth made even more pronounced in our media-satured culture. Perhaps it is also why there is such a fascination with catching celebs without make-up, or in their trackies at the supermarket. Compared to what we're used to seeing, it's like "oh my gosh, they're human too!".

      Next time I'm thinking of taking a make-up free pic and adding make-up in Photoshop. We'll see how that goes :)

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  2. Haha, true re the make-up free pics of celebrities - bet those issues are always top sellers.

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