A few weeks ago, some of you saw me slapping DrakeC.‘s head onto Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body, so some misguided seniors could use it as a poster to terrorize his wrestling opponents. 😛 It was pretty convincing for a 10-minute job and my far-less-than-professional Photoshop skills, even before it was blown up to extremely intimidating proportions, and some who saw it wondered for a second if it was, in fact, really DrakeC. himself, even though they suspected he wasn’t really that muscley.
Which brings us to the lesson for today, and a cool link, to boot: Recognize, please, that most of the images you see today are tweaked, adjusted, manipulated, cleaned up, or otherwise distortions of real reality…
If you’ve never seen this in action before, as it applies to fashion and advertising, I ran across this demonstration this morning—one of the better ones I’ve seen. (Click on the pictures at the top to activate the demo, then give it a little while to load.) For some more extreme examples, take a look at this and this from retoucher Greg Apodaca’s digital portfolio.
Anything wrong with that? Not necessarily, I suppose. But it could be argued that constant exposure to such “perfect” images can make us feel worse and worse about our “imperfect” faces, or complexions, or body types. Spend enough time wallowing in glamour magazines, and that zit that shows up overnight and will probably disappear without a trace in a couple of days can really ruin your life. But hey, maybe you’ll buy more creams, lotions, concealers, etc. etc. etc., right? The whole effect can be subtle, but very very persuasive in the long run—and that’s money in the advertiser’s bank.
If you’ve ever had your self-esteem blown to bits by all the perfect images we’re surrounded by, recognize that they’re exactly that—images. The stars and models have an advantage you don’t—armies of artists and technicians paid to be sure they look their best for the moment of time that they’re seen. Poor schlubs like us, well, we just have to do the best we can with all our pimples, wrinkles, and bulges in tact. 😉
For your further browsing pleasure and enlightenment, here’s a collection of related links I’ve filed away over the past couple years (the ones I could find, at least…):
- Greg’s Digital Portfolio
Same as above, here in case you missed it. Be sure to check out the way product shots are glammed up, too. - R!OT Manhattan: Before & After Showreel
Got moving stuff? No problem! Check out how the blemishes disappear from the models at the end! - Digital Ethics
An article from PhotoshopNews.com discussing Photoshop’s impact on image editing, especially news photography, in this case. - Extremely Perfect
A 2003 article from CBSNews.com - What’s Wrong With This Picture?
Another older article from The Age, about retouching in the fashion industry. - This world’s not reality…
A Copy of a New York Times profile of Pascal Dangin, celebrity retoucher. - Worth1000
Their Photoshop contests are amazing to browse through, and a good display of all the things possible with digital photo editing. - Fake or Photo
See if you can tell the difference between real photographics and digitally created (CGI) images in this short quiz.