Photoshopping and its Perils

[Meg]

I have been thinking a lot about this lately and wanted others feedback. The essence of my question is - is photoshopping going too far? Is it actually taking away more than what it may be aiding?

I know this happens in editorials a lot as well but since ad's are trying to sell us things I think it is much more predominant and blantant there. Each just seems to me with each ad campaign season that rolls around, the photoshopping gets more and more intense for both women and men. Models who are supposed to already be at the height of physical beauty are then distorted even further to be something that is perhaps unachievable (unless you buy such and such's brand of clothing). This has obviously implications on the mental health of people subjecting themselves to it but beyond that does it affect the clothes? Maybe the color a little richer. The lighting a little better. Make sure it drapes the body in a way that it might not in real life so eventually it may in fact be not so similar to what is on the racks? Obviously this is aided by the styling which pins and sticks the clothing so that it will hang in a certain way as well.

I know this is a rather simplistic view and I appreciate the art in a great ad campaign but I can't help but feel gradually alienated by the images that are in front of me. I have no problem with minor photoshopping (hair, undereye circles) but as aforementioned it seems every season to go that extra little mile but it looks so real that telling the difference can be tough. What are others thoughts on this?

 

[Ceptuouse]

I know what you mean, sometimes they just go too far and it looks awful!

 

[ny1]

^Ya, like the model Sasha looks gorgeous in American Vogue, and then on every unretouched runway pic she does not look like a model at all! Not even remotely the same, imo

 

[Ceptuouse]

Dior cosmetics seem to like it...

[Dior]

[Dior]

 

[Blanche DuBois]

God I hate it!
The make up ads are horryfing, the girls look like aliens to me, and by the way it is so easy to find out which one has been photoshoped!
As always I prefer a natural view of everything
when you see the models on the catwalk they are flawless, so why they keep transforming them for the ads?

 

[BerlinRocks]

in cosmetics, i know they use photoshop & airblush because they don't want to show any skinpores. crazy!

 

[Ceptuouse]

For referance, here are the 'Dior' girls, Tanya Dziahileva and Marcelina Sowa backstage, in makeup, but no photoshop...

[style]

I know which I prefer

 

[ultramarine]

Hum .. it doesnt affect me .. to me its the same as watching a cubist painting ... I know its fake

 

[softgrey]

yeah...i think that with cosmetic ads it's sort of expected...
it's not usually about 'natural' beauty when you are trying to sell make up...
it's necessarily about 'enhanced' beauty so i expecct it and actually like it most of the time...

what i don't like is when they do things like change the shape of the person's lips-which happens quite a lot...

i saw one ad with an actress who has a poorly defined upper lip and they completely drew her a new one in the ad...
THAT was going a bit too far..
it was really obvious and unsettling imo...



...

 

[kissmesweet]

I don't especially like it, nor does it really bug me. It just makes things worse. Loads of Dior cosmetics girls end up looking like trannys...

 

[verna_gold]

I've been buying fashion mags for about 10 years now, and over that time the images have been getting more & more photoshopped, so much so that i feel i'm losing interest in the images now. They don't inspire me like they used too, they're so bland and unnatural looking.

 

[Inaya]

I definitely agree that it is being used too much and is so over the top. Everyone is becoming more and more desensitized to natural features and normal "imperfections", so that when someone looks natural, they are automatically assumed to not look "beautiful". The big problem is that it lessens the connection with reality and it tells people that that is what pretty is... plastic, impossible looking skin that can't even exist in real life Because it is completely digitally fabricated! As well as slimming and shaping the faces in unrealistic ways and every other kind of alteration that takes place through digital manipulation. How's that for setting an impossible and discouraging stadard of beauty for people.

 

[Inaya]

Also here is a very short video that I saw a while back on this topic. Look at dramatically this woman is altered in a matter of seconds!


http://youtube.com/watch?v=XUrf0p1coyY

edit - I can't get it to embed so there is the link

 

[papa_levante]

Regulating Retouching?
- Amanda Jean Boyle

Kate Winslet is known for lashing out against magazines that Photoshop her body, and now another British beauty’s retouchings have people feeling uncomfortable.

The images of Twiggy’s smooth face in recent Olay Definity (an anti-aging cream) advertisements have moved members of the Parliament to call for action, which we learned about thanks to our friends over at Jezebel.

The Liberal Democrats in Parliament want to ban Photoshopping completely on advertisements aimed at children (those under sixteen), and place disclaimers stating how much Photoshopping was used on all other ads. The politicians who suggested these changes are hoping that this could boost young adults’—specifically girls’—self-esteem, or more accurately, lessen the negative comparison a young girl could make between her body and the perfectly sleek and slim body of a model in a magazine.

In a recent LA Times article on the subject, Professor Montana Miller cut right to the point: if advertisers make us feel bad about our bodies, we are more likely to buy their product that will allegedly make our bodies or faces look better.

Advertising is about making money, not making us feel better. We can get behind disclaimers, but bans seem to infringe somewhat on the company’s rights. Should it be the government’s job to protect us from feeling bad about ourselves?

Another suggestion the British politicians made is to implement “media literarcy” lessons that would teach kids about the behind-the-scenes hijinks of the magazine world. If people were educated and aware of the visual tricks, they would be less likely to buy an anti-aging cream for which the spokeswomen had her wrinkles removed by something other than the product for sale. Money talks: if sales were driven lower, then maybe a company would reconsider their imaging techniques, instead of simply having it forced on them.

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