Happy Friday everyone. Before I get into my commentary section, I wanted to take a moment to congratulate Tina LeMay for winning this weeks Layers TV contest as well as J Allbaugh for winning this weeks Layers Blog Contest. Way to go!!
I haven’t Changed Much, Really.
If you were to run into me in person (and depending on how tired I am), I may have a propensity to tilt my head to the right. You see, when I was a kid I had Chicken Pox. As much as I was told by my mom not to play with anything (and I really don’t think I did), I was left with a small Pox scar on my face.. like a crater. It’s one of those things that I almost always point out in the middle of a funny story or playing around with kids – so I dont have any deep seated resentment or psychosis about it.
However, if you met me, you probably would say hi, chat, and leave without even knowing it was there. I’ll tell you what IMMEDIATELY picks it up – Photoshop. There’s nothing more “WHOA THERE IT IS” like a 100% zoom of a 12 Megapixel image in Photoshop. My Wacom pen in hand, it almost instantly moves while I desperately fumble to hit the letter J (Hmm.. why J). I am addicted to retouching that spot. That spot is and isn’t who I am. Depending on the day I either want to flaunt it proudly as a sign of foolish youth, or hide it in my desperate reach to look like Antonio Banderas. I am a Retoucher.
This is a debate that has gone on for a while out on the media – who retouches what, and how much – so I don’t expect to win over hearts and minds any time soon. I figured i’d add my position on the retouching landscape.
I Think We Need More Retouching, not Less
I think that it is very naive of us to believe that the general populous out there does not know of the existence of Photoshop. Much in the same way you can hand off your computer to your grandkid/neice/son/daughter and they can show you 100 things that they can do that you never thought of. Here’s a good example: Go to myspace, and see how many kids pictures you’ll see with a black blob or blur in an area where someone should have been standing next to them. Image manipulation is also in their repertoire. It just may not be as refined as someone who does it for a living. Photoshop has gotten to a point that it’s in the pop culture – often with people “Photoshopping” this or “Photoshopped” that or mentioning how something has been “Photoshopped”.
Rather than take up the entire site page here, i’ll break it up with a jump. If you want to hear more about this from me, feel free to go and click on the jump for more! Have a wonderful weekend everyone. We’ll see you guys back here on Monday!
so.. where was I… ah, yes..
Go to Itunes – check out “No Photoshop” by Monteloco – yes friends, Photoshop has made it into Hip Hop lyrics (Run DMC somewhere is yelling at a computer screen). So rather than deny the fact that this is something that is happening, how about we actually have more of it out there in the open so that as a populous we all generally understand that this is a commonly accepted practice – an artistic interpretation that’s seen for what it is, and nothing more. When a kid says “Hey, nice retouching work” when they see that next perfume ad, then we know we’ve arrived.
We Need the Best To Teach The Rest
I’d venture to say that whenever you stumble onto a picture of a person who’s size 22 waist begins just under the rib cage there’s one of 2 things that have happened here. Either the Retoucher/Art Director is still trying to hold on to the era of Heroin Chic (unfortunately a lot of that is still out there), or you have a retoucher that’s just really bad at retouching and the client just didn’t know better. When talking about the process of retouching, few talk about anatomy and physiology. Few talk about why posing an arm in a certain way can make it look fat. Few talk about how posing can help you look like either fat or nonfat depending on the angle. There are many out there that see retouching as a combination of Liquify, Gaussian Blur, Clone Stamp, repeat and don’t take into consideration the bigger picture hee. The entire retouching process may just be that, but just because you’re doing those steps does it mean that you’ve become the next Pascal Dangin. It’s about knowing much more than the tools, and I think that it’s important that the pioneers in our industry continue to produce good students (Prob one of the people that I have a great respect for in this space is Katrin Eismann over at The School of Visual Arts in NY. Her books are absolute must haves. Check them out here). Those students will then take the lunch of the really bad retouchers, and bring some cool stuff to the surface. Those bad retouchers? Well.. they’ll just go back to school. (And i say this knowing that the lot of you could learn so much from the classes we have on Kelby Training. Don’t let the bad retoucher be you in this story.. go register)
Retouching Just Enough
I was sitting at lunch with Scott Kelby yesterday, talking about a shoot we did not too long ago. He asked me something that I wasn’t really ready to answer.. and that answer gave a lot about where to draw the line.
Scott had asked if I had seen the amount of (mole/blemish/spot/mark.. its not important) on the subject that we shot. I immediately said “No! Really? I didn’t see that this person had any of those things at all.” Scott replied “Exactly.. they were there.. but you didnt notice them. In Photoshop it all pops out. Now, you should retouch the image to look the way it did when you saw that person.” There a lot of things that the human eye forgives when see a person in front of us. NAPP Executive Director Larry Becker has got a cool post on this on his new blog – Phaim- talking about the camera as an unforgiving instrument. Truth be told, I think that’s part of the problem. In the end, its part camera, part eye, part psychology. The epitomy of the “Nice Personality” syndrome. A person’s personality animates their physical appearance.. and as that happens, your mind spends its time dropping the distracting elements in the priority scale. When you go back to the image, you don’t have that conversation immediately handy.. but you should remember it. Retouch to -that- and you’ll come back with a realistic representation of where you can draw the line.
Then what about the people who hate to take a picture because of a bad XXXX or a malformed YYYY or a too dark ZZZZ. There are so many people that I run into that feel completely comfortable in who they are, at a great point in their life, but would just love to see a picture of themselves that makes them look a little better than what they are. Erase some time lines here.. push back some skin that only surgery would remove there.. The result is someting that still -very much- looks like them, but gives them a sensible tribute – so to speak. They don’t look different.. they just dont have to focus on the thing they don’t like when they stare at the picture anymore. Those are the retouches that I love the most.
Battle Royale: Photoshop vs. The Corset vs. Mabelinne vs. Sit Ups
I saw something that I thought was pretty interesting not too long ago. On YouTube there’s a video talking about the Photoshop Controversy and how Sarah Dussault deom diet.com goes ‘behind the lines’ to get a Photo Shoot and retouch. Sarah’s standing at the shoot looking at the camera confessing both her excitement and concern for the results of the shoot. “.. I also dont know if I want to see what I could/would look like 15 pounds lighter. Does it actually serve as what I could be or is it still unrealistic. I don’t know.”
I know! Shes standing there in a bathing suit with a pretty flat stomach and very defined arms- the result of what looks like a great deal of working out for the website (congrats to her). The Retoucher goes in to fix sunspots under the eyes to which she replies “I look so much prettier in Photoshop” This could have also been taken care of with the presence of a MUA (Make Up Artist) at the shoot. Does that mean that we should ban makeup too? The retouch maybe takes about 10 pounds off based on some liquifying (which I couldnt help but notice when he resized her waist with too big of a brush and started making the forearm big.. I mean, come on.. Freeze/Thaw in Liquify.. its RIGHT THERE on the left!) but the results werent so far from they started with. Fact is Sarah was a very pretty, very fit girl to start. The Retoucher removed and moved.. but the movements were not drastic enough to take 60 pounds of of her. So, does -this- example serve as a measure of unrealistic beauty? When the changes are so minimal in that video, we’d have to assume that she was ‘unrealistic’ when she started which totally wouldn’t make sense.
It’s More Than Photoshop – It’s Less than Photoshop
Before the lynch mob appears at my door, I COMPLETELY agree that negative body image is something that totally affects us men and women. However, I believe that there are other forces that are here at play, and as a society we have just as much of a responsibility of chasing them too. Photoshop isn’t responsible for the amount of bullying that’s done in schools. Photoshop isn’t discussed when cliques are formed in the lunchroom. Photoshop isn’t the topic of conversation when a family finally gets together to have a meal and talk about their problems. Photoshop is not talked about when kids fire up the Xbox Live connection for a 6 hour marathon game session, instead of going out and playing baseball. And Photoshop is the last thing that is talked about when you drop the kids off at the mall with a fistfull of 5′s while you do everything -but- spend that time with them.
I like to think that the populous out there is smarter than we think them to be. I believe that they are smart enough to know when something has been airbrushed. They are smart enough to know that we live in a world that has airbrushing makeup, butt shaping jeans, corsets (They are still here.. over 200 years old and we’re still slimming down the waistline.. do they contribute to the problem?), and hair dye. They are smart enough to love Beyonce, fall in love with the Kardashians, Keep Oprah at the top of the heap, and fall in love with an ‘ugly’ girl named Betty. They are also protected by people like Andy Roddick, Kate Winslet, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba, and Peter Lindbergh- photographer for the Stars Sans Fards for the French Elle magazine.. taking pictures of stars without any makeup. I think that the more we bring the conversation out into the open, the more we’ll get to the root of it, or create a systems of checks and balances where bad retouching will be kept at bay.
Hey.. The Dove “Real Women” shoots were retouched… and they dont look like the picture perfect stereotype that we’re rallying against.. it can happen… we just need to keep talking about it!
Links for you guys to check out are listed below. Let me know what you guys think on Twitter or on the contact page. I am always known to change my mind, or to want to talk things through for a better perspective, and i’d be happy to!
Links to Check Out
Time – The Business of Imagemaking
Who Is Pascal Dangin
Smile and Say ‘No Photoshop’ – New York Times
Andy Roddick and the Photoshop Arms
Stars Without Fards – The French Elle Magazine (Commentary)
People – Stars Without Makeup
[...] June 12, 2009 I found this video via a well-written and detailed article by R.C. Concepcion of LAYERS Magazine. [...]
Yeah, you guys seem to have the same subject goin’ on at the same time.. I guess that is what the buzz is around your office these days.. Maybe you should combine blogs..
Too much or too little photoshopping
- Scott Kelby says..
- R.C. says…
- Larry Becker says..
yada yada yada…
RC:
Have you EVER seen the before and after shots on Playboy Playmates?
In 2005, I was a University graduate with my dream job in an advertising agency. I was also a part-time fashion model. Then, just months before my 25th birthday, I died, twice.
A severe Streptococcus-A bacteria caused a brain hemorrhage and a series of other life threatening complications. I went into a coma and was put on life support for two months. My family knew it was bad when the head of the largest Intensive Care Unit in the southern hemisphere said I was “By far the sickest person there”. Shortly after, my parents were told they may have to turn off my life support.
Today, at age 28 (photographed above), I’ve undergone over a dozen operations, including heart surgery, a total hip replacement and the amputation of nine fingertips, all my toes and one leg. Yet despite all the ‘missing pieces’, life now feels more complete than ever before.
So why am I telling you this? Well, it’s certainly not for sympathy or pity. I’m hoping that sharing my story and the lessons I’ve learnt might encourage you to find more perspective in your own life. I simply ask that you have gratitude for what you do have and what you can do. Rather than worrying about what you don’t have or can’t do.
I frequently hear women whine about the size or shape of their legs. I think to myself, “you have two legs and you’re walking so what are you complaining about?”
Last year I was asked to speak at a dinner about overcoming challenges and why, after everything that’s happened, I still feel like the luckiest girl in the world. However, I never made it inside the venue and woke up in an ambulance. A seizure diagnosed epilepsy. But weeks later I returned and gave the same speech. Nothing had changed and after yet another stint in hospital, I still felt like the luckiest girl in the world.
The brain hemorrhage also caused irreversible damage to my sight – I’m 25% blind. But the fact that I can see at all makes me extremely grateful. Even if, when I look down, I see scars and ‘missing bits’, I’m so happy that I can see at all! If crows feet or dark circles were the biggest ‘problem’ with my eyes, I’d be very happy.
I frequently hear and see women validating their self-worth by the reflection in the mirror or the dress size in their wardrobe. Even more disturbing is the young age of our image obsessed culture. Recent studies reported that the incidence of Primary school children being diagnosed with eating disorders was increasing at an alarming rate.
The media’s flooded with statistics about poor body image. However, turn the page or change the channel and you’ll see images that only perpetuate the problem for the estimated 90% of women who are unhappy with their body.
‘Blame’ can be laid in many areas but in my experience, education is the best prevention. There is also a large onus on us to be responsible consumers. That’s why I’m currently using my professional background and personal experiences to promote a healthy body image and a positive role model for others, especially for young women. Because, nothing will change unless we do.
Combining a decade of professional experience in the media industry; two university degrees specializing in advertising and media; my work as a model plus my more recent medical challenges, I’ve certainly learnt a thing or two about body image – from both sides of the camera lens.
Ironically, I had my last modeling photo shoot just days before I went into a coma. The glamorous photos are a stark contrast to photos taken shortly after in hospital.
It’s incredibly gratifying and rewarding to be thanked and congratulated for presenting a stronger role model for women than many of the ones we usually see in the media.
My first-hand experiences and unique background give me an added credibility that I find really resonates with my audience. Through my work, I educate others about the realities of the unrealistic messages we are exposed to on a daily basis. Importantly, I remind my audience not to wait for something negative to happen in their life before they choose to develop a positive body image.
I’m on a one-woman mission to create a generation of media savvy youth whose body image and feelings of self-worth are not at the mercy of Advertisers, for example.
Last year I launched my website: http://www.LisaCoxPresents.com and hope to reach a wider audience base with my story. I have spoken at corporate dinners, Business Seminars and Health Clubs about pursuing goals and overcoming challenges. However, my real passion is speaking with young people about the smoke and mirrors in popular culture and the detrimental effects this has on body image.
There’s an undeniable need for stronger, healthier and more positive role models for young people in the media. So in the famous words of the great Gandhi “Be the change you want to see in the world”.
To contact Lisa Cox email lisacox@mail.org or visit http://www.LisaCoxPresents.com
Preface – I got a little wordy RC. More ‘additions’ then comments – though my comment would be that more needs to be talked about (learned) when doing retouching. Great blog. If I over-stepped in my response, please delete. (smile)
I haven’t read the other blogs yet, so maybe this is addressed there.
I worked for the State of Cal in a department with people who were always ‘speakers’ at meetings or in the media and each year a brochure was done showing their pictures with a write-up about them. While the photographer did a great job – no one was happy with their picture – pointing out all the ‘flaws’ they saw. One gal came to me and asked if I could fix her double chin. I did, and sent the pic back to the photo dept. The next day everyone else put in their requests. (smile) Each picture still looked like the person – with the majority being small touch-ups – with a few double chins removed, or slimming of shoulders. Was it worth it? Yes. Where they once moaned about mailing brochures they were now excited to. It made them feel more confident when they went before the cameras, or spoke at conferences. They got compliments on the photos – which made them feel good – and no one made mention that they looked any differently in them. They ‘saw’ themselves as those pictures. They would see casual pictures taken at conferences and ‘joke’ about getting me to retouch them – but they never asked me to. It didn’t matter anymore. The brochure pictures reflected to them ‘who they are’ and they had the confidence to be ‘who they were’ without worrying about how others saw them.
The other big thing that year was one individual who weighed 300lbs asked if there was any way to adjust a picture to show him what he would look like if he was in shape. He had never been thin. Yes, there was a lot more work involved but after seeing the ‘retouched’ picture he started biking to work, running, eating right, etc. In a year he lost 100lbs and today (10+ years later) he is still in shape, healthy, and active. He said he could never vision himself being thin because he didn’t know what ‘in shape’ looked like – and everyone in his family was overweight. He said the picture was like an acknowledgment – telling him that he wasn’t born to sit on the sidelines, but to live life.
Retouching – and the amount – all depends on what the photo will be used for. Scott is right about how there are facial ‘flaws’ that are passed over. The skill is looking at a photo and removing the things that no one would ever notice. But, there’s also knowing that maybe the scar across their forehead needs to remain – because to the ‘model’ it might be ‘a badge of courage’ that they do want others to see.
The retouching moto can be ‘do no harm.’ It requires the photographer to get to know their subject. It’s very easy to ask questions during a photoshoot – “We do have the option of making small touch-ups to the final photos. While I like my freckles (scar/mole) some people don’t like theirs and ask me to remove them from their pictures.” Always choose something that you do not notice on them. They will then openly tell you if there is something they would like ‘retouched’ or they will comment that they like freckles (scars/moles) and can’t understand why people want them retouched.
Is Joe McNally a cheater because he uses 3.6 metric tons worth of speedlights instead of sticking to natural light only? What about using JPEG since an algorithm is run on the raw pixels to convert them to something that is not real? Heck, what about using Camera RAW to manage the raw pixels? All cheating? Just like with Photoshop my answer is no. They are all tools that we can use to do all sorts of things.
On the topic of retouching itself… it is a touchy topic because of that whole negative self image thing. But you are absolutely correct when you say that the problem is not simply because society uses Photoshop on every image to massively manipulate the pixels to tell society what is pretty and what isn’t. It is massively widespread across many different areas and it isn’t going to be fixed. Look back in history and you will see that every culture had what they believed to be beautiful as found in the art and stories of these cultures. This is not a problem that arose when Photoshop was released… it was a problem the day humans came into existence either by *poof* or by a shaved ape realizing it could think.
So why all the fuss about it now? Because that is what the human race does now. We don’t pull together to solve problems. We complain and whine about anything we can possibly think of even if we are guilty of doing that same exact thing. I don’t know how many parents I know that started putting make up on their daughters at a very young age and told them it “makes them pretty”. Not only that, but I bet a huge percentage of them would mock any star or model that appeared on the cover of a magazine with pimples or other skin flaws even though they are the ones complaining that society is giving their kids the wrong message.
Its a mess. Its just like talking about our insurance system, medical system, educational system, political system, etc. Its flawed and it will always be flawed because we are human and we are far from perfect. Until we become perfect, I am going to continue using the tools at my disposal to sell more prints.
I think it depends on the result. I started photography back in the film days in the early 70′s and I would say I nailed one landscape image out of a hundred as a teen photog. Sports I nailed about 3 per roll of film. When I got my first digital in 2004 I was able to nail about 2 landscapes per session. I shot the Abququerque Ballon Festival right after getting that camera and sold several images per day. I had never heard of Photoshop or knew how to use it. I just shot and cropped and then printed on my Epson R300. After several months I heard of Photoshop and bought CS. I never could use it. Finally I started doing event photography and needed more than what I could shoot out of my images I shot for a year or so then started looking for something that would teach me how to use PS. I finally bought several of Scott Kelby’s books found Photoshop TV online and then spent several months watching training video from KelbyTraing.com and now I understand how to use PS but I am no where near anything but a novice. I have SK’s 7 Point system book and plan on finishing it after his LR2 book then after that is his CS4 book. By then CS5 will be out.
I think if it is a portrait then you do what the client wants and that goes for any sale. But I think that the rags should add a caveat that these images are heavily retouched or slightly modified depending on what has been done. Newspapers should only allow the type of stuff that can be done in the LR2 Develop Module to be done and then limit it to the top portion of the module without using the brush thingy. Same for News shots. perty soon the videos we see will be PSed on the news before we are shown them if we do not put some universal guidelines in place.
Thats nothing, check out this video I found a few years back when I took my first photoshop class. This is just outrageous but it was taken to prove a point
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnEvudXqP-w
I hate having my picture made. I’m much more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it. I wanted a new “spring time” profile picture today (that wasn’t taken in cold weather with me in a leather jacket), so my 12-year-old daughter took some shots for me.
I have deep-set eyes and a big nose. Unless I’m staring right into the light, my eye area is going to be dark; conversely, my nose is going to pick up the highlights, which makes it look even bigger.
I took one of the photos my daughter shot today and brushed lightened exposure around my eyes and darkened the exposure on my nose. I lightened the whites of my eyes since they were shadowed (like I said, they’re very deep-set).
Do I feel bad, sneaky, or deceptive about the changes? Not one bit. Maybe one reason I never liked having my picture made is that I always disliked the end result (and yes, I have one of those chicken pox scars, too).
[...] Retouching with the World’s 21st Century Corset [...]
Remove the people as the subject of retouching and what are we left with…likely a white or black background…okay, too literal.
I do more landscape photography than portrait, yet no one seems to have a problem if I increase the color saturation of a sunset photo just to increase the impact of the picture, or take a color photo and make it Black and White, or add Sepia or Blur or any number of other things. But put a person in the photo and trim their waist or smooth out their skin then be prepared for the angry mob…
I think as photographers, we are more focused (pun intended) on dissecting published images than the general public, but I think also that we do that to better our own work. If we see an obvious Photoshop giveaway, then we become more aware of it when working on our own photos.
Admittedly, I’ve got mixed feelings about retouching, as Scott Kelby said, retouch to recreate what you saw (okay I paraphrased) but it makes sense….if it didn’t stand out to you in person, then why must it stand out to you in a finished photo?
Do your retouching in a moderate way…don’t try to make a new person.
Thank you RC for this very interesting article! No, you haven’t changed too much! How old were you on that pic? haha!
I’m French, so excuse the mistakes in English!
I’m not a photographer I used to be a fashion designer and had to make choices in the work to be done on the catalog pictures with my partner and our graphic artist.
We used retouching to take off a few scars, a crooked toe, even to take a face from a different photo to put it on the body and outfit we NEEDED. Why? To sell our clothes, obviously.
The graphic artist was named at the end of the catalog as any member of the shoot crew but we never explained how heavily the photos were retouched, the same way we didn’t explained that the make up artist had to hide a pimple on the model’s face or that we had to put a pin on the back of a dress because it didn’t exactly fit the model!
As professionals who deal with all the tools available to manipulate what we see (as well as what we hear in other types of media) we are undoubtedly more aware than the very target of those manipulated images out there. And this is of course why we have to set the limits of those very manipulations.
However, to me, PSing a photo is part of the creative process as much as picking the model or the landscape, the lighting and every aspect of the pre- and post-prod. Whether you see it as a simple tool to use or as a proper part of the result you seek (for self or client), I doubt any professional can consider it a way to dupe the audience.
Not that I want to be naive and think that professionals are not aware of the illusion people don’t see (it is still part of why those pictures sell), but the photographer/retoucher is still a creative, therefore an artist, and their responsibility can only be limited to the point/opinion/purpose they express in their creation: the interpretation is the responsibility of the one who looks at the image!
I completely agree with you RC and Terry on these two necessary things: education and vulgarisation (I don’t know if the term is right in English. In French it means “making something more common and accessible to the greater number of people”)! The more Photoshoppers and aware peers out there, the better the process of Photoshopping will be understood!
And the more tricks will be unveiled to the public! BONUS!!!
I tried to limit what I wanted to say as much as I could but it’s not always easy to be condensed when you express your opinion!
Again, RC, thank you for this great article and many thanks to everyone who gave their input! It’s a passionnating subject!
Thank you for this article and thank you to the commenters providing more food for thought!
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hi my question is i have cut scars on my body and one of my arm has tattoo on those scars pretty much hiding . but other arms still showing but if you look closer. someone told me ” do i interested to modelling for their web site catalog ?” so i said yes but i dont know they said my tatoo can be great for them . same time i really anxious about my cut scars. do you think can photo shop can fix it or can photographer can figure it out ? thank you so much
Hello. This is kind of an “unconventional” question , but have other visitors asked you how get the menu bar to look like you’ve got it? I also have a blog and am really looking to alter around the theme, however am scared to death to mess with it for fear of the search engines punishing me. I am very new to all of this …so i am just not positive exactly how to try to to it all yet. I’ll just keep working on it one day at a time