What The Publishing Industry Does To Photographs Of Women

[JaneyVee]

Before & After






















The rest: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/17-mesmerizing-before-after-photoshop-gifs

[MrSlayer]

1. Yeah. They're trying to sell people.

You try to make them look as attractive as possible. That's the gig.

[Codeine]

2. And each of those subjects was a willing, enthusiastic, and well-compensated participant

in that activity. Shit, I've touched up my own photos with a few moments in the 'shop before putting them online before -- if I could have them professionally worked over for maximum handsomification I'd be all for it!

[pinboy3niner]

19. I can touch up my photos?

Woo-hoo! The online dating services will never know what hit them!

That first date may be a bit problematic, however...

[cliffordu]

20. No shit. I've SEEN your photos. What has been seen cannot be unseen.....

[pinboy3niner]

22. Touché, brother, touché

And back atcha.

Happy Valentine's Day!

[cliffordu]

23. You too, my good friend!!!

[pinboy3niner]

24. Don't dis. When I 'shop in that halo, I'm going to be a big hit...

...on Christian Mingle.

[cliffordu]

25. ...Christian Mingle.....

You ARE going to hell for THAT, ya know....

[pinboy3niner]

30. Well, duh!

I get bonus points from Satan for every one I seduce. You should sign up--just look for Satan's Friends and Families plan.

[cliffordu]

32. GROUP RATES!!!!!

[pinboy3niner]

35. All is forgiven. We'll buddy-up for the discount, okay?

[cliffordu]

36. I'm all good with that!!

PAAARRRRRTAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!

[joshcryer]

33. My mom actually has me touch up her photos.

She's 67 and wants to look good, so, yaknow, why not. It's a fun exercise.

People IRL know she doesn't look like the touch ups, so it's really more digital makeup.

(Note: I don't have the skills to change her size, just get rid of wrinkles and blemishes. So it really is like digital makeup and not comparable to some of the crazy crap going on in some of those edits.)

[pinboy3niner]

38. Hey, if your help makes her happy, go for it. She IS your mom, after all.

With my looks, I can hardly criticize those who want to "enhance" their appearance. Though, as someone who had facial injuries in VN, I must say that my docs did a great job on me. I have no complaints--I'm just happy to be here.

[kestrel91316]

3. Well, that answers the question of why my skin looks so bad.

It's not ME that's the problem. It's the fake images of perfection that we are brainwashed into thinking are real and therefore attainable.

[onehandle]

7. You mean natural, not bad. To smooth the skin until it looks inhuman is the mark...

...of a poor Photoshopper.

Jolie looks like wax there, for instance.

[kestrel91316]

13. I should have put quotes around "bad".

[murielm99]

8. You took the words right out of my mouth.

I don't look so terrible after all!

Anyway, I have always believed that every age has its own beauty. I know women in their seventies who are gorgeous. Can they pass for twenty? No, and why would they want to?

[onehandle]

4. I 'improved' the headshot of an older female executive just the other day.

She loved the results.

I did not sand her down to plastic. Balanced the color. Whitened the teeth and eyeballs a tiny bit. Lightened the bags under her eyes. Reduced wrinkles, but did not eliminate them.

[Beartracks]

26. To some degree, what you engaged in is...

... what I think of not as "fixing" or "improving," but rather making the person appear more the way they do in real life. For example... I've fixed my spouse's photo the way you described, mainly to make her look the way I always see her. For example: "Bags under her eyes? She doesn't have bags under eyes!" (shop! shop!) "I never noticed those worry lines before... Those don't belong there!" (shop! shop! shop!)

Ever look at a photo and think, "so-and-so doesn't look like that in real life"? (Or, more often, "*I* don't look like that in real life!!!!&quot Yep - then that's what I'm talking about.

(OBVIOUSLY this kind of touch-up is not what the magazine photo editors are doing. They're altering way more than cosmetic appearances. And anyway, the cosmetic stuff they do change tends to remove nearly all character. Like you said: plastic.)

================

[onehandle]

43. That's exactly right. Photography is not kind to the human appearance.

Which is why I put improved in quotes.

[Beartracks]

44. We're in complete agreement.

==============

[cilla4progress]

5. Question:

no change to Angelina Jolie photo?

[msongs]

6. same things millions of home photographers do using photoshop. the point is? nt

[Honeycombe8]

10. Waddya mean? No one's ever done that for ME! nt

[kentauros]

9. Here, watch the process:

[Honeycombe8]

11. Is that for real? Wow. Some of them DO look different.

Some...not so different. Just spiffied up and glamorized a bit. Thing is, most of them are beautiful to begin with.

I knew photos were photoshopped, but I've never seen the comparisons like that. Makes me feel better! I obviously look like a model. Just not without the photoshop.

[MadHound]

12. Umm, they do this with men as well,

Erase wrinkles, tuck in hair, push around body parts. Hell, they even enhance guys' chests and abs. Why? Because it is the business of making people look super, fabulously wonderful, all the better to sell people stuff. It isn't sexist, it's capitalist.

[Kablooie]

14. Yep. Like this...

[Beartracks]

31. Plus one right there. +1 n/t

[DearHeart]

15. God forbid you have imperfect skin or a droopy ass!

[MichaelHarris]

16. I'm a photographer

and shoot models all the time. We try to deliver an appealing product, it's not journalism. When I shoot journalism I don't edit, when I shoot models I edit. It's simple really, most people don't want a photo with a big honking nose pimple.

Journalism shots:









Modeling:

[Blue_In_AK]

34. Exactly.

[jmowreader]

17. Most of the pictures you posted were not "outrageous" photoshops

And most of the fixes they made should have been made in the makeup room, not the computer - OMG they got rid of a weird lump of hair on someone's forehead!

Check out http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/06/oprahs-head-ann-margarets-body-a-brief-history-of-pre-photoshop-fakery/258369/# and you'll see that this is nothing new - there's even one of Abraham Lincoln's head pasted onto John Calhoun's body.

[HiPointDem]

40. love the oprah's head, ann-margret's body on the tv guide cover

[progressoid]

18. Nigella Lawson Tells ABC They Can't Airbush Her Tummy For Promo Poster

In a promo poster for upcoming ABC show The Taste ("about tasting and judging food without ever knowing who has cooked it or what ingredients have been used&quot , Nigella Lawson wouldn't let the ad team airbrush out her stomach.

She wrote on her blog:

"Although it was very thrilling to think of being up on a billboard in LA and around the States, I was very strict and English and told them they weren't allowed to airbrush my tummy out.
Wise? Hmmm. But that tum is the truth and is come by honestly, as my granny would have said."

http://www.buzzfeed.com/emofly/nigella-lawson-tells-abc-they-cant-airbush-out-he

[cliffordu]

27. And, in my not so humble opinion,

She is one of the most beautiful women walking the planet.

If she wasn't happily married, I'd ask her out.

I love women who look like women.

[KansDem]

42. "...they weren't allowed to airbrush my tummy out"

What tummy?!!
________

[PatrynXX]

21. well there's Paula Cole too and she was rather pissed on this

personally I dislike Barbie girls. Paula Cole was pissed that they removed her armpit hair. personally can't recognize most of the photoshop folks above. especially the late Brittany Murphy. she always had those around her eyes so the photoshop looks like a drawing.. even in porn they do this both photoshop (and usually very poorly. ) Poor Sandra Shine had her beauty mark removed early last decade. And even now they sorta power her vagina . as with most girls. bit hard to powder that area if it's supposed to be wet.. and of course they all encourage big boobs otherwise they claim they are pretending to be underage. Which ALS Scan has been rather against implanted models. Which are fairly banned off that site. Surprised you didn't include the Jennifer Love Hewitt one where they actually shrank her boobs.. O_O

[tblue]

28. I met a 25 yo who gets Botox.

Oy vey! Even the women in those pictures don't look like those pictures.

[Beartracks]

29. What do these editors have against women's calves??

And also: someone felt they needed to make Katy Perry *"larger"*?? That was a waste of Photoshop time!

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[Isoldeblue]

37. What I don't like about this

is lightening black skin, to look more white. To me that smacks of racism. Black is beautiful and white is too. But one is certainly not better than the other.

[Scootaloo]

41. But one does SELL MORE than the other

This is one of our many American dysfunctions.

[RedCappedBandit]

39. Some of these are pretty mild compared to others I have seen.

I do not like how we are brushing this off as simple, harmless marketing technique, tough.

The way people are doctored to look perfect in television and print is undoubtedly a significant factor in the rise of body-image issues amongst our youth. We shouldn't be so focused on worshipping this fake, plastic look.

As if the fact that these photographers are 'innocently' trying to sell crap makes the issue okay. If you can't sell your crap without the aid of inhuman models, maybe it isn't crap worth buying.

[theHandpuppet]

45. I'll second that motion.