Truth in Advertising; the 'you' online.

                  As if enough had not already been said on the subject of Photoshop, here is another blog post about image editing. I think the perception among many people is that, outside of commercial contexts, there isn’t a whole lot of airbrushing going on, so who cares?

    I disagree. Photo retouching is so easily accessible today that I think it is much more rampant than people realize. Even bottom-of-the-line computers can handle running image editing software, and the only hurdle is how expensive adobe programs are (something like Photoshop Elements makes it a much more reasonable price.) Programs like GIMP are even free, and can do many of the things Photoshop can.

    What does that mean in day to day life? I have been known to de-acnify myself in photos I’m planning to publish, and anecdotal, I know, but back in community college I had an instructor (for Intro to Journalism, no less!) who told the class that she allows no one to take photos of her unless they agree to send them to her for editing, first. (The social hurdles that creates aside) Are we, as a culture, that obsessed with presenting a perfect ‘image’ online? Is the fact that you’d devote as much time airbrushing on a six-pack than you would going to the gym to obtain one something we should worry about?

    Photo correction has always existed, but it has only in the last decade become so widely available that nearly anyone can do it. Just to illustrate the point, I’m going to photoshop a photo of myself. I’m using my Mac Mini and a copy of CS4 on my home computer (so you see, it is pretty attainable, even if I don’t have Gaylord labs available.) To hammer the point home even further, I’m not going to use my DSLR, but a point and shoot, to prove you don’t even need a nice photo to start with.

 I must make disclaimer here, I worked for about a year at a wedding photographer, so I know my way around retouching images, but, this is no knowledge you wouldn’t gain with dedicated study of a book like ‘Adobe Digital Classroom’ or any other related how-to text. Click for the huge image.

1) Here I am, freshly rolled out of bed, no makeup, still in my pajamas. Aren’t you guys lucky I’m willing to embarrass myself like this FOR SCIENCE!?

2) First thing first, let’s do something about my acne. Most how-to texts suggest the spot repair tool, but I prefer patch for most repairs. Approximate time 3 minutes.

3) This is the point where I would stop, but let’s go a few steps further. Here is a trick I learned at the wedding photographer! Glowing ‘glamour shots’ style skin and hair. Make two new layers, one overlay, the other a copy of your base layer. The overlay layer is used for dodging and burning; the copy is going to be blurred out using Gaussian blur and hit with a contrast boost. Now go in with an eraser to get back the details. Approximate time 3 minutes.

4) Say I felt like shaving off a few pesky pounds for my plentyoffish.com profile (go ahead and look for it. I don’t have one) or, for faces, enhancing lips, eyes, removing double chins, what have you. Photoshop’s ‘liquefy’ tool is designed for just this, and is the basis for many of the previous posts ‘photochops.’ I leave it to eyes and lips. Approximate time 7 minutes.

5) So I forgot to wear makeup-- never fear! I personally don’t think this is ever acceptable (simply because it often looks so fake) but we’ll slap the digital equivalent of blush and mascara on me. Photoshop doesn’t come with an ‘eyelash’ brush, but you can download countless ones from Brusheezy or Deviant art. Approximate time 1 minute.

There you have it. Five steps to look better (or just weirder) on your Facebook profile. Looking at the before and after I can’t help but kind of feel a little like pimply troll. If we can’t even trust photos of our friends on social networking sites, how can we ever accept ourselves, flaws and all? Is editing photos of yourself just an extension of the preening we all do to look more attractive to our fellow humans? How much is too much when it comes to the truth in your digital photos?