How do subjects feel about being "Photoshopped"?

[WhoDo]

Courtesy of Buzzfeed, find out in the video below. Enjoy!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRlpIkH3b5I

[jjphoto]

Who shot this and what was the motivation behind creating this video?

[arthurking83]

THIS (http://laughingsquid.com/capturing-the-reactions-of-four-women-photoshopped-into-cover-models/) seems to be the original source(unless it's a plagiarized story from another source(which is common nowadays with feeds and blogs!)

Lori seems genuine enough in her pursuit of women's topics.
This is afterall an important topic for discussion for women .. mainly younger women!

One of my initial thoughts on the actual video was that it seemed pointless in some way, and the women involved may have had some bias against photoshopped modelling content in some way anyhow.

Isn't there a magazine that doesn't allow any maniupulated images such as those in the US too?
It seems to be a bit of a topical point in the US currently.

my dislike of PS has less to do with this actual video tho.

[Mary Anne]

I was so glad to see that they preferred their own looks not the PS ones..

[WhoDo]

Who shot this and what was the motivation behind creating this video?

According to PetaPixel, and the credit at the end of the video, the original source was BuzzFeed, as stated in my original post. Arthur's source (linked above) also credits BuzzFeed for the original "research" and video. Apparently all of the women in the video had some unspecified body image issues. :confused013

The point is that some photographers think their subjects all want to look like the glossy magazine ideal of beauty ... skinny, no blemishes, etc. It was interesting to me to see that these particular subjects, despite their alleged body image issues, did NOT want to look "perfect" in the glossy magazine ideal sense. I posted this to encourage others to adopt a "less is more" approach to post processing portraits, wedding photos, etc. Moderate skin smoothing, removal of temporary imperfections, etc. is one thing, but removing identifying marks, including moles, and altering body shape is quite another.

A while back we had a portrait of a baby posted here for CC, and it was most informative that the parents did NOT want a large birth defect removed as it would have changed the identity (sic) of their beloved child.

I hope that explains my motivation, at least, John. ;)

[jjphoto]

According to PetaPixel, and the credit at the end of the video, the original source was BuzzFeed, as stated in my original post. Arthur's source (linked above) also credits BuzzFeed for the original "research" and video. Apparently all of the women in the video had some unspecified body image issues. :confused013

The point is that some photographers think their subjects all want to look like the glossy magazine ideal of beauty ... skinny, no blemishes, etc. It was interesting to me to see that these particular subjects, despite their alleged body image issues, did NOT want to look "perfect" in the glossy magazine ideal sense. I posted this to encourage others to adopt a "less is more" approach to post processing portraits, wedding photos, etc. Moderate skin smoothing, removal of temporary imperfections, etc. is one thing, but removing identifying marks, including moles, and altering body shape is quite another...

http://www.youtube.com/user/BuzzFeedVideo/videos

3 days and 3 million (plus) hits!


...I hope that explains my motivation, at least, John. ;)

I don't doubt your motivation at all.

[fess67]

I am a fan of Photoshop, I love playing with it and seeing the different effects I can create with all genres of photo.

I had a couple of thoughts as I was watching the clip. The first was that retouching was being highlighted as the medium that created the 'altered' images and yet they were being attended to by professional makeup artists and professional photographers in a studio environment. These facts alone can make a massive difference to the final look of the photo, even a quick review of portrait lighting effects will show how we can enhance or hide features with light. One of the ladies pointed out in the movie that those factors already made it a bit unreal. (paraphrasing).

My second thought was that none of the women seemed displeased with the images when first shown them. Faces seems to light up in excitement, pleasure, big smiles.....then, later, they expressed their views on the photo manipulation, which were pretty mild so it was good not too see a complete rant about how bad post production is.

As I say, I am an advocate of post processing. I think there is a line to how much is too much but that is a totally personal view and I may push an image more or less than the next person. I see it no differently than if I was an 18th century painter. Those that liked my style would hire me, those that didn't, would not. :)

[WhoDo]

http://www.youtube.com/user/BuzzFeedVideo/videos

3 days and 3 million (plus) hits!

Still averaging a million a day, 4 days in. Who'd a thunk it? :p

- - - Updated - - -


As I say, I am an advocate of post processing. I think there is a line to how much is too much but that is a totally personal view and I may push an image more or less than the next person. I see it no differently than if I was an 18th century painter. Those that liked my style would hire me, those that didn't, would not. :)

I don't have any problem with post processing per se. It's the impression that plastic, magazine-style "beauty" is what everyone ought to strive towards. Pish to that! :D On the other hand, I almost always accede to a subject's reasonable requests ... e.g. when my 29 year old daughter pleads "Daddy, will you take out the bags and wrinkles under my eyes please?" {doe-eyed, puppy dog expression} Who could resist that! ;)

[Mark L]

One of my initial thoughts on the actual video was that it seemed pointless in some way, and the women involved may have had some bias against photoshopped modelling content in some way anyhow.

My impression was they didn't understand what goes into what is presented as "normal" in so many magazines.
Their "bias against photoshopped modelling content" occurred after they saw how, who they where, could be changed so much. They realised it wasn't actually them being presented.
Body issue problems happen to many people. And a lot of the time it is created by what is presented in the media as normal.