1/25/12

why i ♥ and hate photoshop

I love Photoshop. I love that it can be used to create beautiful and surreal imagery, add amazing effects to text, and help restore old photos. The possibilities for creating are endless. What I hate about Photoshop, however, isn't so much about Photoshop as it is about its users, particularly the ones using it to "fix" people.

I realize that few of us object to having an occasional blemish brushed out of a photo, but what about when someone decides to Photoshop more than a blemish and ends up Photo-Chopping all of you?
 

KILL VEINS

Props to Louis Vuitton for having selected a woman over 50 as the face of an ad campaign! Then again ....

When working on an image of a person, it's all too easy to get carried away correcting perceived flaws. But it seems as though Photoshop has become the software equivalent of a plastic surgeon's table-- a mad plastic surgeon.

A collection of Playboy images reflecting handwritten instructions by Playboy's art department made the Internet rounds after being listed for auction with Christie's. The handwritten notes included the following requested photo edits:

kill veins, kill stretchmarks, kill large pores, soften laugh lines, kill [arm]hair, smooth heels, [add] better butt curve, soften lines [in feet], kill bruises, kill stubble, soften lines under eyes, kill veins in feet, kill mole, slim tummy, soften hands, smooth skin on face, whiten eyes, etc.

And all this time I thought it was up to a dermatologist to decide when to "kill" a mole.

MOST IMPORTANTLY ...


Of all these things, the most upsetting is the overuse of Photoshop in ads for cosmetics. I don't care so much if the girl in Playboy has lines under her eyes or if the celebrity on the cover of a magazine has been Photoshopped to hell and back, but I DO care about whether or not the mascara that promises beautiful lashes delivers.

And THAT is why I am happy about THIS: dailymail.com
:o)