Some interesting facts that I've learnt today:
- Retouching was here since the beginning of photography - the earliest examples of image manipulation were found since 1860s (which means that even history could be slightly modified/or totally by photo manipulation);
- Every image is retouched no ma\er how small, the best retouching will fool you into thinking that nothing has been done at all..
Some examples of photo retouching since the beginning of photography until now:
This nearly iconic portrait (in the form of a lithograph) of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is a composite of Lincoln’s head and the Southern politician John Calhoun’s body - 1860
This print (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division) appears to be of General Ulysses S. Grant in front of his troops at City Point, Virginia, during the American Civil War. Some very nice detective work by researchers at the Library of Congress revealed that this print is a composite of three separate prints: (1) the head in this photo is taken from a portrait of Grant; (2) the horse and body are those of Major General Alexander M. McCook; and (3) the background is of Confederate prisoners captured at the battle of Fisher’s Hill, VA - 1864.
Two young cousins, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, produced a series of photographs purportedly showing small winged fairies. These highly publicized photos created a sensation, and although some believed them to be fake, many believed them to be real. Many years later, the cousins admitted that, though the photographs were not manipulated, the fairies depicted were actually cardboard cutouts posed in the scene. Nevertheless, they continued to claim that they had seen fairies - 1917
Stalin routinely air-brushed his enemies out of photographs. In this photograph a commissar was removed from the original photograph after falling out of favor with Stalin - 1930
In order to create a more heroic portrait of himself, Benito Mussolini had the horse handler removed from the original photograph - 1942
The cover of TV Guide displayed this picture of daytime talk-show host Oprah Winfrey. This picture was created by splicing the head of Winfrey onto the body of actress Ann-Margret, taken from a 1979 publicity shot. The composite was created without permission of Winfrey or Ann-Margret, and was detected by Ann-Margret’s fashion designer, who recognized the dress - 1989
The original copy of the Beatles Abbey Road album cover shows Paul McCartney, third in line, holding a cigarette. United States poster companies have airbrushed this image to remove the cigarette from McCartney’s hand. This change was made without the permission of either McCartney or Apple Records, which owns the rights to the image. “We have never agreed to anything like this,” said an Apple spokesman. “It seems these poster companies got a little carried away. They shouldn’t have done what they have, but there isn’t much we can do about it now.” 2003
Blender magazine issued a cover featuring pop star Britney Spears’s head composited over a model’s body. The magazine cover states “Truthiness Alert: This cover image is a composite photo. Britney did not pose for this picture. That, sadly, is not her body.”2008
Elle magazine was accused of lightening the skin of actress and former Miss World Aishwanya Rai. A similar complaint was also leveled against the October 2010 issue of Elle, which featured actress Gabourey Sidibeon (of the hit movie Precious). With regard to the photo of Sidibeon, Elle’s editor-in-chief Robbie Myers explained. “At a photo shoot, in a studio, that is a fashion shoot, that’s glamorous, the lighting is different. The photography is different than a red carpet shot from a paparazzi.” She emphasized, “We absolutely did not lighten her skin. Retouching is when we take a piece of hair and move it out of her eye, so you can’t compare a picture on a press line from what you do in a studio, where your job is to make them look beautiful.” 2011
Other before and after post production images:
From the newest Lady Gaga Versace campaign to a few older Photoshop scandals, see the real images of celebrities and decide for yourself who had just a little too much done. Since everything can be done digitally, some celebs even give up makeup during the photoshoot and the original images aren’t always pretty. Here they are before and after.
Pictures of celebrities before and after Photoshop are usually for magazine covers, but Kim Kardashian has taken it further. Her first bit incident was related to her Complex magazine 2009 shoot, but Kim has been caught photoshopping her selfies before posting them on Instagram! The easiest way to tell if a celebrity posts photoshopped pics on social media is to look for any straight lines in the image. If they’re unnaturally curved, somebody’s been slimming their waste or hips hoping nobody would notice.
For many young women, Katy Perry is a symbol of the feminine beauty ideal, but the singer wasn’t good enough for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Most pictures of celebrities before and after Photoshop show a few necessary changes, but the singer had a truly gratuitous breast lift and thigh slimming, along with some weird manipulation of her fingers.
After I've seen all this I can say that I'm both amazed and terrified of how much can change photo manipulation. If it's good or bad, only we can decide. But in my oppinion, a bit of Photoshop isn't bad, so I don't blame anyone who knows how much editing is "too much". If they don't change the aspect of the person photographed too much, the reality, it's perfectly fine.
References:
- Image authentication and forensics | Fourandsix technologies - photo tampering throughout history (2015) Available at: http://www.fourandsix.com/photo-tampering-history/ (Accessed: 2015).
- Celebrities ahead of and after Photoshop (2014) Available at: http://www.laddiez.com/women-hairstyles/celebrities-ahead-of-and-after-photoshop.html (Accessed: 2015).
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