Although photojournalists have argued for decades about how much truth can be seen through a lens, the question is becoming more relevant as just about anything
in a digital photo can be changed. In fact, a computer and special software isn’t even required to change photos—HP, for example, makes a whole line of cameras with
a slimming feature. Just press a button after you take a photo and your subject is instantly thinner.
If the average home user has the ability to take a couple of pounds off Aunt Ruth in the Christmas shot, it raises the question of what magazine editors and professional photo retouchers can do to pictures of models and celebrities that run in advertisements and other photos in magazines. Truth is, they can do anything that comes to mind and then some, often so well it is hard—or impossible—to tell the photograph has been touched. That is where reality often becomes fantasy.
All skin blemishes, imperfections and moles removed.
Tan lines fixed, dark spots under eyes lightened, neck creases softened.
Colors adjusted to intensify tones in skin, hair, eyes and lips.
Distracting hair behind ear is removed and the photo is blurred to mask leftover irregularities.
Eyes whitened and lip color matched to her shirt.
Cheap computers and readily available photography retouching software, in addition to the onslaught of digital cameras have created a
photographic world where anyone can change things about his or her pictures.
For anyone that read fashion magazines in the 1970s, models like Cheryl Tiegs and Iman looked fantastic without retouching, just special lighting and plenty of makeup. For these models, however, flaws were visible. Their teeth weren’t snow-white, a few wrinkles showed and they still had a blemish or some freckles. Today, Heidi Klum, Gisele Bundchen and just about every person to grace the pages of national magazines has had every flaw—every pore—removed before printing. “Everyone you see in print is more painting than photograph,” says Brian Dilg, a filmmaker and photographer who has worked in photo retouching for clients such as Nike, Bravo TV and Polo Ralph Lauren. “To the average eye, you have no idea how much has been done.” Brian explains that unlike the 1970s, when makeup, soft lighting and special camera lens attachments were used to make models look as flawless as possible, current photo shoots might not in-clude a makeup artist at all, and soft lighting is not necessary to cover flaws. In fact, says Brian, the worse a model’s skin, the better it is to leave makeup off and fix blemishes, freckles and wrinkles in the retouching process. He says for many advertisements, makeup is painted on digitally—digital makeup provides more control than real makeup. Pixel by pixel, skin is made flawless, teeth are whitened, eyes are whitened and flyaway hair is removed. While a retoucher has only worked on most photographs for a few hours, things like magazine covers can take days of work, often because so much is changed—background location, hair color and clothing colors are just a few. Brian says retouchers often get product samples of clothing they have to color match exactly in the photographs. Also, things like reflections and shadows can be added in to create the illusion that models were in a particular location at a particular time,
if an editor wants it changed from the photo shoot. At his Web site www.briandilg.com, there is an example of Brian’s retouching work where he had to color match basketball players’ outfits to real products. Some went from wearing white to wearing navy blue. In addition, they went from shooting baskets in a gym to playing in an arena. And unless viewers have been told all that was changed, it’s impossible to tell. “If I do my job right,” says Brian, “there is no way you can tell that something has been changed.” And sometimes everything is changed. In addition to things mentioned above, models are often digitally slimmed—even the already thin models. People are also made to look symmetrical. While Brian says eye color is not often changed, eyes will be moved slightly to make them more symmetrical, and he says he once had to create symmetrical breasts on a famous model by
duplicating one and flipping it to the other side of her body. A group of people can also be shot separately, any place in the world, and with digital photos, have their pictures sent to one location where a re-toucher creates one group shot from a variety of individual portraits.
Once in a while, magazines also like to run “untouched” photographs of celebrities without makeup. Don’t let these fool you, either. Even though the pictures weren’t re-touched, the photographers were probably using good, old-fashioned tricks to make the celebrities look the best they can. Common tricks include long exposure times, slightly out-of-focus faces, white backgrounds and shirts (which bounce light and fill in shadows), profile shots and specific placement of hair. Because so many people want the flawless skin and superwhite teeth seen in advertisements and celebrity photos, some companies are now offering photo retouching services. For $20 to
Many of the same treatments done on the first photo were also done here. In addition, background colors were adjusted to pop warm colors against cool colors and Emily’s shirt color was changed.
$200, anyone can send in a photo and have it return looking better than ever. Many of the companies that retouch photos specialize in restoring old photographs—removing tears, holes or water stains, or fixing color. Some work with police agencies and missing persons companies to create age-progression photos. Others do a variety of retouching work, including removing wrinkles, slimming waistlines and reshaping parts of faces. They can even remove people from photographs.
With all the technology and so many skilled people available to
create perfect photographs through retouching, it is no surprise that magazines and advertisements feature so many retouched photos. While the point of retouching is to make a picture look like it hasn’t been altered, the fact is, it is probably safer to assume something has been fixed. The reality of models and celebrities, once it hits the newsstands, is a fantasy.
For examples of photo retouching, here are a few Web sites to check out:
Even backgrounds in photos can be changed. Here, Emily was moved from the Bellevue Club to a beach. A few specialized treatments were also done on this photo.
All photography, retouching and digital manipulation by Azzura Photography, www.azzuraphotography.com. Thanks to our model, Club member Emily David, for letting us use her image for our examples.
