Retouching

In this high-tech world where anything can be manipulated with a few clicks of a mouse, it is hard to look at a picture and determine if what we are seeing is real or enhanced.

Photo-retouching refers to the process of warping an image until the desired result is achieved. I say that it is easy to manipulate a photo with a computer, but retouching has been done since photos have been around. At the start of the 1900's, photo manipulation was used as a form of propaganda. Compiling collages and enhancing parts of photos was something used during the wars and especially practiced in WWII against the Nazi Regime.

Computerized manipulation saw one of its first big controversies with the retouching of a 1982 National Geographic cover in which two pyramids were moved closer together to fit vertically on the page. Due to issues such as this one, the National Press Photographers Associaion (NPPA) set a code of ehtics for photographers. In this code of ethics, the NPPA advised photographers to be weary of photo manipulation for published photos that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects.

When we speak of photo-retouching, we are most likely talking about the magazine covers or billboards we see in which the models are made to look flawless. This type of retouching constructs ideals and leave the viewer having trouble differentiating between fact and fiction. Such retouching is a strong factor in the self-esteem issues of men and women.

Lauren Collins wrote an article for The New Yorker in which she talks about photo-retouching and its guru. "Pixel Perfect" describes the work of the infamous photo-manipulator, Pascal Dangin, and how he deals with a photograph that needs to be 'retouched'. In the March issue of Vogue, Dangin altered one-hundred forty-four images, one-hundred seven advertisements, thirty-six fashion pictures and the cover. Dangin was quoted in the article saying, “I think retouching is too much when it reaches the point of disfiguring. I want people to have an understanding of the skeleton and musculature and how it works. There is nothing worse than looking at an ankle or a calf that’s wrong. This is what bad retouching can do—you see in magazines girls having their legs slimmed and they no longer have tibias and femurs, and it’s weird.”

Take a look at these pictures. The celebrities photographed in them have very different before and after shots.

In a world where everything around us is digitally enhanced, it is hard to know if anything we are seeing is ever real. According to this video, it takes more than some make-up and hairspray to create the kind of look that goes onto a billboard.