Dangling Conversations

Colour commentary on the world we live in

The Art Of Retouching

Posted 25 Aug, 2005 at 07:38 by blue in /Arts | Permanent link

This is both fascinating, interesting, sickening and neat all at the same time.

It is a portfolio for a retouching studio. You know... the people that go in and airbrush out wrinkles (some of us call them laugh lines) to make supermodels look 'even better'.

Click on one of the images in the gallery and wave your mouse over it to see the original. It's a good (yet sad) commentary on what the population finds attractive and what they find unacceptable.

Bigger breasts. Bigger butts. No frizzy hair. Less clothing (though sometimes more in some of the shots). No body hair. Scars, wrinkles and bags under the eyes... forget it. One side not symetrical with the other... no problem. I will admit that they also adjust the lighting, color depth, shading and remove any objects in the frame that detract from the image as well.

While I can admire the obvious skill he shows in some photos and how subtle some of the changes are... overall I just found it kind of sad that society demands that the photos need to be retouched.

Even so... kind of a neat site to look at.

Hmm... maybe I should have some photos of me done. I always wondered what I'd look like as a blue eyed, bleach blonde, beach bum. Do you think I should get my ass enlarged? ;)

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