One of these things is not like the other… psych!! They’re actually ALL exactly the same body. Just with different heads creepily pasted on.
“Everyone’s doing it” is not generally considered a great argument in regards to our health and yet when it comes to Photoshop and other advertising tricks a lot of people are saying that if we can’t beat them, join them. And, surprising even myself, I think I agree. I use photo-editing software on my pictures for this site, in fact. But in my opinion it’s all a matter of scale. For instance, I crop and color-correct nearly every picture that I post (my camera sucketh mightily when it comes to lighting). I also have removed red eye, fuzzed out stranger’s faces and – my personal fave – erased crotch sweat off of Gym Buddies who forget what a betraying fabric cotton is which frankly is the modern equivalent of not letting your girlfriend leave the restroom with her skirt tucked into her tights. (And let me tell you, nothing makes you feel close to a person like spending 15 minutes zoomed in at 200% to her lady business.) However, I have never used it to change my body (nor anyone else’s) in any way – not even to remove a zit. That’s my line in the sand I guess. And I’ll be honest, that’s also my line of technical acuity. I’m not the world’s greatest photo-editor.
But there are plenty of people who don’t share my compunctions. Take, for instance, the trendy knock-off store H&M who recently admitted that they only use “completely virtual” bodies to model the clothes on their site. Don’t worry though, they paste a real girl’s head on there to help you know what that dress will look like on a real person. Unless they forget, like this time (images via Jezebel):
Granted, creating bodies out of whole cloth (pixels?) is pretty extreme. On the other end we have my sister’s Christmas card from a few years back. As soon as I got it in the mail, I had to call her immediately. “What did you do to your teeth??” I squealed. “They are so perfectly white! I’m jealous!!” There was an uncomfortable silence before she answered. “Are my teeth really the first thing you noticed about our family picture?” I hemmed, “Uh, yeah.” Her reply: “Oops.” It turns out she’d thought her teeth looked a little dingy and since this card was going out to all her friends and loved ones she figured she’s just digitally scrub them up a bit. A bit turned out to be a lot however, turning her adorable family pic into a toothpaste ad. We laugh about it now but since then I’ve seen a lot of holiday card pictures come through my mail from other folks that have obviously had a lot more than teeth whitening done to them.
How is a person able to decide what’s real and what’s not if even my neighbor’s dog has been digitally cute-ified? Science to the rescue! Reports The Economist, “Professor Hany Farid, a computer scientist at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and his PhD student Eric Kee, have been investigating photo retouching. They have developed a mathematical expression to quantify ballooning bosoms and winnowed waists. Their paper, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describes how they use mathematical models along with subjective human responses to produce a score of how radically a person’s image has been modified from an original photograph.” So theoretically all images could now be labeled with a number telling where they fall on the reality scale, with Christmas cards on one end and H&M on the other. (Entertaining tidbit: Reader Meghan who sent me this tip added, “You know things are out of control when the Economist starts publishing articles about photoshopping…” So true Meghan!)
What’s your opinion on Photoshop and the like? Do you touch up your pics at all or do you prefer to stay au naturel? If such a “reality” scale number existed, do you think it would help to label photos with it? Anyone else kind of never want to shop at H&M again??
The funny thing — well funny is a stretch — about those H&M ads? I could tell (thus I’m sure most others could) that it was the same body BEFORE actually reading. The article I read just said something about photoshop in the title and I was like, “why is that the exact same body???”
When I “modeled” (I use that word loosely as I only ever did a sports ad and was an online model for a company that created sexy santa lingerie) it genuinely shocked me how touched up I was sometimes… In that situation it makes you insecure because you notice what they edited and sometimes they’re things you didn’t even think were problem ares…
I find this: “you notice what they edited and sometimes they’re things you didn’t even think were problem ares” VERY frightening. I’ll count my blessings again that I was never a model for anything. Also, sexy santa lingerie?!?! Please tell me you still have the pics!!
of course! (though they definitely did NOT make my Christmas cards that year – hahaha) and that was definitely the worst part of modeling. Worse than getting pneumonia once (photoshoot on railroad scaffolding in sub zero weather in lingerie and winter coats)
I’ve only removed red-eye from photo’s and also when my nephew was born my niece had chocolately hands when she touched him so he looked like he had a dirty blanket . I removed that.
I’ve never heard of H&M but I think I’d give them a miss. Seriously none of their models are real ? That’s a sad indictment on society !
I have to confess, I once slimmed down my thighs a little in a photo of me. I really wanted to post that photo on my blog, but I hated how my thighs looked (note: usually I’m ok with my legs, but they do funny things when I’m running). My editing skills are pretty lame so I normally just crop and color-correct my photos (space and natural light are scarce in my house). My husband on the other hand is a Photoshop genius! He can remove entire persons (strangers, ex-girlfriends, etc.) from a photo like it’s nothing. That’s a little scary sometimes.
P.S. I still shop at H&M. In my opinion they’re not worse than other companies or magazines. Like you said, everyone is doing it! Plus, I like their clothes, and I don’t really care about their ads and models. That’s totally selfish, I know. But I need a source of cheap clothing, and H&M is my best bet around here.
I do love H&M clothes (and prices)! Although my pet peeve with them is how erratic their sizing is. I have two skirts – same cut, same style, same size (I liked it so much I wanted it in two different patterns) and one I had to take in while the other was so tight I couldn’t even get it past my hips. ARGH.
Heck yes, I touch myself up in photos! I remove zits, any scars that really stand out, and red eye. I don’t want to look back on those memories and think about how my skin was broken out. There are enough photos of me from before I discovered photo editing. I’m glad I can make myself look just a teeny bit better!
” There are enough photos of me from before I discovered photo editing. ” This made me giggle – I love it!
They’re all the same body?! WOWZA. Good post, though! My thoughts on the subject are pretty much on par with yours: I have no problems with using photoshop to fix small things… a stray hair, whiter teeth (as long as they don’t shine like Mr. Cleans head), & removed crotch sweat are all a-okay in my book. Why? Because at the end of the day, you haven’t changed who that person inherently is.
Even if you remove a zit, that’s not a permanent feature that makes a person who they are. I draw the line when *that* factor is changed. Hmmmm, if I had to say… pasting my face on another body qualifies as crossing that line. LOL
It’s crazy to me how much it’s changed over just the past few years. Who would have thought we’d be arguing the line between zits and entirely new bodies?! LOL
I think Photoshop should be used like makeup…You apply a little to perfect what you already have but you don’t change what is actually there.
I think issues arise when you use Photoshop to create a new body (by adding or subtracting). It is like getting liposuction. It’s extreme and unnaturally and personally not something I would ever want to do.
Totally agree with you about that. You don’t want to pretend you’re something you’re not, but you DO want to put your best face forward 🙂
I’m not surprised about this and actullly blogged here a couple months ago about being distrurbed by a model in a TV ad of theirs.
http://balancingontwofeet.com/2011/09/27/the-celebrity-body/
I am however glad that they owned up to the extreme Photoshopping! Now if they would just plaster that across every picture of theirs we would be ready to go!
I am guilty of minor touch-ups to skin or teeth in some pictures, but not to body shape. If I don’t like the way I look in a photo I don’t use it. I actually played around a bit recently with a eye effect in a photo of mine and after I got done with the often used effect in many ads my boyfriend told me the photo was frightening!
As for H&M I don’t shop there anyways…overpriced and cheaply made.
“I actually played around a bit recently with a eye effect in a photo of mine and after I got done with the often used effect in many ads my boyfriend told me the photo was frightening!” Reminds me of the time I tried out wearing colored contacts. I looked like a zombie, lol!
I think that as long as H&M will openly admit that all their models are fake, that’s okay. It’s easier for me to look at them because I know they are completely contrived, and therefore not something to compare myself to. I’m a real person! 🙂 It probably saves them tons of money – not having to pay models, photographers, or anyone else needed for the process – which is kind of genius on their part. Normally I get super upset with extreme photoshopping of people – like Faith Hill on Redbook that you mentioned a while back (I’m pretty sure that was on here…) – but in those cases those are real, already-beautiful people so the photoshopping comes across as an insult.
Interesting distinction between fictionalizing real people and fictional people – I hadn’t thought of it that way. Although I will say the H&M would bother me less if they said the models were CG on the site and not just when pressed by reporters…
Since I wear glasses, I frequently ask my husband to edit out the glare that sometimes totally obliterates my eye-balls. We also remove zits on Christmas cards.
It never occurred to me to touch up a photo. Must be cuz I’m at the age where I just don’t care. Nor do I care that H&M doesn’t use real models. I’m sure it’s cheaper that way. Whatever.
To me, there’s a big difference between adjusting the lighting (in the same vein that a photographer uses flashes, etc, only after the shot), adjusting the colors so when they print they look the same as on your computer screen, or even doing MINOR touches that are in line with what you’d cover with makeup. I’ve shot a few weddings, babies, etc, and will often cover up a zit or something like that that accidentally got missed with the foundation on the bride. Then again, I once had a pregnant mom (8 months, during a maternity shoot) who wanted me to take out all the stretch marks on her belly. I did, but I think I would have left them in at least on that shoot if it were me – being a maternity shoot and all.
I also have no problem with shots that are obviously photoshopped almost to the point of abstraction, but are recognized as such. You can do some really cool and fun things distorting photos, as long as you present them as “look what I did to this picture to make it look cool!” and not as an actual representation of how something or someone looks. It’s the misrepresentation and the lying that so often comes with photoshopping in fashion that’s the issue to me.
Exactly!!! “t’s the misrepresentation and the lying that so often comes with photoshopping in fashion that’s the issue to me.”
I was looking at that line of models and wondering how they could all be standing in the exact same pose and the exact same waist line. That explains it.
I rarely retouch photos. I will occasionally crop or fix red eye, and once in a while will correct color balance. Most notably a bunch of photos that I took this fall when my Dad was building my Tardis garden shed and I somehow had the camera on the wrong setting – too excited by the proceedings to pay attention I suppose. I was happy that I was able to correct the pictures, but the flip side of that is that I rarely use photo editing software so I don’t always know how to fix things.
“Tardis garden shed”? You madam, are my hero ^_^
I suppose the answer is to not buy products that use photoshop.
I never photoshop my photos, I just throw them out 🙂
Reason No. 6,795 why I will never be a “big” blogger is that a) I don’t have Photoshop and b) I have no idea how to even edit a photo, which is why I don’t put many of them on my blog. At work, we have people to do that. At home, I just make due with what I have. With that said, I was actually really surprised when I found out how much time and effort people put into manipulating certain photos and images, even if it’s just of food.
While I’m already a skeptic about a lot of things, that just cemented the fact that you can’t believe what you see (or hear, for that matter, as I found out people don’t even write their own tweets. WTF?) Anyway, I think touching things up and total manipulation are two very different things. I’m impressed H&M owned up to it, but I’m not surprised that any company does it. Perhaps that’s a cynical sign of the times, but I take everything with a grain of salt unless I see it myself in person or have a reputable source backing it up. If the shirt’s cute on me, I’ll buy it. 😉
Haha – if Photoshop is the only thing between being you and “big” (and girl, your writing qualifies you as extraordinary in my book!!) then you are doing way better than I am! Seriously though, I don’t blame you. It’s a total time suck.
As for H&M, while I’m not surprised at all by photoshopping anymore, I gotta admit I was a little shocked by “totally virtual” models. I think I’m old though;)
By going virtual, they probably thought they could sidestep any controversy about model size, shape or looks. Considering everything else is going way of the computer–unfortunately this includes jobs–I guess I wasn’t that surprised.
And I’m old as well. Hence the lack of technological skills and photo editing capabilities…and the fact that we don’t have an H&M and I’ve never been in one 😉
I couldn’t edit a photo to save my life.
Digital models?!?! With fake heads? Umm, you have no idea the jokes that are running through my head right now. Photoshopping is one of the few topics along these lines that I am ambivalent about. I know its weird and out of character for me to not have an opinion. Maybe I am just de-sensitized to the whole thing.
Desensitized, yes – I think we all are! And please share the jokes!!!
I received a catalog in the mail from Frederick’s of Hollywood about 2 years ago that was photoshopped so much that the model had NO BELLY BUTTON! Are you serious? OK, I admit to doing editing on photos to rid sweat stains (though not a 200% crotch zoom, I’m not THAT friendly with anyone, including the hubbsters) and I rid the demon eyes and I even admit to softening rough edges, but I can’t afford photoshop, so if it’s not on the free version of picnik.com or on my Office photo live (or wtfe it is) that came with the computer and the photo is horrible, it stays on the computer and no one ever sees it. Otherwise what’s the point? My friends and family know what we look like. And the only time I teeth whiten is if there’s a weird shadow. I like yo be able to show my kids their teeth and say “See? THIS is why I want you to destinkafy in full! Not only are you more likely to not get punched for your sinful halitosis, you’re chompers don’t look like you just left the most recent filming of “Real life Zombie feedings:Live” Now go scrub your demon breeding teeth and we’ll try again.”
They’re big fans of my creative insults and sideways barbs. LOL
This made my day: ” like yo be able to show my kids their teeth and say “See? THIS is why I want you to destinkafy in full! Not only are you more likely to not get punched for your sinful halitosis, you’re chompers don’t look like you just left the most recent filming of “Real life Zombie feedings:Live” Now go scrub your demon breeding teeth and we’ll try again.”” !! I have the exact same issue with my Zombie kiddos!! Also, I probably should have said that I don’t own Photoshop the program either. I use Paint.net or Picnik or Picasa – all free!!
I apologize for the level of retard that my phone’s auto correct function elevated me to with that post. When the eff are they gonna come out with grammar correct too? Photoshop THIS, Android! GAH@
I don’t see why you pay a lot of $$ for a model and a photographer and then go crazy changing the image up even more. To me, use photos hope to enhance colours or edit out obvious faults…anything else is just pretending. If you need to pretend to sell me your product…well, maybe it’s not as good as you think it is. Just make a god product instead….
Oddly, I find it amusing that H&M have all virtual models and they freely admit it. I know that they aren’t real, and so I don’t bother to get excited about it (or how I don’t look like them…)
photoshop not photos hope…silly auto correct…
I CAN photo-edit, but rarely do, with the exception of red eyes, color adjustment, and cropping. I have, on occassion, cropped a picture to my advantage–oops! Just chopped off that fat part of my arm, darn it! But I haven’t used software to make myself appear slimmer.
I have an overwhelming urge to go back and look at all the crotches on your blog to see if I can find the ‘shopped ones. :-/
Oh they’re there! But I like to think I do a good job so I doubt you’ll find a trace;)
I don’t know, maybe I’m way off base, but I think that as long as H&M is open and admits it, it’s kind of refreshing to use made up bodies! To me, that makes them no more comparable to my body than a clothes hanger or mannequin.
I agree except that I wish they’d admit it on their site and not just in interviews when pressed by reporters.
I do some small edits in picasa and I do some larger edits in Photoshop. Hubby is a photographer, but even he only color corrects and does lighting (although he has been known to remove people from photos, LOL). I think it really depends. I do like to remove blemishes… but that’s about it.
I think that the stuff that magazines do is pretty shameful, but there is no way to draw the line. Magazines have to police themselves, so I think this is something that we just have to live with.
whoa – I consider myself pretty well-educated when it comes to airbrushing but I had no clue the H&M just uses the same body and pastes different heads on top. That is CRAZY! Thanks so much for enlightening me -will definitely use this in my body image presentations!
Ooh yes! Do it! I wish I could hear one of your presentations…
Maybe the clothes at H&M can remain so affordable because they don’t have to pay models…
As for photo-shopping, the only things I do to pictures are lighten the contrast if they were taken in low lighting and crop. Then again, that might be because I’m terrible with such things…or because I don’t want to put that much time into photography-type things. After all, I barely even take any pictures.
Yet another reason for me to avoid H&M! (The overcrowded, Forever 21-like mishmash freaks me out.) But if I was in the UK again I’d probably still shop there. (Over there it’s more like Banana Republic.) I don’t know. How much photoshopping is done and how most the time I don’t even think about that when I compare myself to a picture of a model is really sad. But at the same time if I don’t buy from companies that over-photoshops models I don’t think I’ll be able to buy anything. I’m definitely a fan of making companies label photoshopped pictures, like cigarette warnings but where do you draw the line. I was recently looking for a picture of me and the fiance to put on my wedding planner binder. I definitely whitened our teeth and removed the redeye. Should I have to label that?
I take a lot of pictures (one of my hobbies). I will change colors and lighting (basically required with Raw pictures) but I draw the line at changing the actual composition. In my mind I should have taken a better picture to begin with then. Of course I rarely shoot people. And leaves don’t complain about their stems looking too fat.
“And leaves don’t complain about their stems looking too fat.” ROFL.
I crop the heck out of pictures, mainly to get the focus on what I want everyone to focus on. However, I have had to crop shotgun shells out of a pthoto (WTF husband?) and I cropped my butt out when I realized the flash made my pants see through. I sometimes correct for lighting, but only if it looks really dark. I don’t have the skills to enhance anything. I did try once to fade some blemishes and that was a disaster. I’ll stick to cropping and making photos black and white.
I think these: “I have had to crop shotgun shells out of a pthoto (WTF husband?) and I cropped my butt out when I realized the flash made my pants see through.” are PERFECTLY acceptable photoshops, lol!
Even better was how apparently the shotgun shells had been sitting there for months and I didn’t realize it till I took the picture.
We only fix the lighting and white balance on ours. I am way too impatient for even that!
You should check out the Limited ‘s site. The photoshopping is so bad that in most cases the head doesn’t even line up with the body. I find it hilariously bad.
That picture of the “vanishing woman” is so creepy and yet so accurate. I don’t photoshop anything. I don’t know how but I also don’t want to care that much. A picture is just a memory caught and most likely people look at it a couple times unless it is framed on your wall and that’s that. I think its disturbing that companies are using one-digitally touched up body to sell clothing. It further solidifies the idea of what the perfect body should look like. And for them I’m sure its cost efficient but its H&M. They can afford it and they should. I feel like this kind of marketing is irresponsible and can be hugely detrimental.
Here are my two bits:
Photoshop (in terms of pure touch-up, not as digital art) should be used to enhance what is already there.
In my mind, when I touch-up photos,
I am making the subject look like they do in real life–
cameras are unforgiving,
as is direct sunlight–
we don’t usually notice our friends’ crows-feet, eye-bags, unflattering arm angles–
and Photoshop can be used to gracefully make people look how they actually look.
In our last family pic, the photographer took out my 4-year-old’s scar. The picture looks really nice, but it’s obvious it’s been photoshopped. Not sure how I feel about that.
(I was happy she took out my big zit!)
yes, how else are we supposed to get all the divorced people out of our photos?
ROFL!
The H&M ad implies to me that their clothes will not only make you look good, they’ll give you the power of invisibility! Talk about a selling point!
That’d work if it was believable, anyway 🙂
Hahah – love it!
Reconsidering, though, it would actually be a pretty rubbish superpower. Because in order to be invisible you’d have to be wearing completely visible clothes. That’s not stealthy or cool, it’s just tragic. So on balance, I’m glad H&M don’t make invisibility suits, because the irony would just be too crushing.
UGH! I think there is a difference between advertisers doing & it creating false advertising in a way vs. your sis or little ole us doing it to our Xmas card. We have generations of women with complexes due to Photoshop of the bods & faces.
Me, I do have the hubby fix up the face a bit but not crazy fix.. it is just with age, it all looks
:-(. As for my bod, I leave it alone….
I agree with Jody: take out a pimple or a few under-eye circles, fine. Completely re-shape a person’s body, take away any unique feature and make them look like mannequins? No thanks!
Those H&M photos frighten me, lol!
this has absolutely nothing to do with photoshopping. I just wanted to know if you ever tried the Tracy Anderson Method? the one Gwenyth Paltrow uses? It’s so opposite everything I’ve been taught, I was just wondering. Sounds like something you would have written on, but I can’t find anything in the archives.
I did! We did her program for a whole month as one of the Great Fitness Experiments in my first year. It actually has a whole chapter in my book:) Here’s the short version: I too was super skeptical. It sounds ridic. BUT you do 200 reps of anything and it gets pretty burn-y! It was more challenging than I thought it would be. The only problem – and it’s a big one – is how time consuming it is. Once you do her “cardio dance”, 3-lb weight lifting routine and thrice-weekly sessions on her souped-up Pilates Reformer, you’re working out 2 hours a day, minimum. Who has that kind of time??
Yay, I’m glad you enjoyed my tidbit from the Economist! You know, I always keep an eye out for things that I think you (and the other readers!) would like.
And honestly, I’m just so sick of the photoshopping. I admit I only choose the good photos of me, and sometimes it’s one out of 100, but that’s not the same as photoshopping, which is just lying, and creating unrealistic expectations. So yes, I’m a fan of numbering photos in magazines, at least I won’t spend so much time reading magazines being like “does her elbow actually move that way? that can’t be right….”. Instead I could say “oh, that’s got a 5, so I don’t need to obsess about my elbows only turning one way”.
And I loved H&M when I lived in Europe, they’re amazing there. Here…umm..mediocre. It’s crazy, because I have a lot of things from H&M that I got in Germany that I absolutely love, and I know the quality of their stuff here is way worse. So I’ll shop at H&M again…in Europe only though. Le sigh.
Yeah, like I replied to a previous commenter I am NOT impressed with their quality here. Two skirts – same size, same cut, same style, just different colors (shush!) – and one is slightly too big and the other is so small I can’t get it past my hips. Grr.
I like the quote by Cindy Crawford, “Even I don’t wake up in the morning looking like Cindy Crawford.” One of the things I like about looking at 100+ year old photos is that they ground me back in reality. That’s what people REALLY look like. Plain. Normal. Full of flaws. Like me. I think that after a while, all those photoshopped pictures alter my expectations of what “normal” is, and not in a good way. Yes, we should try to look our best. OUR best as in who we really are, not trying to fake the unattainable.
I agree with Shellie about Cindy Crawford – or I once read an article about Jessica Simpson and how people always came up to her and said that they wished they looked like her in her Dukes of Hazzard video and she said that SHE wished she looked like she did her in video! My husband is a professional photographer and I was whining once about a particular shoot where he’d been hanging out with pretty models all day (his assistant had bee going on and ON about them). So my hubby took a favourite photo of me (one where I thought I looked particularly decent) and he spent 10 minutes touching it up. He showed it to me and said “I spend over an hour on the ones of those girls you’re so worried about”, and when I looked at it I BARELY recognized myself!. It was nuts. He’d removed all freckles and colour variations from my face and neck and had made my eyes a little bigger and… it was insane. I’ll never let him do it again it freaked me out so much!
Ok, I’m guilty of using photoshop. I have 4 boys and we had family pictures done. We got a great picture of all 4 boys, but I didn’t like the face I was making!! I liked another pic of me better but one of the boys was making a face. So I had the photographer take my head from one pic and put on the good pic of the boys. And I had a baby in June and a birthday party for another son in July. I totally photoshopped my stomach and arms!! I always hate the way I look in pics because I am incapable of knowing the right way to stand or hold my chin or whatever. I wont hesitate to do a little photoshop just so I can prove in pics I was there 😉