Seeing isn't always believing.

I was always thought that I understood that "some" photos in magazines were airbrushed. However, I always assumed that it basically amounted to smoothing out blemishes etc. Evidently I was very naive as to how often and how much "airbrushing" goes on. I find it an interesting conundrum. I can see where if a model has a skin blemish one day the obvious solution would be to digitally adjust it. Ironically, at work a coworker asked me to do exactly that for a photo that was going into the weekly newsletter. I see no problem with that, but it seems it quickly turns into a very slippery slope. At what point does it go from mild adjustment to altering a young person's perception of what reality is and how they decide to try and attain that media created standard?

To see what I am talking about go to this website...

Hmm. Interesting. This is in no way for effect. But I just went to the website to tell you how to navigate to the pictures and it seems that website is no longer available. I can only assume some of the actors didn't appreciate their secret being exposed.
See the site anyway
(Maybe it will be up later)

UPDATE... I did find a couple other sites that show the same effect (without the famous actors)
Good example.
(look at the blonde up close, and give it time to load)
Another example

(these aren't quite as shocking as the other site, but still emphasis the point)

It's also kind of funny when they go to far and it your mind tells you how obviously fake it is...
Does it look fake to you?


Be sure and give the images time to load. After you mouse over it, it will change from the real photo to the touched up one. Seems like these people are trying to sell their skills to edit the photos.

Anyway, seeing the before/after shots of how these images are created is enlightening. Beyond the marvel of seeing a persons waist being literally thinned by three inches, wrinkles erased, hair added/removed/lightened/colored, it was a little scary to see how easy it was to manipulate my mind with a touch of digital trickery. I would say that I had a discrimating eye for detail and would be able to subliminally pick up on the changes, but they are seamless(on some of the sites). So the next time you see that beautiful picture just remember it is possibly as close to real life as "E.T" or "The War of the Worlds".