About editting of media images?

Question

All of us know that magazine,media firms photoshop their models to look "impossibly hot" by editing their face, and bust sizes, for example like in this vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hibyAJOSW8U&feature=related .But is there any proof or evidence ,articles by credible sources that confirms this?

Answer 1

Hi Sherwin

The photographer is the one supplying any solid base before re-touching any photos. When I retouch after a photo shoot is only to remove small blemishes, and adjust the contrast. That's it and not that we can't do retouching and doing a face life. The model has to live with this and the less retouch, the better.

As photoace pointed out, some models in your studio don't even need makeup or hardly. They are stunning and that is what makes a perfect pic when the retouching is ketp to a strict bare minimum.

Answer 2

The cost of doing it right with lighting, lens choice and camera angle is so much less expensive than attempting to wait and do it all in post production ... remember, until a few years ago, all magazine and media firms had to work with were the transparencies supplied to them by photographers ... all with the lighting prescribed in the assignments punch list and perfectly exposed and composed.  

Yes advertising and very high style images are retouched (most notably Playboy which has had a huge budget for retouching their center folds)

I guess the question is why are you asking this ... do you want to begin a career as a digital retoucher?   Or knowing that all the models depicted in the adverts are not all that beautiful and need help before their images go to the presses?

To prove or disprove this, you would have to know someone in the industry ... Editorial photography found in magazines is absolutely not retouched ... sure when the colour seps are made, the gamma's of the image are matched to the paper being used in the publication, but that is not what I think you are talking about.

As a fashion photographer, I can assure you that there are some impossibly hot models out there ... more than you can imagine.  With a good MUA, even minor retouching isn't necessary in some cases.

Answer 3

I think if you google for Editorial Photo Ethics you will find a of scandals.  Editorial pictures can not (are not supposed to) be altered.  For example, there was a story run (I think in Times magazine not sure) where there a soldier was holding civilian and the people had been cloned to show more people in the people and other stuff like that

I found these two links for you:

http://www.toledoblade.com/assets/pdf/TO...

http://www.jmg-galleries.com/blog/2007/0...

Good luck!