Plastic fantastic
Thursday, 4. May 2006, 15:28:05
Whilst browsing one of many photo albums at Ivan Minic blog I came across Celebs photoshopped gallery. As the name indicates you can see befores and afters of some famous people there.
Now, you might ask what the deal is. We all know that magazines' photos and especially their cover photos are photoshopped, but I think we tend to forget it when looking at those pictures every day. That is the reason why seeing those made my eyes wide open. No wonder now why people love watching paparazzi photos so much where they can see celebrities kind of naked without make up and professional retouch.
After a short while a question crossed my mind. How difficult is it to create a retouch like that? I decided to check it myself. I have chosen one of the easiest one to make (hey, I am not a pro) and loaded Corel Paint Shop X (a cheap Photoshop clone, a 30-day fully functional trial available at Corel site), but you will probably do fine with free open source GIMP too.
First, the original before and after of our model. I have cropped the pictures a bit to be able to put them side by side without resizing.
Not bad, eh? Now it took me about 15 minutes to create a similar retouch. I also decided to play a bit with a few controls to give it a more glamour look (again that is probably another sign of me not being a pro, I know). Take a look at the end result:
A definite improvement over the original (i.e. if you define an improvement as removing all lines and blemishes).
My little experiment shows that nowadays everyone can look like a star, at least in their photos. Sure, they (I mean the pictures) might look a bit of plastic, but who cares as long as that will make you prettier.
I wonder how far that will go. And will we see a big come back of natural (or naturalistic) photos at some time?
Meanwhile, the artists creating 3d-modelled babes aim at being natural by adding imperfections to their creations skins. Funny, isn't it?
Take a look at examples of famous NVIDIA and ATI virtual stars: Dusk and Ruby. Those girls are not afraid to show their faces without retouch.
Now, you might ask what the deal is. We all know that magazines' photos and especially their cover photos are photoshopped, but I think we tend to forget it when looking at those pictures every day. That is the reason why seeing those made my eyes wide open. No wonder now why people love watching paparazzi photos so much where they can see celebrities kind of naked without make up and professional retouch.
After a short while a question crossed my mind. How difficult is it to create a retouch like that? I decided to check it myself. I have chosen one of the easiest one to make (hey, I am not a pro) and loaded Corel Paint Shop X (a cheap Photoshop clone, a 30-day fully functional trial available at Corel site), but you will probably do fine with free open source GIMP too.
First, the original before and after of our model. I have cropped the pictures a bit to be able to put them side by side without resizing.
Not bad, eh? Now it took me about 15 minutes to create a similar retouch. I also decided to play a bit with a few controls to give it a more glamour look (again that is probably another sign of me not being a pro, I know). Take a look at the end result:
A definite improvement over the original (i.e. if you define an improvement as removing all lines and blemishes).
My little experiment shows that nowadays everyone can look like a star, at least in their photos. Sure, they (I mean the pictures) might look a bit of plastic, but who cares as long as that will make you prettier.
I wonder how far that will go. And will we see a big come back of natural (or naturalistic) photos at some time?
Meanwhile, the artists creating 3d-modelled babes aim at being natural by adding imperfections to their creations skins. Funny, isn't it?
Take a look at examples of famous NVIDIA and ATI virtual stars: Dusk and Ruby. Those girls are not afraid to show their faces without retouch.
WIDGETIZE
hungryghost # 6. May 2006, 05:04
I have a friend who works in the film industry, and he told me that an editor friend of hiw worked on Pride and Prejudice with Kiera Knightly, and the editor had to go over her face pixel by pixel removing the blemish in a closeup.
Imagine. What a job to put on your CV. Removing KN's zits virtually.
And so ironic what you say about humans and virtual beings.
haev a good weekend!
Numen # 6. May 2006, 10:31
I feel sorry for your firend, though. Going over pixel by pixel for several frames is not an easy task, especially if the film was shooted in HD resolution, eh...
Anyway, glad to see you back from visiting those dusty federal capitals alive and kicking.
Enjoy the weekend too!
chopin36 # 7. May 2006, 01:37
I now am very pleased that I did not get rid of them since I was able to use a program to work on them.
But I have always had to take a lot longer than 15 mins.
Your examples are encouraging.
By chopin36 May,06, 2006 6:40 PM PCT
Wojwit # 7. May 2006, 05:54
Pozdrawiam
Pit
Numen # 7. May 2006, 12:14
Yes, it's always a bad idea to get rid of good photos even if there are things about them you don't like.
The retouch I did was fairly simple. More complex changes require much more time (and a pro preferably).
@Wojwit
Eno, fajny link. dzięki wielkie. Pewnie połowy nie byłbym w stanie zrobić. Jak będę miał chwię to spróbuję się pobawić trochę.
Anonymous # 7. May 2006, 18:28
Ze tak powiem - masz okazje :P
Numen # 7. May 2006, 19:54
okazję? jaką znów okazję? Mów, bo znów mnie coś ominie i będzie:p
hungryghost # 7. May 2006, 21:22
the friend who had to retouch all the pixesl..he doesn't like Kiera very much anymore, no surprise!
Anonymous # 5. February 2007, 00:15
Hi,
Not bad, here are mine:
http://s78.photobucket.com/albums/j89/pierresplace/
Anonymous # 7. August 2007, 17:37
hhahahah I love it!!!I think I can be pretty someday at least in pictures!:)
cheap.cake@hotmail.com
Anonymous # 15. October 2007, 12:36
ur fucked up. people dont need too look prettier in photos. you're giving them an impossible target & its people like you who are the cause of young girls with eating disorders!!