I'd been thinking of this question in the back of my mind for the past week, and tonight I found the answer in Tina Fey's Bossypants.
She believes that airbrushing away a few pimples or armpit stubble is fine, because "it's okay to make a photo look as if you were caught on your best day in the best light." (p160). Digital retouching goes too far when it changes the face structure, body shape, or permanent features like scars or wrinkles.
I will show you the difference with two photos of Tina Fey.
Exhibit A:
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| Tina Fey has stated that she's nevcr had Botox or plastic surgery |
Doesn't she look gorgeous! Her makeup and salon-fresh hair complements her natural beauty. She has a lovely, open expression. Gorgeous brown eyes, slim nose, nice smile. But mostly I like this picture because it's the first "real" one I've seen of her. I can see that her ears are quite big. I'm thrilled to see the scar she talked about in her book. I can see a rare thing is professional shots: her pores! I can see a dot from an almost-gone pimple. I can see the dint in her skin between her eyes. There may have been some airbrushing around the cheeks, but effect is subtle. Very importantly, she looks like a real person. She is beautiful, flawed, and enjoying the night out.
Exhibit B:
I think the people who performed the Photoshop work were just a little too keen to smooth Tina's complexion. In her own words, "They take out any depth, and your face looks like it was drawn on a paper plate" (p157). Her characteristic scar is gone. Although Tina is still in there somewhere, there's not as much life as in Exhibit A. I'd love this photo if the editors had toned back the airbrushing a bit.
To sum up, in Tina's own words, "Photoshop is just like makeup. When it's done well it looks great, and when it's overdone you look like a crazy asshole." Note: I wouldn't say that Exhibit B is quite in the crazy category, but perhaps the picture below is:
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| This was originally Julia Roberts |
I have an odd theory on airbrushing, here goes:
ReplyDeleteActors: Totally fine to airbrush out flaws, pimples etc but not to change facial structure, body shape, so more of an accentuation of their best features rather than hiding their flaws.
Characters: Actors posing as characters (such as Katniss Everdeen) should be able to be photoshopped in movie posters to best capture the essence of the directors artistic vision for the film.
Music Characters (Lady Gaga, Kesha): Their art form is based on appearance and radical changes in their appearance from day to day are expected of them. I think that artistic photoshopping which often serves (in the case of Lady Gaga at least) to point out the flaws and show them to society in a raw and extremely captivating way is brilliant.
The main argument I would have against photoshopping is that it creates extreme versions of beauty, impossible for even the people in the picture to obtain in real life. Which can lead to self image issues for almost anyone exposed to these images.
But these are just my thoughts :P Have you read Uglies by Scott Westerfield? Its not about photoshopping/airbrushing but it does make you think about what "real beauty" is.