The Power of Photoshop

My good friend who is just about to head off to the army always seems to compare herself to images of women found in the magazines. I think a lot of people take in those images without a second thought, seeing themselves pale in comparison then buying whatever the image is selling.

I asked her for a picture and worked on it for an hour. I didn't shift her features around, I just adjusted levels, used a brush set on "lighten" to even out her skin texture, used burn to bring out her eyes and multiply for her lips. (Of course I got rid of that background as well!):




Then just for fun, I gave her some cool piercings:



Photomanipulation is just push and pull...push back texture that the camera or lighting brings too far forward, and pull out the eyes and other important features that get knocked back. Humans look at the eyes and mouth first and the other things second. Photomanipulation can play on that human tendency, and that can sometimes make the adjusted face more engaging than the raw photo.

You're all beautiful, ladies! Don't buy anything based on an altered image.