Our Purpose

The purpose of this blog is to educate our viewers about the widespread use of retouching in print publications. Retouching implies making minor changes to photographs. However, modern advances in photo editing software allow photographs of individuals to be transformed into manufactured projections of reality.

Mostly commonly, retouching is used to enhance positive characteristics of an individual, although sometimes negative aspects are emphasized. Unlike a Barbie doll or animated character, these retouched images are portrayed as living, unimagined, portrayals of individuals in society. The truth is that most of the images we see in print publications, as well as online, are just as fake as cartoons. When looking at these blog posts, try to think about the effects these images have on yourself and others, especially younger generations.We are not trying to judge the rightness or wrongness of retouching; rather, we want to increase awareness about the prevalence of retouching so that media consumers are able better construct meanings from the images they encounter.

Five Steps to Media Literacy

1. Describe - Describe media product(s) by indentifying noteworthy elements or characteristics.

2. Analyze - Look for patterns that call for closer attention. Categorize those words!

3. Interpret - Try to determine meanings of patterns. What is the connection between the categories?

4. Evaluate - Make an informed judgment about media product

5. Engage - Take some action!

After viewing our blog, we hope you feel better knowing the world often being sold to us is not as perfect as it seems. We encourage you to post comments. Thank you for visiting!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

About Our Main Image

  
   

This is a before and after image done by "master retoucher" Amy Dresser.  The image was created to show off the power of photo retouching (as well as Amy's skills).  Her portfolio includes: Jessica Alba, Gwen Stefani, Rebecca Romijn, Kat Von D, Jenna Jameson, Lil Wayne, Katy Perry, Denise Richards, and Britney Spears.  More of Amy's work can be seen here:

4 comments:

  1. This photoshop thing has gotten out of control. I have a friend who is a photographer and she recently shot school photos at a Columbia grade school, and they even spent hours retouching those. She said they get paid by the number of prints the parents buy. And obviously if you can make there crazy tazmanian devil of a child look like prince charming then they are going to buy a ton of prints and send them out to everyone they know.

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  2. I Hate My Pic offers the finest photo restoration and repair, and photo retouching services on the net. Whether you simply need us to resize or rotate a photo, or you need major reconstruction, photo restore

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  3. Photo editing is very tricky and i think you have spend hours on the same image that you have retouch.

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  4. This is really wonderful videos tips and info. I love such amazing post.

    Photo Editing

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