Evolution of Beauty

PhilL

PhilL

Joined
Oct 1, 1999
Messages
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My wife was watching TV, one of those celebrity news magazine shows. The story was Pamela Anderson divorce from Kid Rock, (now there's news):rolleyes: I happened to look over just as they were showing a pic of Pam without makeup. :eek: I'm not going to post that picture here, I don't want to burst anyone's bubble. There are websites where you can see several stars without makeup and I promise you it ain't pretty.

Whenever there's a Hottie thread in the Cove, someone will complain about the fake boobs, yeah like that's the only thing that's not what it appears to be. I was a fashion photographer for many years and it was my job to make very attractive young models look better than they really looked. Not a hard job. The last couple of years I'm more interested in photo editing than I am in picture taking. There's not much I can't do in Photoshop. I can take a line drawing of a knife and make it appear as real as a photo. So, it's not hard for me to take a photo of someone, knock off 20 lbs. remove every flaw, and make them look better than they could ever hope to look.

Which brings me to this video I found to give you an idea of what's not only possible, but such common practice that you need to remember that nothing is what it appears to be.

http://www.glumbert.com/media/beauty?
 
I had no idea anything like that was even possible! (I'm not a very up to date person on things like this) Thanks for sharing that eye opening tidbit! -Matt-
 
The video comes from a campaign being conducted by Dove Soap. I think it's really very important. Young girls see these heavily embelished pictures and think that that's the way a woman is really supposed to look all the them.

Click http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/ then wait through the five-second intro and click "Play Film." (Speakers on)

Of course, it's not just women who get photoshopped; men do too. And the same thing happens to young boys. They see the movies and the magazines and think they need to look like that.

The whole body image thing is just out of control.

Knives get photoshopped too, by the way. I have a simple ethic. I won't change the appearance of the knife. If I can look at the actual knife and say, "What I'm seeing in the picture is a speck of dust on the knife and not an actual blemish on the knife, I'll photoshop it out. But I won't "photoshop-pimp" the knife. (Of course, it's much faster to just dust the knife before you take the picture, but sometime you miss a speck.)




(Oh, by the way, if you like the illusion of the "hottie thread", don't click those links.)
 
I worked with a friend for a while in his photo studio. We didn't photograph models but I remember meeting one .My first instinct was to take her out to a restaurent before she starved !! The skinny model thing has been around for at least 30 years !...We learned lots of tricks ,not so much to deceive but due to the limits of photography [which art directors never seemed to understand !] Using something like ginger ale for a coca cola ad because things show up darker. Today it seems more of deception.
 
A thick layer of foundation makeup and airbrushed photos can cover up a LOT of flaws. I've seen arrest photos of Penthouse Pets and Playboy centerfolds after they'd been partying all night -- they didn't look too good.
 
Some years ago Vogue ran a cover photo of Michelle Pfiefer, who is not an unattractive woman. Another magazine ran a copy of the original photograph, along with the extensive list of "fixes" that the Vogue editors wanted applied....
 
If you have a daughter, you need to worry more about anorexia and/or bulemia than STDs or violence as threats to her health, or so I have been told by a number of people. The self-image problem is so distorted among girls today that they are starting younger and younger to starve themselves to keep that waifish look that is so popular among the glitterati. That is one of the reasons why I like stars like Kate Winslet, women with real, adult, figures.
 
In my prime, I had over 2000 published photos a year, not counting still pics for animatics for tv commercials. I've seen and photographed thousands of models, all were good looking and great to work with. Clothes, hair and makeup I left to someone else, professionals, my job was to take the picture. My lighting was setup to be the most flattering so that when I looked thru the viewfinder of the camera I only had to focus on one thing...."What are we going to have to fix later?" My job was to look for flaws in mostly exceptionally good looking people.

Darkroom people processed the film and made contact sheets, and in most cases printed the photos the Art Director selected. I would sometimes print the pics that were going to be full page NY Times ads, (that was portfolio stuff). Models should be tall and thin to show off the clothes, there are tricks that can help. Most people when they take pics of family or friends snap the picture while they're standing up, that's a great way to make someone look short and stubby. When I shot fashion full length, my camera was no higher than 2 feet off the ground. When I printed a full length figure I always tilted the top of the easle a little to make the figure even taller and more dramatic. I never told any of my darkroom guys that little trick. ;)

Retouching was left to pros, it was long and hard work back then, all by hand, no Photoshop. I worked with some great people, but they could never match what I can do now with photo editing. A good art director would always spend more time studying slides or transparencies because mostly they came right out of the camera with no retouching. A very good indicator as to how well the photographer did their job. Since I cut my teeth in photography with a view camera I was very selective before I snapped the shutter. No need to be selective anymore, I can fix anything.
 
PhilL said:
Everything gets Photoshopped, check out your next Big Mac compared to the burgers in their ads...
Click to expand...

It's not just bodies and faces, and it's not jus fast food burgers either. You are right when you say everything. We have Martha Stewart running around telling us that in order to be happy, we have to have the right table centerpiece artfully arranged. There are more "home improvement" shows than anyone can count all telling us that our houses should be perfect. Look in magazines or watch TV shows and you get theimpression that everyone's throw pillows are color-coordinated and artfully arranged, so why aren't yours? You must be an inferior person for not having perfect throw pillows much less a perfect yard and garden, the ultimate car stereo, a "pimped ride," and the perfect customized motorcycle and the... and the... and the... Whole lives and lifestyles are photoshopped and sold to us as the standard that we are supposed to aspire to.
 
This year two models in South America have died from anorexia !! It's taking a terrible toll on teenagers between being skinny and implants and plastic surgery .
 
Gollnick said:
You must be an inferior person for not having perfect throw pillows much less a perfect yard and garden, the ultimate car stereo, a "pimped ride," and the perfect customized motorcycle and the... and the... and the... Whole lives and lifestyles are photoshopped and sold to us as the standard that we are supposed to aspire to.
Click to expand...

It's a sick, sad world . . . .
 
Offending post reomoved. Please continue the discussion without further interruption. :)
 
PhilL said:
Everything gets Photoshopped, check out your next Big Mac compared to the burgers in their ads.

Nothing is as it appears.
Click to expand...

Although I am sure they are photoshopped, AFAIK they are also not real food. They use props designed to look like food, so they can stand up to the studio lighting. Plastics mostly.
 
Rat Finkenstein said:
Although I am sure they are photoshopped, AFAIK they are also not real food. They use props designed to look like food, so they can stand up to the studio lighting. Plastics mostly.
Click to expand...

If it's an advertisement for a food item I can guarantee they're using real food not plastic. You might not want to eat it after they're done photographing it, but it started out as food. Food photography is a specialty and there are some real artists, (photographer and stylists) that know how to make the food real tempting.
 
they do crazy shit like going through hundreds of hamburger buns to find the perfect one, individually gluing on sesame seeds to the bun, pinning pickles, lettuce and tomato's in place, using a syringe to add condiments, painting on grill marks. even after all that they still photoshop. Seriously, they contain as much makeup as those models
 
If you see a piece of fruit that looks like it's fresh and covered with a fine mist, it's probably glycerin that you're seeing. It doesn't dry out in the studio lights. The perfect golden-brown turkey in commercials had its skin browned with a blowtorch.

As far as anorexia, I agree that it's important to portray real body images more than the hyper-thin model look, but if you have a daughter, you should probably worry more about them being OVERweight. It's a much more prevalent problem.
 
FoxholeAtheist said:
...if you have a daughter, you should probably worry more about them being OVERweight.
Click to expand...

Being overweight might be more prevalent, but it doesn't kill you at 21:

"A YOUNG model who lived on a diet of apples and tomatoes has died of anorexia on the eve of an international photoshoot.

Ana Carolina Reston, 21, a Brazilian who had worked for Giorgio Armani, was 5ft 7in tall but weighed only six stone when she died on Tuesday.

She is the second young model this year to die after starving herself..."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-2457779,00.html

maximus otter
 
That's a powerful link, Phil. My wife was stunned. She sent it to all her friends...

ME: Guilty as charged. I won't fix flaws in any shot, but I will definitely saturate, add more contrast, and enhance critical areas. I am in the business of advertising, and I get paid by clients who wish to SELL product. I have yet, after thousands of images, had a client ask me to desensitize a final image.

Look in any magazine in any advertisement for something shown at it's very best or better. Marketing 101. I don't suggest everyone do this, but it has been successful for me.

Coop
 
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