We used Photoshop to change, brighten and make colours look more natural in food products, wedding photos, product photography, and fashion shots. We used it to take our favorite image and place it in a different background for an ad, a campaign, a service, and a community event. That is the bread and butter work of Photoshop users. However some have taken Photoshop to a different level. Some have gone from using Photoshop to enhance photos to replicate realism, to changing photos to be surrealistic.
Photo retouching is a standard means of enhancing photos before they get shipped out into the advertising world. I believe we need it. Without it product shots, fashion shots, and especially photography of food would look dull and not as flattering. The camera doesn’t lie but the camera is not perfect. The human eye can see many more colours in the world’s spectrum than a camera can capture at one time. On the web we see images in RGB which has a higher spectrum of colours when ads go to print they get converted to CMYK which has a lower spectrum of colours it can replicate. So initially that great piece of artwork that we saw initially would not produce an end result as desirable without some good consideration and thought put into the process of capturing it. So I believe it is the photographer’s, designer’s and retoucher’s responsibility to replicate an image they are trying to convey with the best means necessary. They should make the image as realistic and desirable as possible and use Photoshop as a means of doing so.
The key is realism and while I mentioned earlier some users use Photoshop as a means of changing the look of a product from its actual appearance. In the event that you would shoot a pair of fruit in bowl and would want to promote how fresh and juicy the fruit is. If the camera didn’t quite capture the proper lighting of the fruit or if there was a colour cast making the strawberries look green or blue then by all means correct that with Photoshop to project the image we are trying to convey. Photo retouching is good to use in a situation like this when we are trying to change an image into something that it is supposed to be that will be more sought after. The idea is that these really are fresh fruit and fresh strawberries and we are trying to emulate their appearance on print. FYI it helps to have a proper photograph to start with. However if the product, in this case food, was actually rotten or not ripe making the strawberries green, then changing their colour to red to falsely promote how ripe they are would be misleading. What makes photo retouching right is if the product you are retouching really has the desired outcome you are advertising it to be.
Now let’s move into another area such as fashion shots. Photo retouchers go to work on models making their skin glow more and be smoother, add contrast in certain areas, help eliminate excessive pores, make contrasting effects, and make colour corrections. In that case I am also on board with those changes. Though if a retoucher goes and manipulates the actual forms on a figure such as the face, specifically the lips or cheeks, or change the thighs, or the but, then your going into shady territory. On some models they might like it if they were to look lightly slimmer, but to slenderize an already skinny figure into unnatural appearance is setting a bad picture if the end output is to promote beauty with these models. I believe many people have the same opinion when it comes to changing the appearance of models to sell beauty.
When it comes to beauty and fashion I believe magazines should not alter the shape and form of their models. More brands should advertise like Dove and promote natural beauty. When some girls look at the covers that have a figure on certain fashion magazines they may be looking of the end result of a Photoshop Maestro.
All in all Photoshop has its uses in retouching and in advertising. Moreover, what I believe is that the image of the product that is being retouched must replicate the real product that is out there being promoted. When selling a product or promoting a person I believe that a high percentage of the time it should be literal. The exception would be to sell you on something that is a fantasy concept in which case exaggeration and surrealism is accepted.
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