Shocking Touchups: Beauty is only Pixel Deep?

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://glennferon.com/portfolio1/index.html' target='_blank'>http://glennferon.com/portfolio1/index.html</a><br /><br /></div>There are <i>photo tweaks</i>, and there are <i>touch-ups</i>, the latter having almost no limits in the digital world we live in. Glenn Feron is a master, and the results are stunning - so much so that you realize some of the famous people you think are beautiful are more normal looking thank you'd think. This site is definitely work a look to see how far a digital artist can push/pull reality.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/glennferon-photo-touchup.jpg" /><br /><br /><b>WARNING: There are no nude images, but not all may be office/family friendly.</b>

[Mike Temporale]

:shocked!: Wow! I'm really impressed at the difference between the pictures. It's really incredible to see what a little (or a lot?) of photoshop work can do to an image.

[Jeremy Charette]

I'm not surprised at all. My fiance is a professional makeup artist, and I retouch most of her images for her. You'd be amazed at how much work it takes to change some almost un-noticeable things, and the huge difference all those little changes make in the final image.

If you thought that guy was impressive, check out this one:

http://homepage.mac.com/gapodaca/digital/digital.html

The stuff he does is scary.

http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/media/users/1990/bikini1_01.jpg

http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/media/users/1990/burger1_01.jpg

[Jason Dunn]

If you thought that guy was impressive, check out this one...

Yeah, I've seen that one before - I think we posted about it here actually. Pretty amazing stuff!

[encece]

That guy sure is a fan of the big BOOTIES!
Most look like paintings. Still impressive....but some don't look that great because they look too fake. Especially where he needed to do ALOT of work! Some needed as much work as possible....
...but Halle Berry and Alicia Keys didn't need any work at all. They're both HOT without the touchups. (Except I saw Alicia Keys on MTV Unplugged, recorded on my Scientific Atlanta DVR, and she's getting a bit thick down below...must be all that sitting at the piano!) Still beautiful though. :)

[Jason Dunn]

Ah encece, always elevating the level of conversation. :lol:

[ChunkyMonkey]

I have been guilty of modifying my own pics. Removing zits, blemishes and wrinkles. My wife thought I took it too far when I took a very cute picture of our daughter where she had a little something from inside her nose (if you know what I mean) and removed it digitally. The picture was perfect after that.

She thinks it is altering reality. I think as long as I keep touchups to a minimum its ok.

[Phoenix]

That guy sure is a fan of the big BOOTIES!...

...but Halle Berry and Alicia Keys didn't need any work at all. They're both HOT without the touchups. (Except I saw Alicia Keys on MTV Unplugged, recorded on my Scientific Atlanta DVR, and she's getting a bit thick down below...must be all that sitting at the piano!) Still beautiful though. :)

I'm a fan, too. :wink: :angel:

Ain't nothin wrong with Alicia being a bit thick. She looks good. :)


Oh yeah, and the touchups are amazing, too. :lol:

[Tim Williamson]

I've done some touchups on pictures of my car, but nothing compared to what either of these artists have done. The most drastic thing I did was use the clone brush to create a field of flowers where my registration had been hanging on my windshield, and that only took a few minutes.

It would be insteresting to learn some of the techniques these guys use to remove blemishes and smoothen skin.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

It's actually quite doable if you have patience. I'm trying to find a tutorial I saw somewhere once, but I can't seem to find it. :/ It was quite a detailed one and showed the amazing amount of work one can do in touching up.

[Jonathon Watkins]

There's some great work in there. The scary thing is that many folks seem to think that magazine photos are 'straight shots' and the people really look like that. There's something very depressing about people trying to attain perfect looks, when the people they are emulating don't look that good in reality. :?

[Phoenix]

There's some great work in there. The scary thing is that many folks seem to think that magazine photos are 'straight shots' and the people really look like that. There's something very depressing about people trying to attain perfect looks, when the people they are emulating don't look that good in reality. :?

That's true. And it is amazing what these people accomplish and how much incredible attention to detail they have: add a few hairs here, remove a few there. And of course much of what's done is based on what the art director wants them to do. Every magazine cover photo has this done and it really makes a person wonder just what the models and celebs honestly look like in person away from the lenses and lights!

[[email protected]]

There's some great work in there. The scary thing is that many folks seem to think that magazine photos are 'straight shots' and the people really look like that. There's something very depressing about people trying to attain perfect looks, when the people they are emulating don't look that good in reality. :?

Yeah, I have some mixed feelings about this. There's no doubt that some of these artists are masters at what they do, but I'm not all in favour of the practice in general. People, mainly women, get unreal expectations to live up to. Not only 16 y.o. stick-figure models, but digitally enhanced 16 y.o. stick-figure models.

It should also be said that some artists are alot less good. Take the gadget/chick-mag T3 for instance, where it's almost as if they want it to be obvious where they've done the touch-ups. Deepend cleavage, hightened chest and so on.

[Crocuta]

I don't see anything wrong with a bit of judicious touching up. I recently took a pic of my wife to accompany an article about her business for an alumni magazine. Hey, we're in our 40's and we don't look like teens any more. While I didn't do anything like what these guys do, she really appreciated a bit of smoothing to the skin, a lightening of some wrinkles around the eyes, etc. What's the harm? It made her feel good and it's not like it made her look like a different person. I doubt that, if anyone who knows her looked at the image, they'd even know it was touched up. But if you look at the original and finished image, you can see that the touched one just looks nicer. I used techniques I learned from Scott Kelby's great Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers. If you have basic Photoshop skills, it's not hard.