Fashion Photography

To what degree should an image be manipulated to go into a fashion magazine?

Fashion photography is all around us. It’s in magazines, advertisements and even newspapers. The models in these pictures however are not always who they appear to be, most of the time these models don’t look much better than you or me.

The process of making a photograph for a fashion magazine often starts with the photographer choosing a model who is maybe slightly better looking than the average person, for women tall size zero models are often used as they are often perceived as being regal and elegant. After the photo has been taken an editor takes the photo and edits it, this often involves changing how the person looks completely.

A good example is when a female model is being edited in photo editing software, this model has already had every cosmetic touch-up possible such as adding make-up and adding a certain hairstyle. The editor then changes how the person looks; sometimes even so they don’t even look possibly human. The editing can often involve increasing neck length, making eyes look bigger increasing bust size and even making them look skinner and taller than humanly possible.

It’s a shame how the media has made us believe this is how the perfect human should look and what’s even worse is how many people try everything they can to look like this. There are countless news reports of more people with eating disorders than there should be due to young women wanting to look like their idols. The sad fact is that most of the time theses “Idols” don’t even look how they are portrayed. The media have made these celebrities and models appear to be super-humans, and we the mindless are being brainwashed to think we should look what isn’t humanly possible.

One really good example of photo manipulation is the “Dove - Evolution Commercial.” This advert shows us just how the process of making a billboard image with a model works, below this paragraph are two screenshots from the video (Before and After.)  At the start of the video we see the model with little to no make-up and looking little more than average. We then see a fast-forwarded video of the model having make-up applied, hair extensions added and other cosmetic changes. The photos are then taken and edited in Photoshop, from the images below we can see that her neck has been extended and thinned, eyes made bigger and even the pigment of skin has been lightened. This just proves the fact of how these models are edited to inhuman proportions.

In conclusion I believe that photo manipulation, in this way, isn’t acceptable. Sure you may think that they are just advertising their products and while this may be true there is more to it than that. The media has given the public a false sense of illusion as to how the world works even though it’s all a lie.