Digital Photo Doctoring
Picture 1
The first picture that I altered was a picture of a woman. The program that I used to alter this picture
was Adobe Photoshop CS3. The changes that I made to this picture are I put lipstick on the lady,
whitened her teeth and eyes, made her skin tan, enlarged her breasts, got rid of red blemishes on her
neck and made her shoulders and face slightly smaller. I also blurred the background so the viewer only
focuses on the woman.
Original Photo
Digitally Edited Photo
Process:
Digitally altering the photo was not a hard task. This was my first time using Photoshop. I found it to be
slightly frustrating at first because there were so many different things that you can do to a photo. The
way that I learned how to alter the photos was by watching tutorials on YouTube. This photo took me a
couple of hours to alter because I was not really sure what I was doing and I ended up doing a lot of
experimenting. Obviously I am not a professional so my work is not up to par of what they are capable
of, but this goes to show how easy it is to alter a photo. The main “tool” that I used within Photoshop
was the Liquify tool, this tool allowed me to shrink her body and also enlarge parts of the body. I also
used a tool called the Dodge tool and this allowed me to whiten her teeth and the whites of her eyes.
Due to the lack of my experience this lady might not look significantly more beautiful, but there were a
lot of changes made to her appearance to try and enhance her looks.
Picture 2
The second picture that I altered was of Jennifer Love Hewitt. This is a famous actor that most people
would find attractive. In this picture she is slight overweight and in a swimsuit. Many people on the
internet made a big deal of this, so I decided to help her out and slim her up. The things that I altered on
this photo are I slimmed up her entire body, I brought her butt cheeks up and puckered them, I also had
to erase the rolls on her upper thighs, I lightened her hair up and lastly I made the water a more vibrant
blue.
Original Photo
Digitally Edited Photo
Process:
The way that I altered this photo was mainly by using the Liquify tool. I used this tool to warp her body
image. By warping it I essentially pushed in areas that I thought were fat and could be skinnier. I also
warped her butt by bringing it up because it was sagging. After I warped her body I used the Pucker tool
to make her body tighter and more petite. After that I changed her hair to a lighter color, I did this buy
coloring it yellow and then changing the lighting so it looked more natural. The last thing that I did to
this picture was color the water. I did this the same way that I did the hair, I colored the water teal and
then I changed the lighting so the water would look more vibrant.
Reactions:
The way that I got reactions was I showed the four pictures to three different people and then had them
fill out a questionnaire. The questionnaire had four questions and these questions were:
1. Which picture do you find more visibly appealing? Why?
2.
What are you initial thoughts about altering pictures?
3. Picture altering is used all the time in advertising; do you have a problem with this?
Why or why not?
4. What do you think should be some ethical guidelines that marketers should follow when
it comes to altering photos in advertisements?
22 year old female:
1. The original one of the girl - it looks natural and real. I also like the altered one of Jennifer - the ocean
looks pretty.
2. I think altering pictures is like cheating, especially in everyday life things like Facebook, gossip
magazines, etc. It distorts reality. Pictures should be kept as the original, because that is what is real and
what was really seen by the camera.
3. I get why altering pictures is used in advertising - I'm sure it brings in more clients, sells more
products, or whatever it may be the original goal of the pictures was. I don't see a problem with this if it
is business related - I'm sure every ad I see is altered but it is not going to change MY opinion on the
product (though I am sure it will others). If it makes the company altering the advertisements more
successful, go for it. I, personally though, wouldn't use altered pictures - I think the more real something
is, the better it is. (You know, like that new camera commercial - where at the end, it says this was all
shot with this camera - it caught my attention more than any other camera advertisement because it
was real and natural - not altered to bring in business)
4. I think if something is altered for advertisement purposes, the client should be aware of it. If it's an ad
in a magazine, it should say it on there. If it’s a commercial, it should say it on there. I think if the
company is going to alter what it is they are advertising; the people they are trying to target need to
know about it.
45 year old Female:
1. The altered picture is more appealing. In the first photo it enhances her looks, makes her look
healthy and vibrant. The Jennifer photo is more appealing as it conforms to our beliefs of a woman that
"large" with dimples is not beautiful.
2. If the true picture is about enhancing a feature rather than altering a feature then I say go for it! If it
is misleading, then I say it is wrong.
3. Only a problem if it does not tell the truth about someone or something. Makes us believe
something is different than it really is.
4. If the altering is not the same person, body parts etc then I believe there should be guidelines. In an
essence when this is done, it is misleading and could be considered false advertising. Taking smile lines
from someone's eyes to soften the look is different.
28 year old female:
1. The second picture is better in both of them. In the first one she looks tanner and overall just has a
healthier look. The second picture she is visibly thinner with less cellulite.
2. I don't see a problem with altering pictures. Beauty sells and let’s be honest people would rather look
at a beautiful person with this "perfect" image than someone who for example has cellulite and
wrinkles.
3. I personally don’t have a problem with it; however I can see how it can have an altering affect on
society. I think if you are aware that this happens and when you look at those pictures of "perfection" to
know that in real like they probably don't look like that. I think that it can definitely give the wrong
impression to say younger girls/boys who look at these images and cant conceptualize that these are not
"true" images and that people don't naturally look that thin or beautiful. I think it puts a lot of pressure
on society to obtain this certain image.
4. I think that if the celebrity/model that is in the pics chooses not to be altered than the marketers
should respect that. I don’t think there should really be any guidelines. My thinking is that "it is what it
is" and unfortunate or not this is what our society has come to. There are companies such as Dove that
are trying to break that standard, which is great, but I dont think it is necessary for all marketers to jump
on that bandwagon. They know what sells and so they are going to use it to their advantage. Business is
business!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I decided to interview all females because I believe they are affected by this type of advertising more
than men are. I wanted these women to be aware of how easy it is to alter an image, seeing as how I am
an amateur and was able to make significant changes in the photos. I was surprised that all of these
women accepted that this occurred and were ok with it because they knew it was happening. They all
mentioned that they are not influenced by these images because they know that they have been
altered.
Clothing Policies
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We will let the customer know when we have altered an image
Our clothing will not be altered
o The fit, color, cut and size of the clothing will be what it actually is
The backgrounds of our images may be altered to be more visually appear
We will not enhance the model by more than 50%
o Our models will reflect more of an average person
o If possible we will not alter the model at all
We will not alter models under the age of 18
We will try to represent our customers to the best of our ability and provide them with an idea of
how our clothing will look on them