100% of magazine pictures are photoshopped

Yup. every last one. As you’re flipping through that magazine, every single image you see on the pages have been enhanced in one way or another. Now, although that may be shocking, its not necessarily done in order to deceive you. Most of the retouching is done in order to detract features that would distract from the product being featured.

For example: the advertisement is for a ring and it is on someones finger, the veins and freckles are reduced and smoothed out, the wrinkles and shadows on the knuckles are made smoother in order for you to place your direct vision on to the ring itself. Hair is incredibly difficult to photograph properly, so those stubborn flyaways are edited out and they add in some shine in order to see the dimension in that braid or updo. Other times it is just in the order of the lighting, there might be some distracting shadow or the brightness of the photo is overall too dark.

Having been a retoucher for a few years I can definitely see and notice as I flip through the pages where as others don’t notice a single thing when they’re looking through that magazine. It is also quite difficult to find that perfect medium where you don’t want to pass that “too much retouching” line yet don’t want the image too look too undone and messy looking that will leave your customers unhappy.

I can’t say whether I’m for or against retouching in images as it varies from each advert and such. But I will say that I am guilty of having over done images in the past and shudder at ever having thought that it looked acceptable.

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