Essay on The Pros and Cons of Photograph Alteration

Manipulated photos in the media influence the eyes that see it, including children. In an article entitled “Is Photoshop Destroying America’s Body Image”, Vivian Diller Ph.D. states that The AMA ( American Medical Association) is just beginning to raise public awareness about the impact of image manipulation on childhood development. They want us all to reflect upon the way in

Within the past few decades, technology has completely transformed. The height and talent of today’s technology has completely changed America and its views. Technology has completely changed and expanded over the past 20 years. Within the past decade a new form of editing technology was created, and that technology is Photoshop. Photoshop is a software used to alter images. In todays day and age, photoshop has become the norm. It is everywhere and it cannot be escaped. Photoshop is used on everything and everyone, and it is affecting us at an extremely negative rate. Due to the works of Photoshop being used on every single media platform, society has adapted to the perfection in photos that were altered by Photoshop. What the world sees when they look at a photoshopped picture is what a company views as perfection, and this image creates an unhealthy comparison between the viewer, the image, and those around them. With Photoshop, images are altered beyond recognition. The Photoshop software takes away any blemish and flaw, and it can make the model used in the photo unrealistically thin, and by this it creates an unachievable body image. When these images are viewed by society, they only see the photo, and they don’t see the hours and hours spent altering the image to actually make them appear this way. So, when society, especially young children and young adults, see these insanely altered images they see something that isn’t real. They see someone that isn’t realistic,

A photograph is a powerful tool for life. A single, unchanged image of reality can be utilized for a variety of situations. For one, one photograph could decide the lifestyle in the foreseeable future of a person that committed a crime. Furthermore, one photograph could reveal the horrors of a particular event. On another note, one photograph could hold heartwarming memories forever. In addition, one photograph could stir a controversy that will have people debating whether an entity is real or not. Overall, as Susan Sontag mentions in her book Photograph, “Photographs furnish evidence.”(Sontag); in other words, whether if it is, good, bad, or misinterpreted, one photograph can be used as evidence that something in fact happened or is real.

Images everywhere! On the billboards, in magazines, newspapers, books, advertisements, on the internet. OH GOD! These days we are bombarded by images. But why? Most people are visually impressed, and quite strikingly, the human “brain is mainly an image processor, not a word processor.” This is due to the fact that “visuals are concrete and more easily remembered, whereas words are abstract and rather difficult for the brain to retain.” Nevertheless, rather surprisingly human beings tend not to analyze images as they would scrutinize a text. The very moment a text is written, it flies from the hands of the writer and moves to the eyes of thousands and thousands of readers to be evaluated and criticized.

The recent, 3D white Strip ad, advertises their products in magazines, TV commercials, and in the newspaper, where people would most likely stumble upon it. The advertisement is mainly aimed at young adults, where looks are a major factor in finding potential love ones. By looking at the ad, the main objective is for people to get white teeth by using their product. To grab the audience’s attention, Crest places Shakira face in the center of the ad page with her beautiful smile being the point of interest. Her smile displays her white teeth, and that is a direct result of using the 3D crest strips. Under Shakira’s face, Crest places their product with a caption to provide details that their product not only works for Shakira, it can work for everyone with its Flexfit technology. By placing Shakira’s face and the product on their ad, many people will feel motivated to have white teeth because they know by using Crest’s products, they too, can obtain white teeth like Shakira. That includes me, just by looking at this ad, I too, would like to have white teeth just like

The dove beauty campaigns are again a perfect example of this, as they depict a digitally altered photo of a woman being presented on a billboard (Tpiper). Depicting a remarkable transformation of an ordinary woman, this video shows a billboard model being produced through means of excessive makeup and hair styling in conjunction with digital editing after the photo was taken. This woman is not natural. She has pounds of makeup on her face, as well as photoshopped touchups, and yet she is perceived by the public as the standard of beauty. Nobody is able to compare with such a carefully sculpted face, and therefore this establishes unrealistic expectations

The first two chapters of “The Practice of Looking” touch upon the idea of interpretation of images. For the purposes of this essay, an image is a piece of media that has a tangible visual effect, such as a picture, book, or TV series. The authors talk about how many people can have different interpretations of the same image and the idea that the audience gives an image meaning, which are valid arguments, but they fail to recognize that a single person’s interpretation of an image can change over time. Interpretation can change constantly, whether it’s many people looking at the same image or one person looking at the same image repeatedly over time; sometimes, the author’s intended meaning is more easily interpreted than at other times.

Teju Cole, in his essay “Against Neutrality,” dissected the tones behind photography- which he believes are thought of as unbiased towards the subject. The power of words and of photos is crucial to Cole’s essay. He states that images can “make a grim situation palatable” because of the photographer’s craftiness in selection (Cole 1). To anyone who isn’t an experienced photographer these tricks can be hard to see but Cole provides further insight from the historian, John Edwin Mason. Expectantly, Mason sheds light behind the misconception on photography, how the “manipulation in photography isn’t really about Photoshop or darkroom tricks”, but the style, angle and other aspects of taking photos (Cole 1).

Between the use of film or digital photography, film is the more effective method when looking for originality and creativity. With the adoption of digital photography, the younger generations, as well as the older and more current photographers are becoming lazy. These groups must recognize that the art of the photograph is being jeopardized by the digital camera and the camera phone. For the current photographers as well as amateur photographers, this essay will serve as testimony to film as well as other chemical methods, and how they shouldn’t be ignored, but preferred. The digital era has had a massive impact on the art world and all of its mediums, but for photography this impact has resulted in the removal of the human from the photograph making process. This intimate process is what makes it an art form. All of films imperfections and unique qualities, as well as its monetary value and scarcity are just a few factors that have made it so precious. To replace this entire process with a microchip is offensive and undermines the importance of the process that is needed to make a photograph. Anyone can take a picture but you must make a photograph, and this skill is being simplified to a digital camera. The impact of the digital era on photography has hindered the process of making a photograph; painting the art form obsolete in today’s society.

This affects the opinions formulated by spectators since all they are used to seeing is altered ads such as news reports and edited gossip columns. A glimpse of “The Allegory of the Cave” can be associated with the altered visions of advertisements. When the three prisoners are chained, their only sight is the wall in front of them that displays reflections of random objects. The shadows that are seen are only but an altered reality of the real objects, just like the ads from Photoshop. Various professions such as “TV stars and models” are targeted most in our generation (Hogan, 2015). The editing program allows individuals to act in “image manipulation,” creating unrealistic expectations for the people of our society (Kite,

To stop the negative impact of Photoshop on teenagers, photographers should only use Photoshop for the good of photography and not to give false images of the social norm. In opposition, many would state that Photoshop provides beauty and promotes financial in marketing. The primary objective is to get money for false looks. American culture is highly obsessed with beauty. Everywhere you go there are advertisements and misleading images. Whether it’s for models or food alterations are used to sell the image. Models appearances on these photos are admired and sought after from the society. Jessica Walker stated in an interview “I do not think Photoshop is bad I use it to make my photos better, but I don’t like what people use it for...The user and its intentions are bad not the program itself”(Walker). The issue is defined as the images being presented giving a false perception. These photos have been tampered with by professionals, in which they think that their model is what society wants to see. Both genders are being affected by the medias view of body image. However, women and teenagers changed the most. Teenage girls have continuously been presented with images that they are supposed to look like, which is unrealistic images. Photoshop causes some teens to have self-esteem issues and many other disorders.

Although Sturken and Cartwright claim it is quite easy to fall for the misconception that photographs are “unmediated copies of the real world” (Sturken & Cartwright, 17), this is no longer true, if it ever was. While cumbersome, even before the advent of image editing software, it was possible to modify photographs. Furthermore, in contemporary society, we have completely lost faith in mass media representation; rarely do people expect images to be completely unmodified anymore. This is especially visible in western culture since people are pressured to conform into highly specific aesthetics where even a “natural” look is artificially crafted with makeup and digital filters. Even disregarding direct manipulation to a print through methods such as Photoshop, photographs are manipulated in such obvious ways, it almost seems absurd to point it out. The framing, lighting, and positioning are always adjusted by the photographer. Therefore, people themselves are a type of manipulation; a representative filter through which biases are imbued. In effect, Sturken and Cartwright’s conclusion that all camera-generated images bear an “aura of machine objectivity” (Sturken & Cartwright, 16) stemming from “the … legacy of still-photography” (Sturken & Cartwright, 17) is

When going for a walk, a person takes in the beauty around them. On this particular day, the refulgent sun is extra bright, making the sky a perfect blue. White, puffy clouds fill the sky, slowing moving at their own pace. The wind is peacefully calm, making the trees stand tall and proud. There is no humidity in the air. As this person walks down the road, they see a deer with her two fawns. The moment is absolutely beautiful. Moments like this happen only once in a great while, making us wanting to stay in the particular moment forever. Unfortunately, time moves on, but only if there were some way to capture the day’s magnificence. Thanks to Joseph Niépce, we can now capture these moments and others that take our breath away. The

What is a photograph? The simplicity of taking a photograph leads many to ponder its artistic value. Yet, it is undeniable that there are some photos that cause an emotional reaction deeper than simply observing a recorded point in time. Surely, there are photographs that cause more reaction than some modern art pieces. There seems to be two types of photographs. The first classification is the ‘time capture’ photo – an image with the sole purpose of recording a particular event or point in time. The second nature of a photo carries a ‘deeper meaning,’ which has the ability to change the observer’s mood and cause a reaction. But what distinguishes these two varieties? There are a

In the last decade computer technology has been introduced to photography yet again challenging the meaning