It’s Friday afternoon, 4:30pm. Do you know whether that photo you are looking at on Facebook is real? Is Nicholas Cage really a vampire?
Think About…
It’s hard to say these days if anything is real on the internet. But then what defines “real”?
When does a photo stop being a photo?
On one hand, Photoshop can create some beautiful works of arts.
So when does a photo stop being a photo? When is it visual art and not photographic art? Is there even a line?
- Take this gorgeous photograph–Nature at her best!
The image was floating around the web for a while, entitled “Sunset at the North Pole”. Breath-taking! And totally digitally rendered.
A 22-year-old astrophysicist, using a scenery rendering software, created “Hideaway”. The Internet made is a world-wide “fauxto”. For more fauxtos, visit Snopes.com.
Dangerous Art of Retouching
While Photoshop can help you make these beautiful artistic statements, you can always have too much of a good thing.
Every photo in a professional publication is retouched to make the sky bluer, the shadows darker, or to remove the logo for the product they are NOT endorsing. That doesn’t even go into the murkier area of touching up individuals to make them thinner or paler or add a third arm.
- My favorite Photoshop FAIL! in recent memory is this one of Britney Spears. Excluding the questionable amount of work done on her body, check out the number of arms her friends has:
OOPS. Too much Photoshop can be a dangerous thing!
Fotoshop by Adobé
In fact, a very astute individual made this fabulous parody commercial. I highly recommend it!
The tagline: This commercial isn’t real, neither are society’s standards of beauty.
Follow on twitter.com/JesseRosten
Fotoshop by Adobé from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.
Scary what you can do, isn’t it?
Your Turn
Now here’s your turn to check for the Photoshopping.
Which of these, if any, have been through the Photoshop machine? Click on each image for a larger view. Then when you are ready, click the solutions link at the bottom!
A | B | C | D |
E | F | G | H |
Which ones are Photoshopped? Find out now!
This activity is in honor of my grandmother who passed away this week after an incredibly full life.