I’ve been having a great time tinkering with my new Lightroom 3 photo editing software and working some editing magic on my photos. However, it’s gotten me thinking about the future of photography.
Here are some before and afters of what photo editing can do:
No Bake Toffee & Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls
Before
After
And spunking up the Cinnamon Sugar & Ginger Roasted Potato Sticks with editing
Before
After
And from my earlier recipe post with these Cinnamon Sugar & Ginger Roasted Potato Sticks, thanks for letting me know you liked the looks of them and for filling me in on how you like your taters. Lots of you said you like sweet potatoes.
And brightening up Raw Pasta Salad with Creamy Lemon & Herb Dressing
Before
After
And this picture made it into Foodgawker! I resubmitted it, and they took it!
So that’s two pictures now that I have edited and were accepted on the second go-round. Same composition, just some brightening, tweaking, and editing. I am now a Lightroom believer.
However, all of this has me wondering what will become of the future of photography. More on that below.
But first, dessert: Vegan Fudge (No-Bake, Vegan, Gluten Free, Soy Free)
It just happens to be vegan. It just happens to taste amazing, too.Questions:
1. I’ve been thinking about how photo editing can effect the future of photography.
When I was growing up, looking at pictures in an album was a physical record of a snapshot in time of something I saw that really existed. It was not a stylized or “airbrused” or edited version of something that really existed. What the pictures showed is what existed or happened. What you see is what you get. Those 1982 Poloraid shots don’t lie. Nothing edited about those.
Nowadays, what you see is maybe what you get.
Maybe not what you get, at all.
Or maybe a really stretched truth or version of the truth.
In this post, the food I made was all real. It all existed. It looked much better in person than it did in my Before shots.
The After shots make the food appear on the screen much closer to what it looked like on my table. And this is why I like photo editing; because it brings back the vibrance, clarity, and beauty that really was present and existed in real life and to the eye, but that isn’t always present or captured properly on camera and thus on-screen or in prints.
However, it is entirely possible to make the food look nothing like what I saw on my table. Or to take editing way too far.
And you can take this example and apply it to a person’s nose, cellulite, smile, the wrinkles on their shirt, or the color of their eyes. Everything can be manipulated, and quite far.
Do you think we will one day enter an age where you don’t even know if the photos you’re looking at are “real”? Or that they’ve been edited to such a degree it’s impossible to tell what things or the person really looked like?
2. Can you imagine how different models or celebrities in magazines look when edited or not? Would you like to see them un-edited?
My food before and afters go to show you, don’t believe everything you see. Editing works wonders. On potatoes, salads, desserts, zits, lumps, bumps, and everything else.
It does sometimes feel a bit like “trickery” when you see these women and they are just too perfect in their photos in magazine or online. We know intellectually that the photos have been edited after already spending half a day in hair and makeup. But, I always wonder what they look like after they roll out of bed, or go to the gym, or even just walking down the street normally. I wish we could see those pictures, too. Oh wait, that’s what the papparzzi is for.
This Site has 20 great examples and is the source for these photos.
Then again, I don’t mind seeing glossy, airbrushed, edited photos, either. They are usually beautiful, but I know they aren’t real and that the woman doesn’t really look like that, and that’s fine. I look at photos like this as art. That they are a representation of what the person looks like, but is not actually just a carbon copy snapshot. Photography as art and artistry.
However, many women are not able to realize when they look at certain photos that Suzy Q Celebrity really doesn’t have a 22 inch waist with no zits and perfect hair. She has a 32 inch waist, blackheads and zits, and her hair is full of split ends.
I think as long as we realize that whatever we see is most likely manipulated, to some degree, and you “keep your head screwed on straight about it” (to use my grandma’s expression) you’ll be fine. But when you’re 14, you don’t know this or can’t rationalize this. And some women who are 24 or 44 still haven’t learned this and that’s when it can get a little dangerous because all kind of comparisons and self-doubt can occur.
What are your thoughts on photo editing and manipulation? Do you fall prey to thinking that models or celebrities in magazines really look the way they appear in photos? That even though you “know” they really don’t look like that, you just can’t help yourself and fall for it? I would say most women fall into this category.
Tell me your thoughts on it all!
I really like this post! I think magazine photos and ads should come with a little warning or reminder that it has been edited and is not really what the person looks like. It can be easy to forget and think that what we see is natural. It makes me so sad that so many people, like easily influenced young girls, are unaware of the photo editing that goes on!
Congratulations on getting your photos accepted! That is way cool. I admire your photography skills a lot.
As for photo editting, I know it makes a lot of people upset, but I just take it as a reality of today’s media, which will always be subject to skewing. It’s just a form of propoganda, and it’s a byproduct of our culture.
This is a really good topic for discussion. For me, I can generally push out all of the messages that our popular culture sends me and everyone else about how women should look because I know they are fake. I always hated wearing makeup, tweezing my eyebrows, and wearing cute hairstyles. It has taken me a long time to feel comfortable to stop doing all of those things. I now feel really happy about my body and how I look. However, when I am standing in line at the grocery store and I see the images of women on the covers of magazines, even though I know they have been manipulated, I feel self conscious for a moment.
Congrats on the photos being accepting Averie!!! That is a huge compliment to your growing passion.
I agree – I don’t mind seeing the airbrushed photos, but we as a society have to REALIZE that these are not reality. When we get so caught up in making every little “flaw” disappear, we start to expect that in the real world…. NOT true. I love walking around a city and people watching just because everyone is so real and so unique. In a magazine, that’s fine to touch things up, but in the real world, I want REAL.
I like both the real and edited pics—the edited/airbrushed pics are beautiful…but the non-edited faces/flaws are a great reminder of exactly what you said.
The whole topic reminds me of the Dove Evolution video that came out several years ago, showing the progression of the editing! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U
Never, NEVER believe what you see in magazines! As someone who has photoshop, I know first-hand how easy it is to get rid of wrinkles, stains, etc.
You can make Danny Devito look like Brad Pitt! ;)
I definitely edit my food photos… but I’m up-front about it. Someone commented the other day on how beautiful my spinach ice cream photo was, and I sent her the first one (un-edited). It was an ugly beast!
But lol, after the editing, both foodgawker and tastespotting took it!
I am so jealous of your editting program! Someday I will have one…a girl can dream, can’t she?! Potato sticks look tasty! I think I may make some (sweet potato ones) to go with our veggie sloppy joes tonight. Thanks for the inspiration!
Living in New York, I’ve seen a fair number of celebs out and about, and while they’re attractive in person, they’re not the perfect, alien women we see on magazine covers. Personally, if I were on the cover of a national magazine, I wouldn’t say no to some skin retouching, or whatever, either….I mean, who wouldn’t? I think a lot of older women understand this, yet still beat themselves up for not comparing to the photoshopped version of what a woman “should” be. That’s a bigger issue than just editing pictures, though; it’s society as a whole. What really scares me is the young girls who don’t know about photoshopping, seeing all those images. For that reason, I think that campaigns like Caitlin’s Operation Beautiful are absolutely invaluable to educating young girls and creating confident women!
Congrats on food gawker! I like photo editing, but not when it alters the person so much that it isn’t really them. I don’t like that models can be edited to fit a form of world beauty, rather than appreciating the beauty that they have…(IE making them look skinnier with flawless skin)
To be honest, I prefer the “original” versions of the photos that look less airbrushed. I’m not a fan of airbrushing. To me, it looks too fake and kind of freaks me out.
Congrats on the foodgawker pics! I saw them on there and I thought they looks so familiar. When I saw they were yours I was so excited for you! I got a few pictures on foodgawker and tastespotting, now neither seem to be accepting me lately. They can be so picky!
I kind of like edited photos – like you say, they’re art. But yes, they aren’t an accurate representation of a person and I try my very best to not compare myself but it doesn’t always work. I try to remind myself that if I’m going to compare myself or be jealous of something someone has I have to actually see the person in person and see what they actually look like on a daily basis. Then I’m usually pretty happy with myself, haha
I don’t think there is anything wrong with brightening pictures — of people, things, places, food, etc. To me that isn’t a big deal. I like pretty pictures — and adjusting something like lighting or brightening/darkening things up is fine to me.
I don’t like the cut/paste in magazine ads though — reshaping someone’s jaw, changing eye color, etc. I don’t think those are healthy images for us (me?) to see.
owww- I want those potato sticks! What a great combination of flavors. I’m always amazed at what editing can do. I often wish my photos looked better…I wish I had more time to edit away! It is scary sometimes to look at the before and afters of edited photos in magazines. Reminds you that no one is perfect! Any weekend plans??
I don’t mind photo editing. It’s not a shocker that it’s done anywhere. After looking at Food Gawker, I realize most people that get accepted on there must use the same software on their photos. I guess you do what you want. The one thing about food blogging that I liked was that it was more real, but I guess it’s up to the blogger how they want to show their stuff. What you see in food magazines is mostly not even food.
I am with you on the dual opinions…I like seeing pretty pictures, but I dislike the negative body images that may occur due to comparisons…
and to answer your earlier question, I think we already live in a world where we cannot tell what’s real from what’s been manipulated
Averie!! congrats on your foodgawker photos! :) your photos have been beautiful lately.
as far as the last photos, I’d much rather see the unedited of celebrities – they look FINE.