speaking of body images...

[alonewiththemoon]

A lot of my friends list and other online places have been talking about the Dove and new Nike ad campaigns and about showing "real women" as opposed to unrealistic models. I thought people might like to see this site in which the photographer reveals just how much of the women he shoots is "real" and how much is after the fact: http://glennferon.com/. Go to the portfolio, click on an image, and then mouse over to see the original photo. Photo 36 I think provides a pretty good example of how much is real and how much isn't, and how these women (and a couple of men) who are perfectly lovely in the first place still aren't deemed good enough as is.

(may not be entirely worksafe; hotties in skimpy bikinis galore)

Comments

[xenoglaux]

I like how he removes tattoos left and right.
but yeah it's kind of shocking/

[saturniidae.livejournal.com]

Apparently, you should just blur and oversaturate everything until a person's face looks two-dimensional. And no one is allowed to have armpits. Also, this guy needs to learn some physics - if you take a lamp out, you should remove the circle of light that it casts.

[slickgothgurl.livejournal.com]

wow. amazing. i think it's interesting how on most of them, the women are given larger breasts (even if slightly) and made to look thinner. but i think it's also interesting that in many of them, their muscle tone is smoothed out. do we not want to see muscle on women?

i also think photo #2 is funny because he made her butt bigger!

[slickgothgurl.livejournal.com]

also, with photo #9, her right breast is made way too large in order to "match" the left. if she sat up like that, you'd totally see the difference.

On the bright side...

[greendramaqueen.livejournal.com]

If you mouse over #2 back and forth you can make her do a little dance!

I am returning to my ice cream now.

Re: On the bright side...

[greendramaqueen.livejournal.com]

and mvoid says the music for the dance should be the Star Wars cantina song.

[panzerkunst.livejournal.com]

Is there an "Enhance Cleavage" filter in Photoshop now?

[tisana.livejournal.com]

This is great. I need to show people this. I mean, I'm pretty good with Photoshop, and know what it can do, but this still kind of surprised me how much they change. He really seems to like to flatten things and overdo it, though.

[amadea.livejournal.com]

wow. that's horribly mesmerizing! #3 is such a radical change, it's like the final product was inspired by the initial photo but not really made of it. I think most of those pictures look less than artfully touched up.

[atalanta.livejournal.com]

This guy's not very good at it I'd say - the retouching in fashion magazines seems way more subtle and insidious, not so plasticized.

[sbazzy.livejournal.com]

yeah, i agree with amadea - most of them aren't very artfully touched up. most of the originals are also less than impressive.

i find it amusing how he totally redoes their makeup in his retouches.

[sbazzy.livejournal.com]

oh, and his retouching makes all of these black women orange!

[heresiarch.livejournal.com]

wow... i'm going to go back and photoshop all my alt modeling photos now. who knew how easy it could be to eliminate cellulite and enhance cleavage? so much for firming creams -- all we really need are personal retouchers, apparently!

[dirtyknees.livejournal.com]

Fred had fun making the models "bellydance" with the mouse! When I pointed out that #36 was a famous, buff tennis star, he took another look at the site. He returned, disgusted, "He photoshopped out her 6-pack abs. I know how hard she had to work for those."

Yay for men who like chicks with muscles.

--Andrea

Re: On the bright side...

[alonewiththemoon]

heh, perfect :-)

[alonewiththemoon]

Yeah, he's not actually very good, but you know there's got to be people who are doing the same thing much better out there...

[alonewiththemoon]

I think he was going for the poster on teenage boy's bedroom wall market, not fashion ;) but it does give one a little insight into what generally goes on, I think.

[alonewiththemoon]

Yeah, he's not that great at it, and the photos/poses are pretty cheesy to begin with, but it's still interesting to see how things are changed.

[alonewiththemoon]

I think he might have also shaved bone off some of their hips and removed bits of spine. I didn't realize 36 was a tennis star--that does make it all the worse, doesn't it...