We all know that digital retouching is a controversial topic and I think the majority of us would say that it’s not really fair to compare ourselves to print advertisements. But realistically, photoshop isn’t going away anytime soon. So how can we compete?
Last week BuzzFeed published an article showing the reactions of four ordinary women seeing their retouched selves. I was surprised at their reaction since all of them said that they prefer having their imperfections. I started wondering how I would look without any imperfections.
“Once you take away your imperfections, there’s not much left of who you really are.”
My Photoshop-savvy friend who was with me when we watched the BuzzFeed video offered to show me how different I would look. Out of curiosity, I took him up on the offer and let him take a quick snapshot of my bare face, puffy eyes and all, with his phone. And while this photo is quite gritty and not the best quality, its clear that Photoshop is basically magic. This retouching, complete with a virtual nose job, took all of 5 minutes.
I am definitely weirded out, and I totally agree with the women in the video. While I would love to have brighter eyes and less dark circles, I just don’t think I look like me without my freckles and chapped lips!
And watching how quickly this retouching job was done, really makes me wonder to what extent everything around us is retouched. I will definitely be more conscious and aware of what the media is giving out from now on!
What’s your opinion of digital retouching? And how do you think you would feel if you could have the chance to get rid of your imperfections?
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