Guilty Of Photography Retouching Abuse?Photography retouching is the act of adjusting, modifying or completely altering part or the whole of a photograph for whatever reason the artist has. This article will touch on the main purpose of digital retouching, some of the methods by which photo retouching is accomplished, the ethics of photo retouching, and the possible results of the misuse of digital retouching. This is done so you'll get a glimpse of how powerful digital image editing is and decide on the right or wrong use of digital enhancement and retouching. There can be any number of reasons for wanting to have a photo retouched. You may just what to add something to the picture or there may just be something in it that you'd rather have removed. You may have an old picture you want retouched so it can be preserved. Photo retouching, strictly speaking, is a method for improving photographs. Portrait shots are usually retouched in order to make the subject look more beautiful. Photographs can be made brighter or more vibrant. These are all accomplished with the help of a digital image editing software. An artist needs to use digital imaging software to retouch a photo. Typically, he'll use the history tool, the smudge tool, and the blur tool to remove blemishes, even out skin tones, hide pimples, smooth out wrinkles, and to simply make the person on the photograph look like a model. Photography retouching is a great help in photography, really. Unfortunately, there's a darker side to this craft so questions about ethics usually come up. There is usually no way of telling if a photo has been retouched or not, so debates about the ethics of photography retouching have cropped up. Altered images can be horribly misleading. You can cut out a picture of Jennifer Lopez, paste it in one of your own photographs, and then show it to all your friends so you can brag about having actually met JLo! Now imagine a tool like that in the hands of the media. The media uses pictures to sensationalize their news stories - and when there are no pictures to be had, media men sometimes make their own. Since photo alterations could be made seamless, anybody who has knowledge of digital image editing software can manipulate photographs to create a whole new issue. If someone were to take a picture of George Bush and Bin Laden then retouch the photographs so it would seem like the two public enemies are making some sort of secret deal, a public furor would ensue and a president might get unseated. That's how powerful digital retouching is. Photography retouching is a wonderful method for making the old new and making the beautiful even more so. However, it's something that may be easily misused and abused, too. |