Photographers have been altering images long before Photoshop. One of the earliest examples of international photojournalism – Crimean War photographer Roger Fenton’s 1855 image of a bombed-out landscape in Ukraine – was staged
Photojournalist Michael Kamber was able to put together an entire collection of famous images that have been staged in one way or another.
It’s understandable to always want to improve your work or tweak an image to fix the tiny mistakes; after all, the perfect shot is nearly impossible to get, especially in a moment of high stress or action. The basic rules of photojournalism are:
Do not direct the scene: the situation you are shooting should happen organically, without the photographer’s influence
Do not drastically alter in post processing: light retouching is okay, but nothing should be removed or added to an image.
Do not change the context in the captions: the caption of the image or the story attached to the image should be exactly what is happening in the photo.
Most of the time, if an image has been altered some form of marketing is involved. Magazines are looking to grab attention with attention grabbing photos. For example, in 1994 in the midst of his murder trial LIFE magazine ran OJ Simpson’s mugshot which had been dramatically darkened.
Besides being racially incredibly insensitive, Simpson’s skin was considerably darkened during a time of racial unrest. Was what LIFE magazine did actually wrong? Did they break any of the basic rules of journalism? Photographers use lighting to tell a story all the time, where is the line when manipulating images and when do you know you’ve crossed it?
Use of Photoshop Manipulation in the Makeup World
Instagram has become a huge platform for the makeup and makeup artist community. Non celebrity makeup artists now have cult followings and can successfully launch their own makeup lines. It has been such a game changer for truly talented people, but with the upsides also come the downsides.
Image manipulation is rampant in the makeup community. Obviously, glamour photos will be retouched and enhanced to emphasize the makeup, but some artists will completely alter their face using Facetune or Photoshop.
Images are unrecognizable from the originals and are then claimed to be lightly retouched. Some artists go as far as to use filters that enhance their appearance on video tutorials. Celebrity MUA James Charles has come under fire multiple times for heavily altering his posts.
There is nothing wrong with retouching images or even altering your appearance on social media, but while makeup is a form of artistry it is still an industry that profits off insecurity. It’s disingenuous to say an image is simply enhanced by makeup when it’s been digitally altered and damaging to people looking to it for guidance.possible. Minor retouching can really make incredible work stand out but if the final product is unrecognizable from the original the moral waters begin to get murky. This form of deception is dishonest at best and toxically harmful at worst.
Photo by Liz Breygel on Unsplash
Cook, J. (2021, June 4). Selfies, Surgeries And Self-Loathing: Inside The Facetune Epidemic. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/facetune-selfies-surgeries-body-dysmorphia_n_60926a11e4b0b9042d989d48.
Kamber , M. (2015, June 20). ALTERED IMAGES. http://www.alteredimagesbdc.org/.
Mallonee, L. (2015, July 29). Infamously Altered Photos, Before and After Their Edits. Wired. https://www.wired.com/2015/07/bronx-documentary-center-infamously-altered-photos-edits/.
Ryan-Mosley, T. (2021, April 2). Beauty Filters Are Changing the Way Young Girls See Themselves. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/04/02/1021635/beauty-filters-young-girls-augmented-reality-social-media/.
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