Weighing the cost of photo editing
By Maria Johnson
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but could those words be a thousand lies? With Photoshop and other editing programs available at almost every professional photographer’s disposal, it’s not difficult to change reality to fantasy with a few clicks and drags of a mouse. That sounds a little like Ursula of The Little Mermaid meets modern technology.
“And I fortunately know a little magic. It’s a talent that I always have possessed. And dear lady, please don’t laugh. I use it on behalf of the miserable, the lonely, and depressed (pathetic). Poor unfortunate souls; in pain, in need. This one longing to be thinner, that one wants to get the girl. And do I help them? Yes, indeed,” Ursula sings.
Photos Feed Feeble Minds
The ability to make a photo fit a photographer’s vision can be a great tool, but could it be harmful as well? July of this past summer, 14 year-old Juliah Bluhm of Maine decided it could be, and she gathered 80,000 online signatures from people who agreed.
The Change.org petition was sent to Seventeen Magazine pleading for “one unaltered -real- photospread per month.” The petition’s page now has a “Victory!” box, informing that “the magazine has made a commitment to not alter the body size or face shape of the girls and models in the magazine and to feature a diverse range of beauty in its pages.” The magazine also created an online Body Peace Treaty for readers to sign that promotes positive, healthy language and environments.
Seventeen, however, is not the only reality-altering publication. The media provides expectations and examples for teens through television shows, magazines, advertisements, and anything else they know will land in a kid’s lap.
Dove Research discovered that 72 percent of girls feel tremendous pressure to be beautiful, while only 11% of them are comfortable saying they are. The goals and views of a healthy body that some edited pictures create can lead to low self-esteem and depression among adolescents.
As recorded by the National Institute of Mental Health, depression is the leading cause of suicide, and suicide is the third leading cause of death among teens.
“I think there should be rules about what they can Photoshop, because if they edit someone’s body, they’re giving people a misleading representation of how their body should look,” junior Touree Murphy said.
Aspiring fashion photographer Franey Miller had a few things to say about edited pictures as well.
“If you want a skinnier girl, then get a skinnier model,” Miller said. “It definitely has negative effects because it’s not real, those girls don’t exist. The fashion industry was fine before Photoshop came, we don’t need it. Now with visual aid, though, you can edit anything. Girls should know that photos are edited. It’s the parent’s job to say, ‘That’s not real, it’s Photoshopped.’ and get them an Annie Leibovitz book instead, because those photos are gorgeous. Those books are so raw and personal.”
“It’s an industry, so the pictures are designed to sell,” local photographer Lauren Morris said. “They’re made to look like the height of perfection. It’s easy to spot over-editing.”
The benefits of editing reality
Despite the obvious negative effects that edited photos can cause, it’s also important to see the flipside, where Photoshop has been extremely beneficial as well. Media Arts teacher Mrs. Kevin Schultz provides some helpful instruction on Photoshop and editing pictures in the classroom.
“My students learn how to enhance photos and create fantasy work, such as collages, among other things,” Schultz said.
Schultz can agree that Photoshop is used big time in ads and fashion magazines, and she shared that her first year kids utilize these pictures. They look through magazines to get a lot of examples of the elements of art. She said that it is also used positively by graphic designers and to correct lighting.
Senior Shelby Kerberg and junior Hunter Cooper have seen many positive aspects of photoshop as media arts students.
“Photoshop can make any digital image better, not just people,” Kerberg said. “You can take any photo from bad to good.”
“There is more artistic freedom when using Photoshop,” Cooper said. “You can save a photo, too.”
Editing photos does not automatically result in an unrealistic looking picture, but it can be used to purposefully create an art piece that is obviously not real life. This is known as surrealism, which Cooper and Kerberg explained and really seem to enjoy.
Boundaries vs upbringing
As Photoshop gives a helping, and occasionally hurtful, hand to a vast majority of photographers today, the question stands: should there be boundaries set, or is it just another pressure parents must be aware of and teens must learn to handle? Health and CIE teacher Ms. Kelly Renton shares her take on the issue.
“A lot comes from home, like what mom does and examples set for them,” Renton said. “Little girls are really perceptive of that stuff. They struggle with self-issues anyway. It’s example-led. Parents have a huge influence on their kids. They spend the majority of their time with them, so they’re going to learn a lot of their eating habits and their exercise habits from parents, and their take on the media.”
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