Photoshop ‘Til You Drop

I’ve got a few links to share about this topic, some old, some new.

For the longest time, I think that one of the reasons that I avoided doing a “full-time” beauty blog was that I was pretty insecure about it. Who am *I* in the grand scheme of anything, of the thousands (maybe millions of people by the time this is posted), to dare to voice my opinions about beauty?

I’m in my late 30′s, hardly the target demographic for hipsters, trendies, fashionistas, and all of those other labels of people that scare me. I’ve got so much to say about the topic of Photoshop, though. I’ve been using the software for longer than some of you have been alive, not to say that I am a master, not by any means. Hello, color correction lessons? Please call me at the usual number.

I’ve also had the experience of having some seasoned pros and great masters use it on images of me. They started out looking like me, but ending up looking like someone else. I can be as vain as the next person, so that’s why I freely admit that I use what I call “lazy person’s Photoshop”, which includes such modern day conveniences such as Hipstamatic and Instagram, for starters.

Yet sometimes I think that many prominent bloggers overdo it with their own Photoshopping. There, I said it. What a relief. Sometimes this results in a major discrepancy if you should ever see them out on the street or in a store somewhere. I don’t know that they’re setting a healthy example by both doing this and THEN also posting simultaneously that they dislike intense Photoshopping. You no longer have contours on your face and your features are all blown out. You look like a painting, not a person that I can relate to. Do as I say, not as I do, right? Point taken. Unsubscribed.

Let me tell you a story about a younger Hollywood actress who looks nothing like most of her photos. She’s been on the up and up for quite some time, gets to wear gowns that are more than most of our annual salaries, having starred in a major acclaimed television drama, so on and so forth. She would be the absolutely most perfect looking being on Earth (in my humble opinion) if it weren’t for one thing. She’s not. She has normal undereye bags that she wakes up with, like you and me both.

I know this because I worked with her daily on the set of her television show, for a time. Yet every single publication EVER Photoshops them out completely. As a result, she does look like a perfect creature, but even she can’t attain such perfection without the software.

So onto the links:

In case you haven’t seen the advertisement for this wonderful product called Fotoshop by Adobé, here it is. A lovely and clever commercial.

When I first saw this video on YouTube, it had under 2000 hits and now it’s over 900,000. Behold the power of the internet. If you’ve already seen it from my Twitter or the various other places it’s circulating, you can watch it again. It’s that good.

Digitally Enhanced Celebrities and Models

Life Doesn’t Come with an Airbrush Tool from Hello Giggles

How Can I Touch Up My Photos Without Making Them Look Photoshopped?

How to Look Gorgeous in Pictures from Refinery 29

I’m not sure what I think about Photoshop anymore as I know that it’s being used on nearly 100% of the images out there. Perhaps if we look less at retouched images for inspiration on how to look, it won’t be such a disheartening thing. It’s up to us to be our best versions of ourselves FOR ourselves and for me that includes staying out of the sun, eating right, exercising frequently, and doing my best to be realistic about the aging process in a world of Photoshop, needles, lighting, and general madness.

What is your take on Photoshop?