Why do companies even use real people for their pictures?

[Shaun__]

Why don't companies just draw someone from scratch? They seem to have no desire for reality or anything. Link

 

[Poker_Babe]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

But lets be honest here, some people need photoshop! LOL :lol:

 

[LaceyRoyce]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

But lets be honest here, some people need photoshop! LOL :lol:

I really dont think older women NEED photoshop at all.
I think society needs to stop telling us aging = ugly and start realizing that beauty can come in different ways...

If madonna was SMILING in that first photograph (without photoshop) i think that's all that photo needs.

 

[SexySteph]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

But lets be honest here, some people need photoshop! LOL :lol:

I really dont think older women NEED photoshop at all.
I think society needs to stop telling us aging = ugly and start realizing that beauty can come in different ways...

If madonna was SMILING in that first photograph (without photoshop) i think that's all that photo needs.

 

[LaceyRoyce]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

This isnt a perfect example

but i just took two pictures of myself (age 26)

First one - I am staring blankly at the screen. The light is a little harsh from the window and the angle is straight on.

Second one - I am smiling, turned my face a little so the light is a bit better.

Both photos i am wearing make up and have not touched my hair since i rolled out of bed.


The second one isn't necessarily an amazing photograph.. but it does show that angles, light and a SMILE can transform a picture. Everyone can take horrible photos of themselves. And everyone can take flattering ones.

I think photoshop seems to be something that people use when their model is not doing a great job or when the photographer is doing a shit job.

I've used it to fix shoots where I was not at my best.. so im not ANTI photoshop.. but I do think its important to realize that an ordinary person can look terrible, or amazing in photos without touchup..

 

[Poker_Babe]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

But lets be honest here, some people need photoshop! LOL :lol:

I really dont think older women NEED photoshop at all.
I think society needs to stop telling us aging = ugly and start realizing that beauty can come in different ways...

If madonna was SMILING in that first photograph (without photoshop) i think that's all that photo needs.

I only meant that in a non-serious, joking way. I actually, totally agree with you.
Guess it was a bad joke. Open mouth - insert foot.

 

[LaceyRoyce]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

But lets be honest here, some people need photoshop! LOL :lol:

I really dont think older women NEED photoshop at all.
I think society needs to stop telling us aging = ugly and start realizing that beauty can come in different ways...

If madonna was SMILING in that first photograph (without photoshop) i think that's all that photo needs.

I only meant that in a non-serious, joking way. I actually, totally agree with you.
Guess it was a bad joke. Open mouth - insert foot.

hard to read tone..internet.. its all good

 

[JerryBoBerry]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

If madonna was SMILING in that first photograph (without photoshop) i think that's all that photo needs.

Being totally honest here I think it did need 'some' photoshopping. Not to enhance her skin or anything but because the original photo just had really bad lighting. It's just drab, like it wasn't set up by a pro at all. The other thing that is blaring is the hair over her shoulder. It makes it look like a bruise or something at first glance so it's distracting from the face and body. So that did need shopped out. I'm assuming this is for some commercial use so the areas under the eyes (lines) needed to be blurred out a bit. But really that should have been a better makeup job to begin with. What they did do was over the top. They did too much brightening. The shoulder now is just glaring, the facial skin doesn't even look realistic. The area under the breasts where they made the whole area darker just to hide a few tummy curves/wrinkles is ridiculous. Another area I do agree should have been shopped is the background. The darker black area near the fur needed to be blended to make a more solid background just to be less distracting again. That said they failed to do the same thing on the left side of the background.

Honestly it's just a lousy job of photoshopping. It looks like someone who just decided to go overboard on everything without stepping back and truly looking at what was needed and what wasn't. And to tell the truth I'm not that impressed with the photographer and his/her team to begin with.

 

[Red7227]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

Honestly it's just a lousy job of photoshopping. It looks like someone who just decided to go overboard on everything without stepping back and truly looking at what was needed and what wasn't. And to tell the truth I'm not that impressed with the photographer and his/her team to begin with.

It is a terrible picture and photoshop, but so is the first picture of Jennifer Lawrence. That girl is the least in need of photoshopping on anyone on the planet, but they did anyway. Visual media has its own reality. Only 15 year old hyperskinny models have any chance of not being photoshopped. Even the incomparable Monica Belucci (49) gets the same treatment. All of her winkles are gone as well.

And they are fucking cute wrinkles

 

[PunkInDrublic]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

Most recent episode of Southpark was about photoshop. Worth checking out.

 

[Poker_Babe]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

Most recent episode of Southpark was about photoshop. Worth checking out.

LOL @ "bitch, how you not the hobbit again?" :lol:

 

[Lintilla]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

I'm already half face blind and may need to meet someone several times before they start looking at all familiar to me. Many celebrities already look similar to each other because they fit certain standards, and they'll often go out of their way to fix "flaws" like thin lips or a slightly wonky nose. Once you add makeup and then Photoshop on top of all that I become completely incapable of telling any of them apart.

Babies have fine lines under their eyes, yet women in magazines do not. Women I know personally or encounter online who are not even 30 and complaining about wrinkles need to pull out some childhood photos and take a few steps away from the mirror. Airbrushing faces perfectly smooth doesn't make people seem more perfect to me, it makes them look like a creepy army of alien clones.

Cosmetic ads are the worst. It's a good thing they usually include the name of the model in the small print. I kind of suspect the fact that the photo looks nothing like the person is the reason they make sure to label them...

 

[KamikaziKitty]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

Least favorite photoshop tool that is COMPLETELY overused by most photographers in my area?
the fucking airbrush tool.

Yes, I use the airbrush tool on some of my photos but it is rare and usually never more than at 10%. Usually I just use tools to enhance makeup if it's showing up a tad too light, occasionally brighten the eyes (especially if they are in a shadowed part of the photo) and little things like that.

When it comes to advertising though, I am speaking purely from the advertising agency/clients standpoint, you'd be surprised at just how picky the clients can be. Sometimes something as simple as a millimeter of a sock showing will get nitpicked because the client "doesn't like the color". I suspect, at least in the case of the make up ads mentioned earlier that has more to do with the client than the agency the client hired.

And yes, Lolli is right, the first thing any photographer worth their salt should learn is that lighting and angles make everything when it comes to that perfect shot.

 

[PunkInDrublic]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

Most recent episode of Southpark was about photoshop. Worth checking out.

LOL @ "bitch, how you not the hobbit again?" :lol:

All the Kanye parts were hilarious. "Hold up, bitch if you the hobbit you need to let me know right now cause I'm making a fool of myself out here" Sad ending.

 

[IsabellaSnow]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

I can kind of understand airbrushing, I don't really agree with it being so over used, but I can understand it in the sense of advertising products, what I don't understand is when they completely change someone's appearance, like, for example, making someone more skinny/with larger breasts when to begin with they were already a size 0 (which is such a small size I cannot even comprehend anyone but an 8 year old fitting as even my skinniest friends are 4 sizes bigger). Why do people in advertising need to be so skinny? It doesn't make me any more inclined to buy a product, I don't even think it makes anyone look all that attractive. With the airbrushing it hides all the negatives that come from being so slim, like bones and veins sticking out and other health issues, why are girls who are on the verge of starvation being made to look even slimmer in photographs and being treated as the ideal? It's a scary concept.

Personally I don't think any photo needs airbrushing, need is the wrong word for it. Maybe some people feel the photo would look better with airbrushing or photoshop, but I wouldn't say it needs it. For the sake of advertising I can understand it, but for the sake of human kind I think it's a really bad thing. It's teaching us that people should look like these people in the photos, it's essentially brainwashing us to believe this is what's attractive, and therefore making us less attracted to reality.

I wear under the average Uk dress size, I am also within the healthy weight bracket, and in real life I am regularly one of the most attractive people in a room. Yet in the world of camming I'm above average size and as the cam world is full of attractive women, I am average looking. Men sometimes say things to me about being a "big girl", some say it as a complement, but it amazes me that in real life no one has ever called me a "big girl" in my life, and I would definitely not think average dress size and healthy weight means I am "big". But in the world of advertising, camming and porn, where so many super slim models are being displayed, people don't seem to see the difference, they're getting brainwashed to think that girls this size are the norm, when really they're not. I mean, advertising is also full of guys with impossible 6 packs and rock hard pecs, do I suddenly think that a man without those features is fat or weak? No, not in the slightest, I accept that reality means most people cannot work that hard to get that sort of definition.

 

[IsabellaSnow]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

Sorry double post, was just looking at a famous Uk glamour model's photos, she's been voted one of fhm's sexiest women before, and she's obviously got an incredible natural body and takes good care of herself, but you can really tell just how much of her facial good looks are down to photoshop, make up and camera angles when every single picture of her facially doesn't look like her, the pictures are barely recognisable as the same person, they look like loads of different women with the same body. I saw a few videos of her, still heavily made up but with more normal angles and though she still looks very pretty, you can tell that without the make up she'd just look like a normal, average looking girl. I'm sure she'd still be pretty, and she'd still have a really good body, but airbrushing, camera angles and make up turns fairly regular looking girls into goddesses.

Most dudes genuinely seem to think that these women look like these photos all the time. It's sad that men are comparing women to something that doesn't exist so non airbrushed women are constantly having to reach impossible levels of attractiveness just to feel attractive. I still think these models would be really hot in real life if they weren't models, but I bet if they had never modelled dudes would be comparing them negatively to magazine models just like they do to other girls.

The reason I was looking at this model was because a club a friend works at has hired her to be there and they're advertising it like crazy. Not only are women being made feel like shit by the levels of photoshop and general beautifying, but they're having it thrust in their faces by local clubs hiring glamour models. Not all men, but many men I've met idolise models, they like having that confirmation that someone's attractive, kind of like dudes ask a cam model her bra size even when they can see her tits, her breasts aren't big until he knows numbers, she's not that attractive until he knows she's a model. This is a kind of different subject from the original topic, but I do think it's interesting. I'm not against glamour modelling and the advertising industry, but I do think it's damaging, not just to women's self esteems, but to men's images of what attractive women actually look like.

 

[Red7227]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

The reason I was looking at this model was because a club a friend works at has hired her to be there and they're advertising it like crazy. Not only are women being made feel like shit by the levels of photoshop and general beautifying, but they're having it thrust in their faces by local clubs hiring glamour models. Not all men, but many men I've met idolise models, they like having that confirmation that someone's attractive, kind of like dudes ask a cam model her bra size even when they can see her tits, her breasts aren't big until he knows numbers, she's not that attractive until he knows she's a model. This is a kind of different subject from the original topic, but I do think it's interesting. I'm not against glamour modelling and the advertising industry, but I do think it's damaging, not just to women's self esteems, but to men's images of what attractive women actually look like.

I find the whole thing really sad. There is a whole culture of this and I am not sure how pervasive it is. I work in a call center and am surrounded by pretty 20 somethings. Good skin and a disafinity with clothing on a hot day goes a long way. A few people stand out as really striking, mostly late 20s and 30s Indian women with beautiful bones and skin, and some greek and Indian men the same age or older. Neville is Indian and about 75, and so ridiculously cute all of the girls are in love with him.

We have 3 stripper bars up the road from work, and on Saturday and Sunday mornings see the girls out for snacks and coming to work or going home. They are mostly average looking with a few pretty ones, with good skin and nice makeup.

I suppose these fake women fill a role of some description, though I'm not sure what. Men will usually be something sporty who happen to be pretty - like David Beckham - but some women are often famous for nothing more than being pretty. I suppose if men did not respond so strongly to half naked women then this wouldn't exist.

I'm not sure I've actually made a point, but hopefully you get the idea. I've never been in a strip club, I would be too embarrassed for what the women think of me, but at least on MFC I can make a connection so the girls have more to judge me by. Maybe the ability to objectify women is something I've lost as I age.

 

[Sevrin]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

They use Photoshop because many people respond most positively to advertisements featuring idealized images of women they are familiar with from other media. We're drawn to personalities we feel we know, shallow and easily fooled, and advertisers use those weaknesses to their advantage.

 

[Finebrush]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

I'm one of the guilty ones. Or maybe not... Working as a Photoshop grunt, I used to be often asked to do some weirdness... But of quite lower level... Things like disguising some face "defects" in certain photos of my boss, she was very worried (imo the prob was just confidence) about that always (which brings me the memories, at college, pencil/pastels drawing portraits of my mates' girlfriends... And in certain cases them asking to make it "not so realistic" )... Or.. Making my other boss (a guy) to appear (well integrated) in a room and time where he never was...Also retouching his gray hair...

It's a task I personally hate... And I do agree with a lot of opinions here. Is a bit silly to "enhance" people through Photoshop. Technically it is not specially complex, but it is quite tedious. But I think this is like making too artificial your look, or your behavior... The moment the touch of personality or singularity is lost, a lot of the essential matter is gone... It's also that I do love imperfection, the human, natural one. Heck, it makes you being you...

 

[AshleyMarks]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

I think companies overuse photoshop and it warps reality so that most people think if you aren't a size 00, you are unattractive. To me, natural beauty is beauty. I do admit that I use the spot healing brush, but nothing more than that. I am the type of person that sees beauty in the strangest of places.

Picture of me taken this month after I was gifted a couple sexy outfits. No spot healing here. I mainly use it when I have a red blotch or pimple. Which surprise, if you aren't from another planet, makes you a real person. Enjoy!

 

[Finebrush]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

Anyway, Photoshop can be fun if applied with a different idea... I've been required from time to time to do this... Once it was a couple who were getting married, they wanted me to simulate a porno-like scene with them starring it. They gave me a photo with some super (more of the porn type than fashion models, certainly) curvy woman and some very muscled guy, in a making love hot position... And asked me to integrate somehow their faces there... I took it very seriously, coloring carefully the hair, lots of edits, skin, picking photos matching the light and its direction... It ended up quite funny/real. I needed to modify a bit the guy's pale head structure, to fit in that bull sized muscular neck... It was tons of fun (and work) .
So, I think the tool is amazing, a pitty that media frequently use it for not very clever purposes... It is also fun these requests of taking a 1930's photo, and color it as if was done today... or just clean it a bit. (it is quite more respectful)

Sorry the OT... :icon-redface:

 

[Jillybean]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

And they are fucking cute wrinkles

Every woman who wants to stay married to a man forever needs to marry a man who can find wrinkles cute! :thumbleft: Congratulations, sir! YOU are a gentleman.

On the topic of photoshop. I use it. I use it all the time to remove blemishes. Thinks like lint in my hair, facial blemishes, a stray pube I'd forgotten to shave, lol. I don't mess too much with the pushing and pulling to change my body shape, at all really. And I really only edit lighting if someone is paying for a custom photo set. I feel like if he paid for it, the images should be high quality.

I see a lot of models people in general doing amateur photoshopping and sometimes they make slight mistakes and deform themselves. It's hardly noticeable at first glance, but it's still there. For one top model in particular, I'd looked at her profile for months before I noticed the bad photoshop. For this reason and because of my lack of confidence with photoshop, I refrain from using much more than blemish correcting and lighting enhancements.

*note* I can't really accuse anyone of having a bad photoshop on her profile. It really could have just been an extremely awkward angle, too. But the way it looks is like it's two images of her lower and upper half taken from from two completely separate angles were stuck together. And I won't say who it is!!! She's not on this forum as far as I know, but the last thing I want is for someone getting upset over what's just being used as a generic example to make a point. For all you know, I made it up to support my point. Ok!

 

[EdenUk]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

It irritates me so much all this let's make these women look perfect.
Some girls get really hung up on shit like that and it makes them go drastic measures to try and get to that level of 'beauty' which can only be achieved via allot of plastic surgery and photoshop.

I have tiny boobies which i was hung up on for years and I dont have straight teeth or as perfect as i would like them to be, i would like to have a little more weight on me than ive already got.
But ive learnt to love my imperfections, I would no like to be perfect, how boring would that be?

 

[Sevrin]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

Merry Photoshop Christmas!

 

[Red7227]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

It irritates me so much all this let's make these women look perfect.
Some girls get really hung up on shit like that and it makes them go drastic measures to try and get to that level of 'beauty' which can only be achieved via allot of plastic surgery and photoshop.

I have tiny boobies which i was hung up on for years and I dont have straight teeth or as perfect as i would like them to be, i would like to have a little more weight on me than ive already got.
But ive learnt to love my imperfections, I would no like to be perfect, how boring would that be?

Its sad that girls keep getting this message from both the media and each other, and sadly even some guys. I would have hoped that porn stars like Stoya and Sasha Grey would have made it clear that brains and attitude is what makes women sexy.

 

[Jupiter551]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

Being totally honest here I think it did need 'some' photoshopping. Not to enhance her skin or anything but because the original photo just had really bad lighting. It's just drab, like it wasn't set up by a pro at all. The other thing that is blaring is the hair over her shoulder. It makes it look like a bruise or something at first glance so it's distracting from the face and body.

Then you're saying the photographer needed to take a different picture, or an argument whether photoshopping for special-effects is 'okay'.

The point I think though is that Madonna doesn't NEED photoshopping, no-one NEEDS photoshopping, society NEEDS to stop expecting to see the impossible: 55 year old Madonna with a face the same as 30 years ago.

 

[Jupiter551]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

Its sad that girls keep getting this message from both the media and each other, and sadly even some guys. I would have hoped that porn stars like Stoya and Sasha Grey would have made it clear that brains and attitude is what makes women sexy.

LOL Stoya and Sasha Grey are of course both physically drop dead gorgeous which totally helps their brain be sexy :lol:

 

[Red7227]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

Its sad that girls keep getting this message from both the media and each other, and sadly even some guys. I would have hoped that porn stars like Stoya and Sasha Grey would have made it clear that brains and attitude is what makes women sexy.

LOL Stoya and Sasha Grey are of course both physically drop dead gorgeous which totally helps their brain be sexy :lol:

Thank you for proving my point. They are skinny brunettes with no tits. Stoya isn't that pretty by MFC standards though Sasha Grey is quite attractive. There 10 girls as pretty as either of them on MFC at any point in time. Despite that, those two girls have made empires out of convincing people they are gorgeous and super sexy.

 

[JoleneBrody]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

NM I don't want to be involved in this thread anymore... carry on...

 

[Red7227]

Re: Why do companies even use real people for their pictures

Being totally honest here I think it did need 'some' photoshopping. Not to enhance her skin or anything but because the original photo just had really bad lighting. It's just drab, like it wasn't set up by a pro at all. The other thing that is blaring is the hair over her shoulder. It makes it look like a bruise or something at first glance so it's distracting from the face and body.

Then you're saying the photographer needed to take a different picture, or an argument whether photoshopping for special-effects is 'okay'.

The point I think though is that Madonna doesn't NEED photoshopping, no-one NEEDS photoshopping, society NEEDS to stop expecting to see the impossible: 55 year old Madonna with a face the same as 30 years ago.

A Dutch photographer showing off her "retouching" skills

http://www.jessica-evans.nl/index.php?/work/retouching/