Today Photoshop and image manipulation has become a mainstream in the society. It has become difficult now days, to tell if the photos have been photoshopped or not. Not everyone realizes that the images are photoshopped, which can influence us in an unhealthy way. A lot of companies and influencers represents and show unrealistic ideals on their platforms that the consumers can not relate to. Even some of the biggest companies, social platforms and celebrities manipulates their consumers with photoshop. In this blogpost, I will inform you with more knowledge on how photoshop began, why the industry photoshops their photos and how the situation is today and in the future.
The history of photoshop
Photoshop is photo editing, image manipulation, and retouching for digital images and videos. Photoshop can be used to edit layers, pimples and colors. In 1987 the two brothers from America, Thomas and John Knoll, developed photoshop. A year later (1988) the idea was sold to Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Photoshop became a dependent software system everyone had, including Web designers, medicine, film, advertising, engineering, and architecture (britannica, u.d.). In today's society, the use of photoshop can be found in a lot of photos. Photoshop in images makes an unrealistic body ideal, because companies, magazines and ads, promote features that are flawless and unrealistic. These body ideals are seen as a norm for young girls, woman and men, which can lead to unhealthy pursuits of the body ideals. Photoshop sends out a poor message, so instead of embracing the imperfections, models are photoshopped, so the imperfection can be erased. Photoshop can be one of the reasons why people suffer from low self-esteem and eating disorder.
Picture 1 shows an example of Candice Huffine that has been photoshop. Candice Huffine is a plus-size model, in the picture the development of the photoshopping is shown. Candice Huffine is photoshopped even though she is a plus-size model. She got her rolls on the side, arms and thighs photoshopped. The photoshop is unrealistic, and it shows that the companies think about what will sell the most and not what is realistic. The companies make the model hides her flaws and the picture is living up to the beauty norm even though she is a beautiful normal human being before the photoshop.
Another example of photoshopped is Britney Spears’ 2013 “Work B****” music videos, which shows the digital slim-down body. The after picture shows Britney much thinner, especially on the stomach and thighs. This is an example, on how the celebrities also use photoshop to become a better and more acceptable person in the society.
But why do we photoshop?
More companies use editing and therefore photoshop has become a standard in the industry.
The companies use photoshop to create a picture of what they think will sell the most. They use the photoshopped picture for marketing. On the pictures the costumers are shown beautiful people and what the beauty ideal is. That can lead to motivate the costumers to buy the clothes, listen to their music or watch their movies. By using Photoshop, the body ideal gets similar and it can affect our personal image. The personal image allows us to differentiate from others.
Some countries follow a law: that your photos need to be slapped with a warning label, for example, the photoshop law in Israel (pixelz, u.d.). These changes in the world can motivate people to have a realistic view and expectation on themselves and others. The real vs the fake pictures can be discussed. More and more people become aware of photoshop. Influencers are starting to set focus on the “real body” which can lead to a more body positivist access, for example, the Instagrammer Jennifer West stets focus on “perfect pictures”:
Some companies also influence body positivity. Dove have approached the body positivity movement. Dove are limiting the use of photoshop and they are instead prompting body-positive messages and a more differentiated body ideal. They began their campaign were real beauty was focused. They also focused on the “featured groups of ‘real,’ diverse women in their underwear."
Conclusion
The movement of normalizing the body increases. Companies and influencers start to focus more on real beauty. The idea of the beauty ideal and norm in society was created a long time ago but has changed. Today beauty is a source of confidence and realness, not photoshop and comparison. The photoshop and manipulation creates a virtual reality which is not real. The intention of photoshop is bad because it affects the self-esteem of young girls, women and men. Companies and influencers have therefore a huge impact on how photoshop and image manipulation influence us.
References
britannica. (u.d.). britannica.com. Hentet November 2020 fra www.britannica.com: https://www.britannica.com/technology/Adobe-Photoshop
pixelz. (u.d.). PIXELZ BLOG. Hentet november 2020 fra dk.pixelz.com: https://dk.pixelz.com/blog/photoshop-models-laws/
Picture 1) illumeably.com, https://www.illumeably.com/article/before-after-photoshop/5/, 2020 November
Picture 2) eonline.com, https://www.eonline.com/news/470197/was-britney-spears-body-airbrushed-in-the-work-bitch-music-video-see-the-before-and-after-photos, 2020 November
Picture 3) Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/p/CGxsfhph4QI/, 2020 November
Picture 4) Dove.com, https://www.dove.com/us/en/stories/campaigns.html, 2020 November
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