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Monday, September 28, 2009

WARNING: Breasts in ads may be smaller than they appear

OK first the French and now the Brits are looking at the need to put warning labels on photos used for advertising or even editorial purposes.

The most useful piece of information from this NY Times article doesn’t pop up until the very end

With deception lurking in so many places, Mr. Hudson, the photographer, said he did not think curbs on alterations would have the desired effect.

“Unfortunately, we are living in a retouched world,” he said.

Think about this for a second. Is it even possible to define what “alterations” means? In the age of digital photography every single photograph is modified on its way from the lens to the paper.

Most camera’s do some sort of processing on the images before you even get them to a computer. What exactly is the wrong kind of processing? Can I adjust the overall color balance of a photo? Is it ok for me to us softer lights and a lens that hides blemishes or is it just bad to do it with Photoshop? All photography is an art and a process of producing an image and everything from the initial staging/lighting of the set to the digital processing to the printing “alters” the image in some form.

Also, find me one person on the planet who believes that pictures in magazines are representative of real life. If you find them, I guess you better just lock them up for their own good. Or better yet don’t, I could use the sales!

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