The Many Ways Models Are Made To Look Perfect

Hint: It’s Not Just Photoshop Fails

 

There’s been a lot of harping about the problem with Photoshop lately–most notably, that excessive retouching has made it nearly impossible for women to feel good about their own porous, flawed, dimpled, freckled selves. But according to one actual photo retoucher who spoke with Buzzfeed, Photoshopping is just as prevalent as you think, and it’s one of many ways that art directors and advertisers create the impossible standard of beauty that women struggle not to compete with.
Says the anonymous retoucher, there are a few things every woman (and every man, for that matter–we know that men and women both get down on their own bodies) should know about the images in magazines and on billboards. The first and foremost: Everything. Is. Retouched.
“…Absolutely 100 percent of what’s in fashion magazines is retouched,” the photo retoucher told Buzzfeed, adding that a disclaimer stating that an image had been edited would be “ridiculous,” because every single ad would have that disclaimer on it.”
If you’re flipping through a magazine, and you see Emma Stone‘s flawless face selling makeup, before you even begin to compare your skin to hers, remember that one detail. She has been retouched. Everyone has. And it’s not just the removal of a few hairs or moles…or in some cases, with very thin models, the subduing of protruding bones. It’s moving one head onto another body. It’s buffing away dry skin and cellulite. And in some cases, it’s a little bit of artistic drawing, too.
Cosmetics ads–and especially those for mascara–aren’t just a little bit airbrushed. They’ve actually been illustrated over to give the desired effect.

I do work on a lot of cosmetics images, too, and the mascara ads are just ridiculous. They wear false eyelashes, of course, in the photoshoot, and we completely draw the lashes in one by one so it’s just like a forest of eyelashes. That’s like the biggest lie of all — you can’t achieve that.

Did you read that? A big lie. A big lie that, when done correctly, just looks like a beautiful celebrity with perfect lashes. In fact, says the retoucher, when the job is done right, you shouldn’t even notice the lie. And the worst Photoshop fails are just lies that have gone too deep into the Uncanny (or Unrealistic, in this case) Valley.

But the lie actually begins, says the retoucher, before the camera even clicks–and it’s not always because a photo editor went too far. Says the retoucher, models literally spend their lives looking beautiful. It’s their job.

Sometimes people don’t realize that models choose that career and they succeed for a reason. They have been genetically blessed with a fantastic physique and beauty. It is their full-time job to watch what they eat and work out all the time with personal trainers, get spa treatments, etc. They do things to achieve a look that average people don’t have the time or the money (or the genes) to create. So to put all the blame on retouching is probably not fair.

And then, there are the on-set tricks. Makeup, lighting, and even tricks to make clothing look more flattering, more perfectly fitted. Even the clothes–which most women dont’ even notice are edited, are retouched.

With fashion itself, sometimes the clothes are not fitting the way they’re supposed to. They’re always pinned in the back, for example, and then the wrinkles are taken out with retouching. So the clothes are kind of a lie, too. Nothing is going to fit that perfectly when you try it on.

So, just to recap: Models look perfect because they spent time and money to look perfect, and because they’re being retouched and drawn over, and because their clothes are pinned on, and because even the clothing gets ironed out in post-production. Anything else?
Just one more thing, says the retoucher: Calling out Photoshop fails and the extreme distortion of the female body is a good time. Because when you’re, say, an art director who’s constantly immersed in a world where instructing a photo retoucher to buff away dry skin and veins and slim hips and thighs, it’s easy to forget that what’s happening isn’t necessarily normal, or good for the world. And getting called out on it can help keep it in perspective.
Because, while Photoshopping and other tricks for achieving a “perfect” image aren’t going anywhere, there’s definitely room for improvement.
Image: A famous Photoshop fail, courtesy of The Fashion Globe; and Emma Stone for Revlon via Joonbug