The Art Of Image Altering

Today's Technology Allows Picture Manipulation Into Images Very Different From The Original

(CBS) 
Dove soap produced a short film that details the full Madison Avenue beauty process complete with computer manipulation that stretches the model's neck and adjusts her eyes to a size you'd never see on an actual person.

"You know it's so hard to be human in the face of all this stuff," writer for Adweek Magazine, Barbara Lippert, said. "And I think for young girls, it's really important to see this. Because, you know, there's no plastic surgery right now that can elongate your neck or make your eyeballs twice the size that you were born with. And so, all this illusion, all of this fantasy of what you want is just based on such non-reality that it really makes you crazy."

Very few digital artists walk that line between fantasy and reality as often or as successfully as Matt Mahurin. If you've visited a newsstand in the past 20 years, chances are you've seen his work in Rolling Stone, Esquire and G.Q. He has done about 40 covers for Time. He works alone in a spare New York studio, using only a small camera, a computer and — more often than not — his own face.

"I just painted my beard white and went out and got a coat and these Freud glasses," he said, referring to a 1993 cover of Time which featured a story on Sigmund Freud.

Weirder still, on another Time cover of a caveman it's Mahurin's face again, digitally reworked. On the Time cover after the Abu Ghraib revelations, Mahurin used a manipulated photo he took of himself to make an image of what appeared to be a torture victim.

"I think probably the way it's labeled inside the magazine is photo-illustration," he said.

Mahurin's most controversial work was the 1994 O.J. Simpson's mug-shot. Mahurin darkened the image, a step that he saw as editorial but others read as racist.

"My situation was, is that my work is taken in context ... I work dark images," he said. "I do dramatic images. I don't do -- you know, I don't do brightly colored things. I don't do greeting cards, I do dark images. And to me this was a dramatic moment. I've always believed in the power of images, and so for me that was, you know, that was all part of it. It's an experience that I would not wish on anybody, but I would not have traded it for anything either."

What we don't remember is the caption on the cover. The words, the explanation, are irrelevant: It's the image that's king in the end. Seeing is believing, but there are methods for telling the altered photos from the real thing.

"When you compare those two swatches, these four dots, I call them truth dots, which proves mathematically that this image has been doctored since it came out of the camera," Story said.

The images insist that we be as sophisticated as the software that's used. "The analogy I always like to draw is, imagine a pile of sand," Strong said. "And when does it go from a couple of grains of sand to a pile? And surely, taking one grain of sand on and off doesn't fundamentally change the pile of sand. But at some point, it's no longer a mound of sand, and it's just a couple grains. But where did that transition happen?

"And it's the same thing with an image. When you start disturbing pixels — little elements of an image — is one okay? Is two okay? Is three okay? And when does is stop becoming okay? And I don't think there's a simple answer to that."

Maybe it's a little like cosmetic surgery: if you've had too much, then you don't look like yourself anymore.

[ladydopamine]

I too am looking for the clip of the model being altered (neck elongated, eyes doubled in size) for a speech I'm doing. I need that clip!!!!

[ladydopamine]

I too am looking for the clip of the model being altered (neck elongated, eyes doubled in size) for a speech I'm doing. I need that clip!!!!

[eloncomprof]

How about posting the video from Sunday's show on your site? It's a great starting point for a class discussion.

[killian211]

I was very impressed that the children who were being photographed at the beginning of this segment looked so happy and comfortable with the photographer and the pictures looked really good too. In case anyone is interested, I did a little digging and found that the company the child care center uses is 'Kids At Heart Photography'. Their website is: www.schoolphotos.com

[errn_gurl55]

Females are the main *** subjected to the false advertisements done by artists such as Mahurin. If false advertising is considered a crime and one can be fined for it, then companies who distort the images of models should be fined because they are promoting an image that doesn't exist. The Dove film was very moving and eye opening to how deceived we are by companies.

[jediams331]

I saw that video Dove made about the woman who was edited, modified, and perfected for an advertisment. She was just like a research paper, run through with a fine tooth comb till she was perfected. I don't personally like the fact that advertisers do this. It gives teenagers an impression that perfection is everything, when in actuallity, perfection doesn't exsist. I would like to see more models portrayed as "themselves" rather than modified beings. If people saw more of natural beauty, we may not have the self-esteem problems that many of us do.

[tnbradford]

This article ivery intriguing. It tells you the truth exactly for what it is. I know this from the experience factor. People I know do the same thing with their photos for myspace and other social sites.

[shawraider]

This is a large part of the reason that American girls [and some boys] are so twisted in how they think they should look. It makes you wonder what we're coming to.

[tnbradford]

I think that beauty is only skin deep and people are too concerned about what's on the outside when its really about what's on the inside.

[autumnschurg]

My mother uses Match.com so i know how these types of things work. My mom will recieve a photo and chat with the person but when it comes time to meet them in person, they dont turn out to look anything like their picture. I also saw the video clip that dove had. I think its stupid that magazines and such are allowed to tamper with the photos. Wouldnt that be false advertising? I think so. I think that due to all the "false" images printed on bilboards, young girls starve themselves just to get that perfect image.

[jakgraphic-2009]

I'm wondering where is, or what is, that program which shows that the image has been manipulated? Any info would be appreciated!

[melteresa]

I would also like to know where I can find the video of the Madison Avenue model that was altered for my busines law class.

[melteresa]

I think any photo that has been retouched, altered in any way should be identified as so. How about a "warning" like "photo altered" somewhere on the thing? That is simple enough. Fifty years from now, our great, great, great grandchildren will look at photos, history books and be amazed at the "beautiful people", amazining sights and news stories of our time. If they only knew which were faked and which were real.

[zn427]

Guys might like this item -- related to image manipulation...
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UberBabes/

[designed27]

thanks. i also found it on youtube none the less. http://youtube.com/watch?v=uT4dpFpiTgk

[flor_de_liz]

it can be found at:
http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/

[flor_de_liz]

it can be found at:
http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/

[flor_de_liz]

it can be found at:
http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/

[boudachaea]

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[boudachaea]

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