You hear everywhere that models are not real people, that they don’t represent a realistic expectations. Models are real people, and they may be thinner and taller than the average person, but they are still real. How a model is portrayed to look is what is not real. The clip above shows the effects of photo manipulation in a video compilation of the entire process of the photo shoot, the hair and make-up and then the post-production editing for one single image. A lot of work goes into making the model look that way after the image is already taken…the model is not as thing as the picture, has a different face shape, nose and larger eyes. The editing went into lightening the hair and the skin tone and as far as lengthening her legs and neck to appear taller then the actual model.
The photo manipulation work shows some decent skills in the world of post-production editing. The thing that bothers me is that this highly edited photograph is then mass produced in magazines and portrayed to the world that this is what this woman looks like on a daily basis. Most people today will accept the fact that magazine and print photos have some level of editing and airbrushing, but not everyone might know to what extent. This is what the media latches its claws onto, selling the point that you have to look like a manipulated photograph.
It isn’t the model that sets the beauty norm, but the post-production editing and the media that drives it. Dove has their real women campaign that is trying to dispel the effects of the media, but much like what Jennifer Lawrence says in the clip link below, it is up to us to change how the world views beauty by not supporting what the media has to say about it.
