Picture That Lies

For my Pic that Lies assignment, I chose a picture of the actress America Ferrera on the red carpet. I chose this picture because I wanted to alter the appearance of a person, and to make the alterations more noticeable and dramatic I chose an actress most people have seen before. I found the picture on Stock Exchange.
            To begin, I used the magic wand to select the hair and then changed the saturation and brightness, and hue to make it a different color. I then went back and used the stamp tool to fix any color changes to the rest of the picture. I repeated this process for the dress. I then used the liquidation filter to change the shape of the eyes, nose, mouth, and jaw line. I broadened the hairline with the liquidation filter and changed the hair style slightly. I changed the shape of the dress, and used the clone tool to get rid of frizzy hair.
            I manipulated this picture to show how easily a person’s appearance can be touched up, and how the slightest photo touch-ups can change a person’s appearance to something unrealistic. I think it is important for people to see how harmful these edits can be to the viewer, who will interpret an unrealistic photo as the standard for everyone.
            This manipulation was harmful, because it was a dishonest representation of the actress. Whether the changes were good or bad, they make the viewer believe something that is not true. I think this is very harmful to girls especially who try to measure up to the false representation.
            This is similar to my articles because it addressses the ethics of photo editing and the harm that false images can cause. Even though it is not a written lie, publishing a photo that has been harmfully edited is equally harmful and can give the wrong impression. Whether it is a political message or a picture in People magazine, my article's authors believed that all photos should be held to a standard of ethics.

Works Cited

Ricchiardi, Sherry. "DISTORTED PICTURE." American Journalism Review 29.4 (2007): 36-43. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 5 Apr. 2011.