Photoshopping and airbrushing?

By Selphiroth. 03/11/09, 04:12 pm

I'm quite curious on what's the general attitude over photoshopping and touching up cosplays. Of course I'm not talking about vandalism, but rather things like tweaking the contrast, changing the hue, smoothen blemishesor at most, rid of the extra 10kilos the camera always give to us . What's your view on those? Are they okay under any circumstances? Okay okay if the cosplayer gave permission after being asked? Okay okay if the cosplayer in question requested it but asking is impolite? A complete taboo regardless of what?

I'm asking, because I know that internationally it's considered normal practise to touch up the cosplays to the point of crossing uncanny valley, and don't even get me started on the commercial stuff. In here though it's still almost never done AFAIK. I would love to learn to touch up, but I don't want to do it if it upsets people.

What's your view on it?

By **Duckeh**. 03/11/09, 04:16 pm

MAKE ME PRETTY, BETCH.
D8<

That's pretty much my stance.

Edit: To elaborate, I see no offence in someone fixing apparent flaws.

By **JVCA**. 03/11/09, 04:27 pm

I think as long as you're not body morphing (I'm talking making boobs bigger/butts smaller) then I don't really have an issue with it - I'd much rather have a photo of me with the shine patch from my forehead and the giant zit on my chin removed than have the aforementioned afflictions floating round on the internet.

Changing hue and contrast I don't really count as photoshopping - those are standard edits any good photographer should do.

By Selphiroth. 03/11/09, 04:27 pm

@Duckeh - I don't think I've run into you in Arma, nor that I have your photos. Who were you cosplaying as?

By Selphiroth. 03/11/09, 04:32 pm

@JVCA my problem is I don't really know how much would count as body morphing. Especially consider personally I found that photos are not the most accurate description of the actual body shape of anyone, would it be out of line to shrink enough for the person to be morphed back to accurate size?

Not quite Ralph Lauren's HEAD BIGGER THAN PELVIS that's for sure.

Thank you so much ! <3

By **seraphik**. 03/11/09, 04:32 pm

i don't see a problem with it. i mean, in the end, cosplay is just another art form-- and it doesn't really matter what you do with the photo contrast/hue/sharpening/healing brushing. surface blur is also a good one to cover up flaws. (:

By **Duckeh**. 03/11/09, 04:34 pm

I didn't cosplay this year due to much fail.

By **JVCA**. 03/11/09, 04:37 pm

Roflmao XD EDIT: laughing was in reply to Shelley's Ralph Lauren reference, not Shannon's cosplay tragedies. o_o; *did not want to be misunderstood*

Idk, generally (when I take photos at least) when you take photos you aim to take photos for effect - deliberate foreshortening and the like. I think I need an example?

I think the issue I have with people bodymorphing photos is that for the person themselves to bodymorph it, it sounds vain or deceptive. For a photographer to do it, it's sort of like "...you think I'm fat/my boobs are too small/my butt is too big?"

I'll also add: Photoshopping eyes to be the same colour as the character is fine by me. Very Happy

By Icarus. 04/11/09, 12:47 am

idk, but isn't photoshoping/touching up photos about the same as make-up?
so there's really no problem with it

**Guest** Guest

I would be horrificly offended if I found pictures of myself that had altered the contours of my body. You'd be seeing another enormous rant. My body is MINE, you do not get to "tweak" it as you see fit in your photographs. Don't like how I look, get a new model. /feminist rage building!

I am quite happy for you to take out that sweat patch in my armpit, or the enormous zit on my nose that sprouted this morning in retaliation to the makeup. Or the flyaways. Those are not ME. Those are undesirable consequences of the costume.

I think makeup is different to body morphing, especially in cosplay. I don't wear makeup on a day-to-day basis. But in photographs taken of me without makeup, I dont look like I do in real-life (mostly my skintone gets horribly washed out and all you can see of my eyes are the bags underneath them. Thats not how my skin looks with natural light). Cameras see skin and light different to eyeballs. I wear makeup for photography in an attempt to trick the camera into seeing what an eyeball sees.
Costume makeup is different again - if I'm wearing (for example) full Joker makeup then thats a special effect - it's like a prosthetic nose. Its not supposed to look real, its creating an effect.

But I don't have any issue with things one to the hue (especially from hallway shoots, yuck!), or washing out the background to emphasise the foreground, or doing something completely bizarre with the image to make it a new peice of art.

But don't you dare touch my boobs or my ass or my waist or my neckline or the curve of my back or limbs.

By Static. 04/11/09, 02:43 am

I wrestle with this one quite a lot! :S

My stance is this: things that are permanent, and are part of the model, shoud be left alone. This includes body shape, freckles/moles, and scars. Things that are transitory, such as pimples and flyaways, or a food stain on a costume, get edited out: it's a shame to let a bad skin day ruin an otherwise gorgeous photo, and I've yet to see someone object.

Personally, none of my photos get shown to ANYONE without having the levels and curves adjusted - this is because I prefer to work post-production rather than in-camera. Quite frequently I'll tweak the exposure and colour balance to get images looking uniform and better than they were before, without doing anything to the model.

Having said that - I have gotten rid of rolls before. One of my favourite images is a friend of mine in a corset and lingerie, reclining on a couch - she's not a small girl, but she is beautiful, and I smoothed out one roll between bra strap and back of corset. IMO, this is fine - she's still clearly not a size anything smaller (and there's nothing wrong with that) but now there's not the distraction of that bit of fat to draw the eye.

Ethical retouching FTW Very Happy

By Mischa. 04/11/09, 09:38 am

Yes for pimples! No for freckles.

Photographers can do wonders with the right angle and flattering lights. I LOVE LOW ANGLES because I have short legs.

I have had my teeth photoshopped and I was no no no why? I like my snaggle teeth

By **JVCA**. 04/11/09, 09:43 am

I don't mind having my teeth whitened slightly (not OMG WHITE but just... not yellow, lol) but I wouldn't want the shape of my teeth changed, 'coz I think they give me character. Very Happy

By Static. 04/11/09, 10:55 am

Lol, low angles. I hate them - it's very difficult to get people's faces not looking really fat at low angles...but do make shorter legs look amazing.

By Zari. 05/11/09, 03:28 am

Personally, zits, under-eyes bags, food stains...fine. But anything that changes the subjects permanent appearance (body-morphing, changing facial features) is out of line. I mean, if someone attempted to edit my figure I'd object because that would be changing ME. If they have a problem with my rear or my chest it's none of their business changing it. It's my body.

**Guest** Guest

In low angle shots my nostrils always get really prominent and my second chin comes out to play. Ew. Not a fan of those.

By PIe. 05/11/09, 08:11 am

I'm going to be controversial and say that I don't mind altering of body shape, I've had it done to photos of me before, making my thighs and hips smaller and I'm glad it was done, it probably has something to with me dabbling in the modeling world a bit last year and getting used to the idea that the photo is the end product and if it needs to be altered to look best then that's what should happen. I don't know, I'm just fine with it, if a photographer wants to make my ass smaller and my boobs bigger that's fine by me, I know I have flaws

By Rehtse. 05/11/09, 08:39 am

Personally I don't really care. It's not my problem what some dude wants to do with my photo. If they want to photoshop it then fine. Whatevs.

By Selphiroth. 06/11/09, 10:49 am

It's one of those YMMV situations, from the look of it. If there's anything that really needed to be nailed home here for my own future reference is that it pays to ask the models.

JVCA, Static, U_Ne_korn and Zari. The point over body morphing is certainly a principle that should be adhered to. However I am still not sure about whether it's acceptable to remove the extra bits added by the camera, the chubbiness that are false anyway; or is it better to leave it as people expect photos to be a bit rounder?

Thank you folks so much <3

By **JVCA**. 06/11/09, 10:59 am

I think I would have to see photo examples to be able to give my opinion on this.

By Rikki-Leigh. 06/11/09, 11:00 am

I think, if you're unsure on what you should change or not, you can talk to the model in the photo about it.

For cosplay photos, it can also depends what look you're going for. I know when editing photos of myself - because those are the only photos I tend to edit - I usually shoop out the little folds at the corner of my mouth at the bottom of my cheek, generally because of the character I am cosplaying - specifically for Yamamoto. I took them out because he has a younger face and the folds make me look so much older.

**Guest** Guest

Mainly I think it's fine as long as it doesn't become a case of someone from the net seeing you in person and thinking - huh. They look noooothing like those pictures...

https://2img.net/h/i115.photobucket.com/albums/n283/aurellion/photoedit_demo.jpg?t=1258497048

^ That's as far as I'll ever go with an edit, and even then I'm wondering whether or not I've gone too far. The specific edits were changing the levels and saturation of the photo, changing eyebrow colour, removing under-eye bags, blurring the background and cropping out unneeded bits. The only thing I have an issue with looking 'fake' is my edit of getting rid of under-eye bags, so now I have resolved to try and learn as much as I can about make-up and concealing the damn things BEFORE resorting to editing. (Or just trying to up my hours of sleep to 10 instead of 8. Razz

)

By **JVCA**. 18/11/09, 05:31 am

See, that's about as much editing as I think of as acceptable! :3

By azeria. 18/11/09, 05:33 am

I don't really see anything wrong with it, as long as it doesn't go as far as that Kelly Clarkson one.

That was kind of scary 0_0

By vefalasiel. 23/03/11, 01:51 am

When I edit photos, I play around with a bit with lighting and colours (nothing a good camera/reflector combo wouldn't have already done). Sometimes I get rid of houses or unwanted things in the background.
When it comes to photoshopping the cosplayer, I only do things like get rid of eye bags, brighten colours of eyes or eyeliner, just to bring the vibrancy of the picture up. I never alter the shape of someone, I don't think it's polite.

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