Picniking :)

This week in class we learned about the ethics of digital manipulation. How do we know when a photograph is natural or when it is digitally altered? And is it ever ethical to digitally alter photos? For this blog I decided to alter a photo of my boyfriend and I using picnik.com.

Original Photo:

Digitally Altered Photo:

I made several modifications to my original photo in order to make us more appealing to society’s ideals. For instance I used a "boost" tool as well as adjusting the color saturation to make both of us look more tan and vibrant. This is because in today's media the men and women in advertising always appear tan and sun kissed. Another tool I used was"insta-thin," even though Picnik's tool didn't do much it horizontally shrunk the photo making everything within the frame to appear leaner. This once again shows how society’s ideas influence us, enough to make an "insta-thin" tool on a free photo editing software. Other tools I used were the blemish remover which allows you to remove any imperfections from your skin. I used both Picnik and Windows Live Photo Gallery in order to remove both of our freckles and imperfections. I also used teeth whitener to make my teeth appear whiter. All these tools show the how easily photos can be manipulated to fit into a more ideal form of beauty. One last tool I used, which I found quite funny was "Fake beard." This tool allowed you to paint on a beard in the color and "dapperness" of your choice. Even though I think they invented this tool as a joke, it also can show how males also have a masculine ideal that society pressures them to fit into through media.