Comments on: Photoshop Disasters

Photoshop Disasters

Ufez Jones — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:20:38 -0800

Photoshop Disasters - a showcase for the most egregious examples of Art Direction gone awry. [via mefi projects, some pix nsfw]

By: slimepuppy

slimepuppy — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:32:13 -0800

Hah! This is a great site. The severed hand on Marissa Miller's shoulder is definite nightmare-juice.

By: byronimation

byronimation — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:33:52 -0800

How about a NSFW warning?

By: troika

troika — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:34:14 -0800

This is the best! That severed finger is hilarious.

By: Jody Tresidder

Jody Tresidder — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:47:11 -0800

Wonderful. (I still find I need a primer on this stuff, so these are perfect...)

By: tommasz

tommasz — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:49:08 -0800

The Yakuza finger FTW!

By: ook

ook — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:51:32 -0800

Ah, but it isn't NSFW: all the nipples and buttcracks have been clone-stamped away for your safety and convenience.

By: DU

DU — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:55:52 -0800

This is great. I wonder, how did they make women look unnatural and gaunt before Photoshop? Good old fashioned starvation?

By: cowbellemoo

cowbellemoo — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:58:17 -0800

Hah. This is great...just needs more!

By: misha

misha — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:59:10 -0800

The disembodied hand on the shoulder and the shots without belly buttons made this post a win for me. Then I saw Ashlee Simpson looking like death-warmed-over. Wow. I admire all the artists that actually have to deal with these images and make them look perfect. It's no wonder some of them go awry, with all the little blemishes, freckles, folds and bulges they have to smoothe over.

By: tkolar

tkolar — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:59:19 -0800

Brilliant!

By: yeti

yeti — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:02:00 -0800

This reminds me of one of my favorite mefi posts.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:05:33 -0800

Best five bucks Cosmo7 ever spent. The Ann Coulter one is a mindfreak. She does have unnaturally long palms though.

By: porn in the woods

porn in the woods — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:06:31 -0800

That's some mighty fine Photoslopping, son.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:10:36 -0800

Obligatory link to before/after animation of the Faith Hill Redbook cover.

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:11:09 -0800

Some good posts there. It is about time someone compiled these hideously airbrushed movie posters full of glossy, glass eyed zombie actors.

By: echo target

echo target — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:16:11 -0800

After all the posts we've had in the past about the heavy heavy retouching any magazine photo goes through, and seeing the skills of the photoshoppers involved (yes, put to an evil end, but some of the work is very techincally proficient), I for one am happy to see that not everyone is better at Photoshop than me.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:24:12 -0800

Re NSFW: It's not just naughty bits that make something not safe for work.

By: slimepuppy

slimepuppy — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:34:38 -0800

Blue_beetle, the whole concept of NSFW depends entirely on where you work. I can't access proxy sites from work, but I don't demand they be labeled as NSFW.

By: ook

ook — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:37:35 -0800

Besides, if your boss catches you you can just explain that all the nipples and buttcracks have been clone-stamped away for your safety and convenience. That's certain to work. This is a second test of your sarcasm detector. If it fails to go off, please take it to your nearest maintenance and service department.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:47:07 -0800

Great post. And another vote for NSFW.

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:49:22 -0800

My daughter has this poster on her wall and whenever I look at it I can't help but think that young Chad's right arm is terribly broken just below where Hilary is grasping his shoulder.

By: quin

quin — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:55:49 -0800

You know how sound engineers like to try to sneak the Wilhelm into movies that they are working on? I like to believe that photoshop graphics people are trying to start their own version of this, just with severed body parts instead.

By: kimota

kimota — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:01:27 -0800

I almost posted this over in the Paul Raymond obit posting: way back in the 90s, I found some Paul Raymond men's mags where, for whatever reason (possibly due to the country where they were intended to be published?), each instance of an anus had been Photoshopped (or, given the year, possibly just airbrushed) out. All the other feminine pink spots were still there. It was very odd, and more than a little disturbing. I still sometimes wonder what the intended effect was, and whether it proved counter-productive in whatever country it was intended for.

By: iamkimiam

iamkimiam — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:04:21 -0800

I love the first one...what exactly was the artist planning to do with the severed head, before he so obviously got distracted? Was he planning on removing the rest of the body as well? Replacing the head with somebody else's? Or was the body only 7/8ths of the way into being introduced into the shot? I can't even think of a plausible answer to any of these questions. It's all wrong.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:04:29 -0800

what, no creepy plastic hannah montana?

By: Doofus Magoo

Doofus Magoo — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:12:03 -0800

What's wrong with the Over Her Dead Body one?

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:20:55 -0800

What's wrong with the Over Her Dead Body one? "Eva Longoria's gravity-defying, anatomically incorrect disaster of a pose"

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:28:52 -0800

her spine is in a weird shape, her hips don't touch what she's laying on, and her breasts are simply impossibly positioned, sort of lifting sideways.

By: Cosmo7

Cosmo7 — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:29:38 -0800

Hi every one. After ten years or so I finally delurk! The last time I tried to join Mefi the membership rolls were closed. Thanks for all the kind comments. I did make a decision at the start of this project to be SFW; all of the images are from mainstream media. I sincerely hope that no one confuses this with pornography. Thanks also for the suggestions!

By: iconomy

iconomy — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:30:30 -0800

Also, her head's definitely been photoshopped into place. The hair isn't hanging at the right angle for someone lying down, and the fist in her hair is fuzzy from trying to blend it into place. That whole arm looks out of proportion with the other one.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:31:07 -0800

If you are of a certain age (such as myself) you may have had the honor to have watched old-school photo-retouchers work their craft. The guys who, armed with airbrushes, single-hair brushes, dyes, and paints, were able to perform some quite amazing transformations without the use of digital gadgetry. The Photoshop disasters seem even more egregious when viewed from this historical perspective.

By: Kirth Gerson

Kirth Gerson — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:34:48 -0800

I don't see where the first one is Photoshopped. The seated guy has his head tilted back, so it's partially occluded by the shooter's foot, but they both definitely have heads.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:36:28 -0800

My favourite is the bathroom tile problem. Without that clue I would have believed the image. Note to model photographers: no straight lines in the background, please. No pattern either. Really, just photo on a bluescreen. We'll take care of the rest.

By: batmonkey

batmonkey — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:41:58 -0800

Some of these are stretches on the part of the compiler. The Kelly Osbourne one, for example. Sure, the poster has been retouched, but the kid did get more fit in the interim between the bloat pic and the promotion. And some of these are lazily included, like the Eva Longoria one. Listing at least one specific call-out other than the green screen pose at top would have given it so much more. All up: some of these are great finds. They'd stand out more if they weren't also trying to out-snark themselves.

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:46:51 -0800

Coulter looks like she's been caught at the start of her werewolf transformation.... The Buffy one looks so artificial it may as well be the front page of the spin-off comic.

By: gimonca

gimonca — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 09:58:27 -0800

Coulter looks like she's been caught at the start of her werewolf transformation.... We call that "Thursday".

By: EarBucket

EarBucket — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:11:07 -0800

Yeah, in the basketball picture, the guy's head is there. If you look closely, you can see the line of his neck tilting back--he's looking up at the basket.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:11:25 -0800

Almost all of these are photos of women. Kind of telling.

By: matteo

matteo — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:27:27 -0800

this is awesome

By: uncanny hengeman

uncanny hengeman — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:50:07 -0800

"Puss out." Is that puss as in abbreviation of pussy? I read it as the bodily fluid (ew) - only just thought of the other possibility as I was about to type. We say wuss, in Oz. Possibly you crazy 'Mericans and Europeans say it too? Wuss as in rhymes with the 1st syllable of pussy. Er, anyway, if they're gonna pic on Eva Longoria's 'shop job, then they may as well pic on just about every other poster and magazine cover of a lady. It didn't seem a standout example for mine.

By: tiburon

tiburon — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:51:22 -0800

Happens to men too. Andy Roddick and his biceps

By: tristeza

tristeza — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:07:16 -0800

OK, seriously, is this poster even *supposed* to look like a photo? It can't, right? It's like a really bad drawing.

By: Ian A.T.

Ian A.T. — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:42:43 -0800

Cosmo7: I initially came here to ask you to turn off comments on your blog, or at least anonymous comments, because they were seriously obnoxious. But actually, the more I read them, and the stuffier and offended the comments become, the more I'm enjoying them.

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:14:17 -0800

Here's what I think the Sports Illustrated artist was trying to accomplish before that pesky deadline hit.

By: benzo8

benzo8 — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:14:44 -0800

This is effectively the photographic nerds equivalent of spotting continuity goofs in movies... Cool stuff.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:56:03 -0800

OK, seriously, is this poster even *supposed* to look like a photo? It can't, right? It's like a really bad drawing. To me it looks more like a really unimaginative logo turned on its side.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:59:05 -0800

And there's no way I'm not linking this once more. Safe for work, but you'll never sleep right again.

By: InfidelZombie

InfidelZombie — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:07:00 -0800

Becky has a special "dead eyes" filter for that, right?

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:09:15 -0800

Britain's Royal Opera House has agreed to stop using a picture in its advertisements after an actor complained his penis had been airbrushed out of a nude image.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:09:58 -0800

InfidelZombie: you'd be the expert on that, right?

By: Auz

Auz — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:20:45 -0800

tristeza: OK, seriously, is this poster even *supposed* to look like a photo? It can't, right? It's like a really bad drawing. UbuRoivas: To me it looks more like a really unimaginative logo turned on its side. Tch... kids today.

By: bwg

bwg — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:55:33 -0800

Dude, WTF?

By: Xere

Xere — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:16:06 -0800

tristeza: OK, seriously, is this poster even *supposed* to look like a photo? It can't, right? It's like a really bad drawing. UbuRoivas: To me it looks more like a really unimaginative logo turned on its side. Auz: Tch... kids today. Yes, but the dude's muscles are still messed up. Not John Lennon. That Dane whatshisface.

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:37:59 -0800

Tch... kids today. Even allowing that the link worked for you, and you assumed he was referring to the poster (instead of a broken link graphic), and you assumed he meant that Dane Cook looked like "an unimaginative logo turned on its side" ... what about even that interpretation of the comment implies an ignorance of that cultural reference? Would anyone truly familiar with that image never undervalue it by likening it or its phoned-in derivatives to a substandard rotated logo? Please elaborate.

By: Devils Rancher

Devils Rancher — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:49:50 -0800

Well, it's no Fail Dogs, but it'll do.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:50:37 -0800

Finally, I understand what was going on. I was having real trouble understanding the connection between John & Yoko, and this.

By: Auz

Auz — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 05:44:17 -0800

"Even allowing that the link worked for you, and you assumed he was referring to the poster (instead of a broken link graphic), and you assumed he meant that Dane Cook looked like "an unimaginative logo turned on its side" ... what about even that interpretation of the comment implies an ignorance of that cultural reference? Would anyone truly familiar with that image never undervalue it by likening it or its phoned-in derivatives to a substandard rotated logo? Please elaborate." I think you assume things too much.