"What you're looking for as a retoucher is a broom, something that covers your tracks, some way of obscuring where you've been. The first thing [most] people take out is bloodshot eyes. That's the last thing I take out—the last thing I'd, like, just wipe, because that just makes it look retouched." -- from Jesse Epstein's video op-ed for the NY Times, based on her film Wet Dreams and False Images ("I know that's not airbrushed. I could put a million dollars that's not airbrushed."), one of three related short documentaries on physical perfection. "Each head has to be identical to the other head, so we don't want anybody putting sandpaper to the head." -- from 34 x 25 x 36. Via the latest installment of Shakesville's Impossibly Beautiful series. (Previous posts on retouching.)
posted by maudlin on Apr 3, 2009 - 51 comments

Movie stars. What have they got that you haven't got? A professional retoucher. (via YesbutNobutYes) [more inside]
posted by Dave Faris on Sep 12, 2007 - 78 comments

Baby snapshots not cute enough for you? Get your kid's photos airbrushed by Pageant Photo Retouching. Some particularly noteworthy examples.
posted by gaspode on Jul 31, 2007 - 123 comments

Tourist Remover. Sorry for the one-link post, but this is just too good an idea not to share. This clever (and free!) service removes extraneous stuff from pictures. Neat! Via.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan on Jul 21, 2006 - 29 comments

Brian Dilg Photography Long after Jamie Lee Curtis bared all to show the world she's no longer Perfect are we still being fooled by the seeming perfection of photos being presented to us in the media? [note: Feron and Apodaca featured previously on Mefi]
posted by FlamingBore on Jun 14, 2006 - 41 comments

Step-by-step magazine cover photo retouching. (Flash)
posted by fandango_matt on Dec 18, 2005 - 53 comments

We Can Remember It for You Wholesale ... Montage of digital retouching techniques [note: Quicktime]
posted by crunchland on Dec 17, 2005 - 40 comments

Glenn Feron - The Art of Retouching
(warning, site is potentially NSFW)
The site is slow but his work is impressive, taking fairly dull celebrity shots and shining them up to magazine quality perfection.
Previous retouching post with a link to a site with a much nicer interface but nowhere near as much content.
posted by fenriq on Aug 24, 2005 - 70 comments

Press photographer stripped of award; accused of overly darkening some portions in the digital editing process. Nothing was added or moved. Explains N.C. Press Photographers Assoc. president Chuck Liddy: You might say, "Gosh, I don't like the way this background looks I can get rid of this with a couple of keystrokes". No contortions in the darkroom with your hands and a dodging wand. No making ten or fifteen prints over a two hour period to get that print just right. Nope, just go and use the lasso tool, yank those levels to the max and VIOLA! the background disappears. Burning has always been an acceptable action. Burning to "de-emphasize" a background is something all of us do. But deleting the background by using some of the powerful tools Photoshop offers is totally unacceptable and violates the ethics code we adhere to. Schneider, the photographer, responds in an NPR interview (scroll down to audio link). In this allegedly unethical photo, Schneider says he corrected for overexposure. Is this a backlash against digital manipulation, which rankles the old school because it is simply too easy?
posted by found missing on Aug 30, 2003 - 31 comments

oh my god. what's worse... retouching photos of 38 week stillborns for a living, or the fact that there's some sort of demand for it?
posted by jcterminal on Jun 12, 2002 - 29 comments

Photoshop Tennis -- Lauded graphic designers (including a well loved mefi member) participate in a volley of skills: "It's a pretty simple idea really. One player emails a photoshop document to the other containing a single layer. Each player progressively adds a layer until the match is over, either by time, withdrawal or mutual consent. A guest adds comments in real time and the people watching vote for a winner"
posted by katexmcfly on Sep 9, 2001 - 28 comments

When is a photograph not a photograph?
...and does it matter? Photosnobs get bent out of shape at Photo.net.
posted by normy on Jan 28, 2001 - 16 comments

So was the dress red or purple? - And was Frances Bean dressed in black or Blue? An AP photo and Reuters photo taken at the same moment, less than two or three feet apart - yet so blatantly different. Don't trust everything you see, indeed. (and don't ask how I stumbled onto this page).
posted by kokogiak on Oct 7, 2000 - 10 comments