CBS Article Questions Photo Manipulation (with Photoshop)

In an article on CBS News website, the author highlights the recent tumult in image manipulation. The question is what is real and what is fake? To a good Photoshop operator, we can pretty much tell. But to the average Joe, it's a different story.

There are so many methods and techniques that I've read and have actually used, in the corporate and private sectors, that enabled me to creatively improve the look of an image. Is that activity alone deceiving? Possibly, but it's aim and how the image is intended to be looked at, the audience that will be viewing it, is really the important part to consider. Some images are so extremely perfect, it's plain obvious.

Walk through any cosmetics section of a department store. Look at all the ads on display. Yes, that may be Halle Berry or Scarlett Johanson, but even they can't be that perfect. Movie posters, photos of athletes on cereal boxes, politicians on the cover of magazines, they are real people, just not that perfect.

To the marketing world, perfection results in sales. Mediocrity is sub-standard. As long as the American public buys into this theory and expects it, then this type of imagery will continue to haunt us.