fashion photography

2. To what degree should an image manipulated to go into a fashion magazine?

In fashion photography images are altered to project a type of image what the fashion industry want their audience to aspire to be and believe that if you wear their clothing then you will look as perfect as the women in the magazines. However this is impossible to do as the images are changed to look almost inhuman meaning that no one would ever be able to look like them.

 Firstly they will choose the model out of a large selection. They will often choose one witch will wear the clothes best this will mean it will often be a size zero model and will be able to edit more than a bigger one.

After they select their model they will prep them for the picture. This will involve plastering on makeup on the model to flatter her facial structure this will also help when they edit the photos because they can enhance the pictures where the makeup is to add on the effect of it, they will mostly focus on the lips to make them appear bigger this is the same with the eyes because the will want them to pop out more. After they have finished with the makeup they will then move on to the hair this will involve it being styled to fit the look of the outfit, this could be straighten the hair to adding exetions.in some cases the models even wear wigs what have been style to fit the outfit exactly, in this case the model would need to be also able to pull of the wig so it would be taken in to account when choosing them.

Finally after the photos have been taken it is taken to an editor, the editor will then proceed to edit the photo using guidelines from the magazine of what they want to photo to be edited like. This will involve them editing the model making the neck longer, eyes bigger and making the face slimmer they will also remove blemishes and scars from the face to make the picture look flawless. The background will also be edited to look better as well, they would typically change the pattern of the background if there is wallpaper to fit in with the outfit also they will edit it to look brighter as well (see picture) this will help the model stand out better from the page and draw the eye to them.

In conclusion I believe that images in the fashion insdury should be edited less than what they are. I believe that is ok to edit pictures to remove blemishes (e.g. spots) and scars, by doing this it does not effect the model or the appearance of the model drastically it just helps the picture look better. However I do not believe that the picture should be edited and stretched to make them look unrisltic. If they do they are causing women to try and be something what is physically impossible to achieve, causing them to do drastic things to achieve ‘the look’.