How do Photographs Lie
“Ever since its invention a shade more than 150 years ago, photography has been seen as a medium of truth and unassailable accuracy.” (New York Times) The reason photography is described like this, is because photographs can lie in many different ways that we do not even know of. What do you think when you see a model in a magazine? You probably think, how can someone be so so flawless? What you do not know is that they are really not that flawless. Editors of the magazine or probably even the photographer may alter the model's appearance to something that is flawless. By using photoshop the editor of the photograph can simply make a model’s shoulders lower, makes their eyes bigger, or even make their skin tone darker or lighter. This much-touted technology makes it easy to recompose and combine photographic images, and to do so in a way that is virtually undetectable. (New York Times) The reason why editors do this is because they want their product to look perfect. If their product looks perfect than they can potentially sell more of it in order to earn more money and later in life become rich. When the final photograph is out than the model looks completely different. So, the photograph is creating a false image of the model making it lie.
As electronic images enhanced by computers replace the light-sensitive film photographs to which we are now accustomed, they will inevitably have an impact on fields ranging from art to the law, as well as creating new ones as yet unimagined. (New York Times) As stated in the New York Time magazine by enhancing the light sensitive you can make the subject of your photograph really stand out and look really interesting. When you look at the image in the camera the light is not as strong and the model is not standing out or in other words “popping” out as in the final manipulated image. Another way our photographs are manipulated in today society is they do not seem as real as they once did. Around the 19th century photographs showed the real emotions and the photographers did not know how to distort the subject’s emotion. In others words, If the subject was sad the subject showed that sad emotion. In today's society, which is two centuries later, editors can change the subjects emotion from happy to sad, tired to anger, and lastly from depressed to surprised. With high developed machines it makes it easier to manipulate photographs. A special machine ''scans'' the photographic image (in either negative or print form), creating a computer code of its shapes, tones and colors. Once this code is entered into the computer's memory, the image can be reconstructed, dot by dot, using a conventional keyboard or ''mouse'' and software designed for the purpose. (New York Times) With these machines old/historical photographs can be refurbished and preserved for the future generations. The future generations will be able to learn about their past. Possibly even learning more about their ancestors and where they have came from.
My personal opinion on why photos lie and how they affects the society is that it affects and impacts many different people every single day. Some people can truly be self conscience about how their body looks. People can make some nasty comments on other people causing them to hate how they look. Although there are people out there who fight against these preceptions. An example of people fighting back would be Tyra Banks. Tyra Banks is supermodel and talk-show host. Tyra was relaxing on a nearby beach when a photographer took a picture of her in her swimsuit. When he published the photograph to a magazine and Tyra saw it see was very upset. In the photograph it had looked as if Tyra was a lot heavier than she really is. She stated that she has gained 30 pounds more than she did as a supermodel in the 1990s, but it was not as much as the photo had suggested or showed up. (abcnews) To fight back, Tyra appeared on her talk show in a bikini to show the world that she not over weight. The photographer of this incident did not manipulate this photograph at all. What happened was the angle at which he took the photograph. So, in conclusion for this story the photograph lied about how much Tyra Banks weighs. Photographs lie to also make us feel good about our self or to distract our minds. By manipulating the photographs people who are overweight can make themselves skinnier and continue to eat their lives away.
How photos lie impacts me as an individual because they making me think America is perfect. Photos are also very deceiving to the eye which makes me wonder every time I see a photograph if the photographer really took that image or did that photographer manipulate it to make it look that nice. Same thing goes with the subject of the photo. Is that person natural that way or again did they manipulate the image. Why does this impact me as an individual, it is impacts me as a consumer because what if the photograph that is taken if for a commercial billboard to sell a product. If the product is to make my skin smooth but in reality it makes my skin rough, I would not want to waste my money on a product that does not work like it should. Photographs lie in many different ways. In more than we may even know. Put who is making these photographs lie are the people taking the photograph. With photographs lying it can also destroy a persons self esteem, which they could have been building for a very long time to become confident.
“Ever since its invention a shade more than 150 years ago, photography has been seen as a medium of truth and unassailable accuracy.” (New York Times) The reason photography is described like this, is because photographs can lie in many different ways that we do not even know of. What do you think when you see a model in a magazine? You probably think, how can someone be so so flawless? What you do not know is that they are really not that flawless. Editors of the magazine or probably even the photographer may alter the model's appearance to something that is flawless. By using photoshop the editor of the photograph can simply make a model’s shoulders lower, makes their eyes bigger, or even make their skin tone darker or lighter. This much-touted technology makes it easy to recompose and combine photographic images, and to do so in a way that is virtually undetectable. (New York Times) The reason why editors do this is because they want their product to look perfect. If their product looks perfect than they can potentially sell more of it in order to earn more money and later in life become rich. When the final photograph is out than the model looks completely different. So, the photograph is creating a false image of the model making it lie.
As electronic images enhanced by computers replace the light-sensitive film photographs to which we are now accustomed, they will inevitably have an impact on fields ranging from art to the law, as well as creating new ones as yet unimagined. (New York Times) As stated in the New York Time magazine by enhancing the light sensitive you can make the subject of your photograph really stand out and look really interesting. When you look at the image in the camera the light is not as strong and the model is not standing out or in other words “popping” out as in the final manipulated image. Another way our photographs are manipulated in today society is they do not seem as real as they once did. Around the 19th century photographs showed the real emotions and the photographers did not know how to distort the subject’s emotion. In others words, If the subject was sad the subject showed that sad emotion. In today's society, which is two centuries later, editors can change the subjects emotion from happy to sad, tired to anger, and lastly from depressed to surprised. With high developed machines it makes it easier to manipulate photographs. A special machine ''scans'' the photographic image (in either negative or print form), creating a computer code of its shapes, tones and colors. Once this code is entered into the computer's memory, the image can be reconstructed, dot by dot, using a conventional keyboard or ''mouse'' and software designed for the purpose. (New York Times) With these machines old/historical photographs can be refurbished and preserved for the future generations. The future generations will be able to learn about their past. Possibly even learning more about their ancestors and where they have came from.
My personal opinion on why photos lie and how they affects the society is that it affects and impacts many different people every single day. Some people can truly be self conscience about how their body looks. People can make some nasty comments on other people causing them to hate how they look. Although there are people out there who fight against these preceptions. An example of people fighting back would be Tyra Banks. Tyra Banks is supermodel and talk-show host. Tyra was relaxing on a nearby beach when a photographer took a picture of her in her swimsuit. When he published the photograph to a magazine and Tyra saw it see was very upset. In the photograph it had looked as if Tyra was a lot heavier than she really is. She stated that she has gained 30 pounds more than she did as a supermodel in the 1990s, but it was not as much as the photo had suggested or showed up. (abcnews) To fight back, Tyra appeared on her talk show in a bikini to show the world that she not over weight. The photographer of this incident did not manipulate this photograph at all. What happened was the angle at which he took the photograph. So, in conclusion for this story the photograph lied about how much Tyra Banks weighs. Photographs lie to also make us feel good about our self or to distract our minds. By manipulating the photographs people who are overweight can make themselves skinnier and continue to eat their lives away.
How photos lie impacts me as an individual because they making me think America is perfect. Photos are also very deceiving to the eye which makes me wonder every time I see a photograph if the photographer really took that image or did that photographer manipulate it to make it look that nice. Same thing goes with the subject of the photo. Is that person natural that way or again did they manipulate the image. Why does this impact me as an individual, it is impacts me as a consumer because what if the photograph that is taken if for a commercial billboard to sell a product. If the product is to make my skin smooth but in reality it makes my skin rough, I would not want to waste my money on a product that does not work like it should. Photographs lie in many different ways. In more than we may even know. Put who is making these photographs lie are the people taking the photograph. With photographs lying it can also destroy a persons self esteem, which they could have been building for a very long time to become confident.
References:
Grundberg, Andy. "Photography View; Ask It No Questions: The Camera Can Lie."www.nytimes.com. N.p., 12 Aug. 1990. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
"Tyra Banks Fights Back Against Tabloid Fat Allegations." ABC News. ABC News Network, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Image Reference:
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=before+and+after+photo+manipulation+celebrities&safe=active&sa=G&rlz=1CASMAE_enUS561US561&espv=210&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbnid=AFXx4RNqi1lohM:&imgrefurl=http://www.onextrapixel.com/2013/05/21/13-common-photoshop-mistakes-and-malpractices-with-remedies/&docid=Mx7yXK2n4fKMFM&imgurl=http://cdn.onextrapixel.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/photoshop-celebrities.jpg&w=580&h=390&ei=cu-xUoO9F4bXkQeL8ICAAQ&zoom=1
Grundberg, Andy. "Photography View; Ask It No Questions: The Camera Can Lie."www.nytimes.com. N.p., 12 Aug. 1990. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
"Tyra Banks Fights Back Against Tabloid Fat Allegations." ABC News. ABC News Network, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Image Reference:
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=before+and+after+photo+manipulation+celebrities&safe=active&sa=G&rlz=1CASMAE_enUS561US561&espv=210&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbnid=AFXx4RNqi1lohM:&imgrefurl=http://www.onextrapixel.com/2013/05/21/13-common-photoshop-mistakes-and-malpractices-with-remedies/&docid=Mx7yXK2n4fKMFM&imgurl=http://cdn.onextrapixel.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/photoshop-celebrities.jpg&w=580&h=390&ei=cu-xUoO9F4bXkQeL8ICAAQ&zoom=1
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