Plastic surgery or Photoshop: which is more addictive? Well, I guess I should be asking Heidi Montag this question. When it comes to improving our physical appearance, lots of water and exercise work wonders, but in the meantime Photoshop can really be your friend. Watch out though, it really can get addicting.
Both plastic surgery and Photoshop can go way too far in their alterations of natural beauty. None of us are perfect, just ask Demi Moore. She underwent tons of plastic surgery in her early Hollywood days in the quest for the perfect face. She stirred up controversy again in December for her photo on the cover of W magazine. Many people claim the cover was heavily photoshopped – erasing part of her hip!
Why is plastic surgery appealing?
- It’s permanent (sort of)
- It’s less work than exercise
- You can look really great for your high school reunion in very little time
Why is plastic surgery scary?
- It’s permanent, as are the surgery mistakes
- It’s risky
- It’s expensive
So why is plastic surgery addicting? Because once you find that first excuse to go under the knife for a little (or big) imperfection, it’s far easier to do it a second time.
What makes Photoshop a better option?
- It’s under $1000, under $100 if you buy Photoshop Elements
- You can’t accidentally drop dead
- It’s really, really fun
Why would you bother removing wrinkles in Photoshop?
- Facebook, (note the first word in the website)
- Christmas card photos
- Personal vanity (at least that’s why I do it)
How do you do remove wrinkles the safe way?
First thing you want to do is create a new layer, so you can’t accidentally botch your face. Here’s our model for today:
Our gorgeous model is 85 years young. She decides to join the Facebook phenomenon but wants a little pick-me-up before her big debut online.
I first chose the healing brush and picked a spot in the middle of her brow to smooth the areas of her forehead. I chose an area on her cheeks to smooth her cheeks, etc. The important part is to choose an area with a similar skin tone and lighting.
I next chose a soft brush (15 pixels, 0% hardness) with 17% opacity to highlight and smooth the skin. Her natural smile is beautiful, so taking away character lines would be a mistake.
It’s not a huge change; it’s not offensive. It just highlights her smile a bit more.
If you wanted to take it a step further, you could go the airbrushed route. For this method, I did a quick and dirty selection of the face and placed it on a separate layer. Be careful not to include the teeth, eyes, or nostrils or it will look truly spooky.
I then added a 1 pixel surface blur and lowered the opacity on the face layer. Voilà.
After adding the surface blur, I also painted under the eyes with a 47% opaque 15 pixel brush. Here’s where it gets addicting. I can now see that I should have feathered the mask around the mouth a bit more and maybe lowered the opacity further. So… I can go back in and redo the mask and tweak some more… and more… and more…
Ok, I couldn’t help myself…
I lowered the opacity to 50% on the face layer and now it doesn’t look completely airbrushed.
Although I spent a total of about 20-30 minutes on this, you could easily spend hours obsessing over every little line and beauty mark. These modifications were done using the trackpad on my MacBook Pro; not the most accurate way to alter a photo. To achieve printable results I would use a Wacom tablet or at least a real mouse. This is fine for an avatar, however.
If you want a really detailed video tutorial, I recommend this one on YouTube:
I had intended to include a funny version, going nuts with the Photoshop distortion tools, but frankly, I think that’s just as crazy as going overboard with the plastic surgery. We all have both natural beauty and natural imperfections. Why not do a little to let them both shine through?
Comments on this entry are closed.