ANOTHER PEEK INTO THE RE-TOUCHING PROCESS

by lisa, Mar 28, 2009, at 12:23 am

Franklin S. alerted us to the fact that someone at Complex magazine goofed. Our reward is another peek into the re-touching process that shapes nearly every image in our lives. This time the subject is Kim Kardashian. Animal made the find:

We spotted this image (left)… this morning in their “web exclusive” gallery, but by afternoon she was looking recognizably altered (right) and then removed from the site completely.

kim_kardashian_photoshop_complex_animal

See all of our re-touching posts here.

NEW! (Feb. ’10): Christine sent us another example, Demi Moore on the cover of W magazine with her hip more aggressively photoshopped in the U.S. version than the Korean version:

These two images are both from a photo shoot for a perfume ad. The one on the left was taken by Ashton Kutcher; the one on the right is a touched-up image from the shoot. She’s so light and glowy!

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Comments

A 5:27 am on March 28, 2009 | # | Reply

Peek.
Vettekaas 10:30 am on March 28, 2009 | # | Reply

wow… she looks… whiter x-(
Anonymous 11:16 am on March 28, 2009 | # | Reply

I don’t think she looks whiter, but her skin does look more even, and much fewer veins are visible.
Franklin S. 1:13 pm on March 28, 2009 | # | Reply

Check out the Gawker post (where I originally saw this) which includes an animated gif comparing the two images and a list of changes.

http://gawker.com/5184270/14-ways-photoshopped-kim-kardashian-was-made-hotter
Elena 3:40 pm on March 28, 2009 | # | Reply

She’s also gotten a tummy lift and a liposuction in her thighs, and her arm and back (compare the empty space between arm and torso) have also lost some fat.
CJ :) 10:32 pm on March 28, 2009 | # | Reply

I think she does look like they lightened her skin using light effects. That’s pretty sad. I mean, all of it is ridiculous, but why did they feel the need to make her look lighter? *sigh*
Chilligan 10:59 pm on March 28, 2009 | # | Reply

Yeah, legs look whiter, and generally the skin tone is more uniform. Its getting to the point that its too obvious these days… that you look at it and think ‘fake’ rather than ‘man, s/he looks great.’
thewhatifgirl 5:14 pm on March 30, 2009 | # | Reply

I initially thought she looked whiter too, but when I examined the rest of the picture, I realized they lightened the whole thing (the reason why is most obvious, I think, if you look at where the belt is – it’s hard to see it in the untouched photo but more defined in the touched-up photo – but you can also tell just by looking at the background). There is an ideal light level for photographs that means this kind of all-over lightening is often required, even with the prepared studio work. (Lightening also has a tendency to wash out certain very tiny “imperfections”.)

Which is not to say that there aren’t problems with these photos but that skin color is probably not one of them.
Whit 2:41 pm on March 31, 2009 | # | Reply

Why is it a problem that she got whitened, but not de-”fat”ted? Srsly.
Just passing through 3:11 pm on April 1, 2009 | # | Reply

Skin color IS one of them. I do not think it would be that difficult to figure out how to lighten the background without lightening the person. The fact of the matter is that our society favors people with lighter skin, lighter hair, and lighter eyes. Our society is racist through and through, but these are much more subtle than the racism of 100 years ago, or even 60 years ago.
Just passing through 3:13 pm on April 1, 2009 | # | Reply

Whit, both of these are a problem. But the fact that people are denying the fact that she is lighter is why it is getting more discussion. But yes, both those issues you brought up are problems with this picture.
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[...] who can blame her? Magazine covers regularly Photoshop already stunningly-beautiful people (link link link link) to further “enhance” them into completely fantastical realms of physical [...]
Sociological Images Update (Feb. 2010) » Sociological Images 10:48 am on March 1, 2010 | # | Reply

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