Photoshopped image

I chose to photoshop a picture of some maple leaves. I chose this picture because it was simple but still a pretty scene. I manipulated the picture in several ways. First, I used the lasso tool to photoshop a ladybug onto one of the leaves. I then changed the hue of the ladybug so that it would be a more brilliant red. I used the cloning tool to fix some of the blemishes on the leaves so that there were no longer large brown spots. I also used the shadows/highlights tool to try and decrease the shadows in the picture to give it a less dark look. Finally, I lowered the saturation of the background so that the scene is almost in black and white. However, I did not change the color of the ladybug because I wanted it to be the main focus of the scene and I thought lessening the intensity of the background would help me achieve this. I manipulated this photo in many ways, however the manipulations I created were not particularly harmful. The article I researched was called "Smile and Say 'No Photoshop'" by Eric Wilson. This article discussed the way celebrities today are so dramatically photoshopped in magazines that it is obvious that their appearance in this picture is not even close to their natural appearance. I do not think my photoshopped image was harmful. The only things that might have been harmful was the retouching of the leaves because it is similar to the way that people are retouched in magazines to look more perfect. I removed the blemishes from the maple leaves the same way magazine editors photoshop blemishes off of their models. I do agree that photoshop may be harmful especially when referring to the standards of beauty in today's society. In the article mentioned above a man named Phil Poynter stated "The big discussion in the fashion business has always been about should we retouch girls, should we create a portrait of a girl that is not achievable by a real girl." This quote sums up the reason why people are worried about the overuse of photoshop. They do not want a society where the standards of beauty are unrealistic.

WILSON, ERIC. "Smile and Say 'No Photoshop'." New York Times 28 May 2009: 1. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 10 Nov. 2010.