Photoshop. Does it deserve the cult following it has, or is it a tool of pure evil? One thing's for sure, advertising wouldn't be the same without it.
In my humble opinion, photoshop is a doubled edged sword. On one hand, it's a valuable piece of software for making products and services look appealing, correcting images, and creating mind-blowing graphics and scenarios that would not be possible in reality. However, having a tool that can manipulate images so drastically and so realistically can be a dangerous thing when people are the ones being warped beyond recognition.
I firmly stand by my opinion that Photoshopping models and celebrities into perfect mannequins is wrong. I understand why the editors and advertising agencies do this—featuring 'thin' impossibly proportioned women in magazines and billboards is not a new selling tactic—but the extent that they retouch their images can have a very negative effect on the self esteem of the consumers. We are constantly bombarded by these false depictions of the human body, causing us to question our own appearances and obsess over our own flaws. Women, men, and especially youth, are all prone to insecurity about their looks at some point, and having these strange, glamourous Photoshop Frankensteins to compare themselves to only makes things worse.
If Photoshop is being used creatively, e.g. to superimpose a seal drinking Mountain Dew onto a surfboard, or in a way that's similarly absurd, then I don't see any real problem with that. Even in terms of editing products to make then look a little more appetizing, that's not nearly as big an issue as re-forming the contours of someone's face to make them look "sexier". Photoshop is a wonderful invention, and I certainly can attest to that, but it has a dark side when used too much in a more human context.
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