Day Cream Adobe Photoshop

On the collage, the authors combined the two halves of the face – before and after Photoshop processing. The difference was so strong that it made the retouched faces almost unrecognizable. It seemed interesting to me to think about who sets the rules of the “game” and according to what canons the image is processed. The retouchers themselves ingeniously compare their work on photographs with the daily use of cosmetics: after all, if women themselves tint before going out “in public”, then “where is the ethical difference, is the pimple smeared with foundation or a brush in a graphic editor?” * In such an outwardly innocent scenario, it turns out that supposedly ladies diligently “retouch” their appearance, and only professionals modestly bring these efforts to the end.

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• “I don’t know what beauty is”

However, when the same retouchers describe the details of their work, it becomes clear that there is a certain amount of slyness in their reasoning: there is still a difference, and a very tangible one. A professional retoucher acts on a commercial order, and there is a rigid logic behind his actions. One has only to think about the list of manipulations: “We remove everything that distracts, interferes, climbs into the eyes. Add volume at the roots of the hair, if they are loose. We lengthen the neck, remove some horizontal wrinkles on it, clean the axillary folds and armpits, finish the nails, remove the cuticle, fix the makeup – the eyes, the lash line, sometimes finish them, smooth the moving eyelid, bring in the uniformity of color. We clean the eyes: remove blood vessels, redness, accentuate the pupil. We correct the eyebrows, removing excess hairs, aligning the color and density, editing the shape. Naturally, we work with pores, irregularities, spots on the face. We pay attention to the extra hairs in the hairstyle. We correct plasticity: body folds, waist contours, hips and back bending, we remove “goose bumps” on the legs, always clean the heels. Contrasting transformations of excess weight into model parameters and, for example, rejuvenation by 20 years in our case remain one-time exceptions. We’re not Photoshop wizards, but we’re in the business of helping clients get their images in line with their style, brand, long-term strategy.”**

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• Allure is more than beauty

As we can see, despite all sorts of reservations, the commercial task for image processing very severely cuts off all “extra” manifestations of physicality, turning the body into an unrealistically abstract shell, an ideal backdrop for advertising a fashion or cosmetic product. This can be compared to the role of the sauce used to cover dishes to give them a “glossy” look for photographs in gastronomy magazines, as Roland Barthes once penetratingly wrote about. The basis of glamorous cooking for him is a “smooth veil”, which is achieved through sauce, glaze, cream, and so on. The purpose of this coating is to advantageously present a culinary ornament: arabesques of candied fruit, lemon slices and slices of truffles … “Smooth glaze creates a backdrop for the exuberant fantasy of decoration” ***. And if in fashionable make-up tons of foundation and powder play the role of sauce, then in Photoshop – just the same actions of retouchers already listed, erasing all sorts of “irregularities” (and at the same time individuality) of the face. As a result of their efforts, the body is adjusted to the standard, acquiring visual isolation, graphic completeness. And then, against this background, instead of candied fruits and lemon slices, bright red lipstick or any other advertised product stands out favorably. As a result, natural corporality with its hair, fluids, all sorts of “unnecessary” bulges is eliminated, and a rounded-smooth product triumphantly takes its place – a representation of the body designed according to all the rules, intended for consumption in the system of glossy culture.

Violation of this smooth bodily contour, as a rule, is perceived as an indecency, an inappropriate manifestation of the repressed Nature. In such cases, the expressive verb “to leak” is often used in English texts. This term can describe most of the occasional violations of the canon of glamorous beauty. One has only to remember what scandal the story with the “bloody cuticle” caused on the beauty Internet, when blogger Yulia Grebenkina published photos of a manicure with a cuticle trimmed to blood. This is a typical example of how the body involuntarily “leaks”, and from the same series – all other manifestations of corporality “inappropriate” in the gloss – blood, saliva, sweat, tears, fat, folds, acne, wrinkles … From this, in the glamorous world they came up with only one radical remedy – the best Adobe Photoshop cream in the world …

* and ** Quotes from the site for girls about beauty and style wonderzine.com

*** R. Bart “Mythologies” (Publishing house named after Sabashnikovs, 1996).