There has been much written about the role digital retouching has had on creating unrealistic body/beauty images. This in turn has had a negative impact on individual self-image, particularly amongst young people.

While most acknowledge that digital retouching is now the norm, it doesn’t stop us from constantly comparing ourselves to the perfectly smooth, taunt and toned images of celebrities we see everyday.

While a few brave individuals have broken the mould and made a point of allowing photographs of themselves to be shown without retouching, the rise of the HD era of visual culture looks set to kill any attempt to redress the imbalance.

That is until now. PhD students Eric Kee and Hany Farid at Dartmouth College in the US have created a handy metric, which calculates exactly how much Photoshop retouching photographs have undergone. The metric can then be used to judge how much, and where digital retouching has taken place. While this has obvious legal uses, enabling courts to establish the veracity of photographic evidence, the handy toggle button enables user to reveal the truth behind the digitally enhanced façade.

No surprises about Fergie; but even George Clooney suddenly looks his age, while only Angelina Jolie seems immune to the reality wand.


Links to consider:


http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/downloads/publications/pna...