The ethical implications of photo manipulation can be severe and many people get attached to the image they have created and not the original one. The representation in current time in digital images and design have very slim margins of what people refer to as ‘good-looking’ or ‘attractive’. The Honig experiment is a very good way at looking at different cultures and personal perspectives of what beauty looks like. Considering this, the final activity was to experiment with Photoshop’s manipulation and touch-up tools to create our own Honig images.
As you can see, the personal image on the right is containing natural light and has no filters on with blemishes and imperfections showing. The image on the right is heavily manipulated and uses many tools to create this ‘perfect’ version; you can see the clear differences between the two. The main tool I used was the spot-healing tool to disregard spots and fly-away hairs to make the image seem more smooth. The warm colours come from using multiple layers of altering blend modes, saturation, blur, and brightness. The aim was the bring out the natural freckles and colour in the skin whilst also brightening the eye colour and accentuating the lips by adding a flattering colour. The overall outcome was successful as you can see the clear difference between the original and the enhanced image.
