DailyDirt: Digital Beauty Is Everywhere
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Before Photoshop, there were real airbrushes and paintings that were just a bit more flattering than a mirror. Movie magic is improving all the time with computer generated effects, and it's getting harder and harder to tell what's been altered (just assume everything is). You might not want to meet your favorite actors in real life after seeing how they've been modified. Here are a few links on digital touch-ups.- Hollywood actors/actresses don't just rely on makeup and botox. They also have "beauty work" done that isn't quite turning actors into Andy Serkis (yet). Digital touch-ups can remove a lot of "flaws" and make people look just a bit younger looking than they are in reality. [url]
- Photoshop is used routinely to make the covers of magazines look a bit better (or worse, depending on your preferences), but what images does your brain really prefer? If you think you hate the sound of your own voice when it's recorded, you might prefer a touched-up version of your portraits, too. [url]
- Esther Honig tried an experiment to see the different standards of beauty -- as depicted by 40 photoshop artists from dozens of different countries modifying a photo of Honig. A few verions of her photo appeared to be barely altered, but a bunch of these photos strayed pretty far from the original. [url]
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Filed Under: beauty work, cgi, esther honig, photography, photoshop, photoshopping
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On the subject of digital manipulation, Rachelle Lefevre said on a talk show that during the first season of Under the Dome, CBS digitally erased her visible nipple impressions.
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There are some good examples that we are allowed to know about in the making of 'Benjamin Button' - digital makeup is used on Brad Pitt when he is younger than his actual age in the movie.
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The Logical Conclusion
The British mystery writer, Margery Allingham, in _The Estate of the Beckoning Lady_ (1955, towards the end of ch. 4), postulated a kind of rubber mask ("The Old Original Skin Deep"), which would fit tightly against the skin, more or less the way a pair of pantyhose fits a pair of legs. The idea was that the mask, instead of the skin, would receive a make-up job, and the make-up job could be in permanent colors. The face would be part of the stage costume, the same as the wig. Things like wigs work on the stage, as distinct from film, because the audience doesn't get close enough to get a really good look at the actors. Allingham also postulated that copies of the masks would be on sale in chain stores, and little girls would be dressing up in them...
We have seen some approaches to this conclusion, notably the curious case of the Everywhere Girl. An aspiring actress/model got a job for a one-day photo-shoot for a fixed fee. The photographer was able to take enough pictures that he effectively captured her entire career potential, selling her image to advertise an extraordinary range of products, and making her so "type-cast," (as "your daughter going off to college, for whom you want to by stuff") that the aspiring actress/model could never work again.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090730/0237125710.shtml#c316
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Re: The Logical Conclusion
Of course, plenty of people complained his face looked like play-doh, but since the scenes were supposed to be set in a virtual world, we should cut them a little slack. ;)
So the question becomes whether it's cheaper to digitally alter a character or make your "body mask".
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The funny thing is
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The Last Word
“The Logical Conclusion
Let's carry this to its logical conclusion. A talent scout goes around American college campuses, finding girls who will accept, say five hundred dollars, to spend an hour or so in a medical scanner, and give a full release for the information the scanner generates. The scans become a kind of digital full-body leotard-mask "worn" by an Indian actress, who is sixty years old, looks forty au natural, and who, with the aid of the mask, is able to pass for fifteen. Needless to say, she has forgotten more about acting technique than any twenty-year-old ever knew. Think of someone at the kind of level that Katherine Hepburn eventually reached, only not confined to "magnificent old woman" roles like Queen Hecuba in _The Trojan Women_ or Eleanor of Aquitaine in _The Lion in Winter_. Like one of the old repertory actors in Shakespeare or Molliere's companies, the sixty-year-old Indian actress can play just about any kind of part on short notice. The movie industry will become much more enclosed. It won't go out looking for near-amateurs with the right kind of face. It will focus down on people it knows are good craftsmen.The British mystery writer, Margery Allingham, in _The Estate of the Beckoning Lady_ (1955, towards the end of ch. 4), postulated a kind of rubber mask ("The Old Original Skin Deep"), which would fit tightly against the skin, more or less the way a pair of pantyhose fits a pair of legs. The idea was that the mask, instead of the skin, would receive a make-up job, and the make-up job could be in permanent colors. The face would be part of the stage costume, the same as the wig. Things like wigs work on the stage, as distinct from film, because the audience doesn't get close enough to get a really good look at the actors. Allingham also postulated that copies of the masks would be on sale in chain stores, and little girls would be dressing up in them...
We have seen some approaches to this conclusion, notably the curious case of the Everywhere Girl. An aspiring actress/model got a job for a one-day photo-shoot for a fixed fee. The photographer was able to take enough pictures that he effectively captured her entire career potential, selling her image to advertise an extraordinary range of products, and making her so "type-cast," (as "your daughter going off to college, for whom you want to by stuff") that the aspiring actress/model could never work again.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090730/0237125710.shtml#c316