It’s been a while and so we’re back to calling out bad photoshops on Instagram Vs
Reality.
If you’re new here, this is the segment where we delve deeper into how some of the
Michelangelo sculpted bodies you see on Instagram are really created in Photoshop.
A quick disclaimer that this video is meant to be informative and I’m not trying to
harm or injure anyone’s brand.
First up we have quite a simple case of the liquify tool.
A quick refresher on how it works, it turns your picture into a function map and lets
you move around pixels like a thick, heavy soup.
The distortions you create in the soup are then transferred over to the real image.
In her case, flattening the stomach sticking out her butt distorts the pixels in the background
too creating these wonky lines.
Now trying to make something perfectly straight again, while maintaining perspective is incredibly
difficult so even if she wanted to fix the background, she likely wouldn’t be able
to.
Apart from the clearly messed up stairs, the liquify tool also creates blur zones which
are an example of image artifacts left behind from any kind of manipulation work.
As pixels become stretched and compressed to fit the canvas size, they lose their resolution.
Here’s a good a good analogy from fluid mechanics class university.
Imagine this a pixel map and this big circular obstruction to be my brush, notice how it
distorts sharply and compresses the lines closest to the circle the most.
This creates the most blur and as the lines distort less and less further out, the blur
goes down.
That’s what you’re seeing here in these blur zones.
So if you’re unsure theres liquify tool shenanigans going on, look for regions of
sudden blur, especially near the waist, hips, breast and butt.
Moving on, we have a different technique used here.
Shes used a selective blur filter to smoothen out her pores.
Unfortunately, many people still believe that the right combination of foundation can completely
erase skin texture which simply isn’t true.
Smooth skin like this, not blemish free, but smooth is created with a blur filter.
Now a blur filter is a general umbrella term for a group of tools that blend pixels together
to reduce skin resolution while still retaining colour and hue.
That’s why this edit looks more natural than some of the other one’s we’ve seen
in the past.
A big giveaway is her neck.
You can pinpoint exactly where she stopped using the tool, likely because it was done
on a phone and her fingers didn’t have the ability to get into the fine edge details,
so she just stopped a finger width before.
A better way to edit is to use your desired airbrush tool and then set the fill, not opacity,
to 50% so that it essentially applies at 50% strength and leaves some texture visible.
Now this one, isn’t really aimed at Gabbie Hannah.
It’s more to show how big of a difference the submental, so this under jaw region makes
to your facial aesthetic.
Gabbie is pretty open about editing her photos so that’s not really the point here.
If I bring up the submental in the liquify tool, it deages her by a good couple of years.
This submental-cervical angle is really important in facial aesthetics and therefore in photo
editing too.
In one study this slightly above 90 angle was deemed most attractive which is what we’re
trying to recreate here.
Showing that you know certain aesthetic parameters greatly improves your effectiveness, skill
and net value as an editor, meaning you can charge more and work for better clients.
If you’d like to learn more about facial aesthetics, then there’s two separate series
to learn from on the channel.
Obviously this is a really bad photo to try it on because it’s blown out from excess
background light (diffusion) and so moving any pixels brings along a heap of diffused
light with it, making certain parts look wafer thin.
This picture on the right is more ideal because it’s darker and so any liquify adjustments
bring shadows along with it.
Since the light source is directly above her, the shadow is basically her outline and so
it allows the editor to simultaneously edit two things in one motion.
She’s definitely tucked in her cervical point, which is the point between the throat
and jaw because theres a cluster of darker pixels here that shouldn’t be able to be
seen.
The second clue is the blur zone, it might be very difficult to see depending on your
resolution and screen, but take my word for it, its a big circular splotch of disturbed
pixels on her jaw.
Again, I don’t want to fault Gabbie for this, it’s actually a really well done job
and the edits are minimal.
The best photos are the ones that focus on angle, lighting and composition first and
then require minimal adjustment in post processing like this one.
Without the photo on the left, I would of never considered looking there.
That brings another episode to a close.
This week’s episodes are quite short because we’re getting ready to launch the QOVES
facial aesthetics report with the 100k video.
With that being said, do subscribe or she’ll be at the foot of your bed tonight.