Unit 28 digital image manipulation techniques

2. • Photo manipulation dates back the 19th century and at this time traditional
photographs could be changed using a number of methods and techniques that
involved manipulation directly to the print or negative, such as retouching with ink,
paint, airbrushing, or scratching Polaroids during developing.
• Negatives can be manipulated while still in the camera using double-exposure
techniques, or in the darkroom by piecing photos or negatives together and some
darkroom manipulations involved techniques such as bleaching to artfully lighten
or totally wash-out parts of the photograph, or hand colouring for aesthetic
purposes or to mimic a fine art painting.
• While the equipment and technology progressed over time, it was not until the
late 20th century that photography changed to a digital form. At the onset, digital
photography was considered by some to be a radical new approach and was
initially rejected by photographers because of its substandard quality.
• The transition from film to digital has been an ongoing process although great
strides were made in the early 21st century as a result of innovation that has
greatly improved digital image quality while reducing the bulk and weight of
cameras and equipment.

3. An example of image manipulation in the past is
this image taken by William H. Mumler’s of
Abraham Lincoln's widow Mary. This image is an
example of what was called “Spirit photography,”
which largely preyed on the grieving families of
fallen Civil War soldiers, claimed to capture
photographic proof of spirits. In this image we
can see an outline of what looks to be Abraham
Lincoln behind his widow looking over her with a
hand on her shoulder.

4. There were certain tools from the pre-digital era for
retouching images some of these tools are:
• Gouache paint: Gouache paint is similar to watercolour,
however modified to make it opaque (the quality of
lacking transparency or translucence).
• Kneaded erasers: It functions by absorbing and
"picking up" graphite and charcoal particles, in addition
to carbon and pastel marks.
• Charcoal sticks: is used in art for drawing, making
rough sketches in painting.
• An airbrush: is a small, air-operated tool that sprays
various media, most often paint but also ink and dye,
and foundation by a process of nebulization.

5. In Terms of digital blemish removal it is carried
out through the use of a couple of tools on the
photoshop application but mainly three, doge,
burn and the spot healing tool. The dodge and
burn tool are used to lighten or darken areas of
the image. These tools are based on a
traditional darkroom technique for regulating
exposure on specific areas of a print where the
photographer holds back light to lighten an
area on the print (dodging) or increase the
exposure to darken areas on a print (burning).
The spot healing tool is as the name suggests
used to remove blemishes on the face of the
subject by taking an area of the skin with no
blemishes and using it to cover an area of the
skin with blemishes.

6. An example where we can see digital blemish removal in use is this photoshoot
of the actress Naomi Watts where as we can see the image was put through the
process of digital blemish removal. In this case the subject’s skin was lightened
using the dodge tool to make the skin appear lighter and remove any visible
blemishes on the skin.
In terms of effectiveness, the airbrush and dodge tool where used here
effectively as it was able to hide the ‘blemishes’ on the subjects body as well as
brighten her skin tone.

7. In terms of colour correction techniques they
are mainly around the control of levels within
the colour, saturation and hue of the image.
For example if you want an image of a product
or a skyline to look golden and the original
image has a greenish tint to it, you might go to
the colour levels of the image and drop the
amount of green that is in the mage to remove
this green tint. This is amongst one in many
factors you have to keep in mind whilst colour
correcting an image as you would also have to
keep in mind the lighting of the image and
contrast so when your colour correcting each
part of the image is properly done.

8. Here is an example of the before and
after of colour correction. In the case of
these images we can clearly see that
the levels of colours have been scaled a
up to make the pop and stand out
more (the reds, yellows and greens in
the image have been enhanced and
thus stand out more). This practice is
commonly used in holiday magazines
to receive a desired out come for an
image (e.g. if the image is meant to
take place during a Christmas period
the blacks, blues, whites and yellows are
enhanced to look more punchy and to
resemble the typical look the season is
known to have).

9. This advert for the perfume ‘Heat’ is another example
of how colour correction can be used to appeal to an
audience. In the advert on the top the colour levels for
red have been changed and clearly exaggerated to
make the colour red look brighter, in addition to this the
edges of the bottle have through the use of the doge
effected been brightened to make the bottle look like it
is glistening further adding to the premium look of the
product which helps make it look appealing for the
audience. Furthermore Beyonce in the image has been
airbrushed to make her skin look smother and remove
any blemishes and there have been shadows added to
add to her cleavage and legs to give her body more
contours, this also might give the audience the
implication that using the product will in some way
improve their looks and peoples perception of how they
look giving the viewer more incentive to buy the
product.

10. In terms of the effectives, the colour correction used in this advert is fairly
effective as it gives the perfume in the advert a more premium look, hence
making the audience more visually attracted to the product. The effects that
this would have on the audience is that the product would to them seem to be
of more value as that is how it is presented and what this means is more
financial gain for the company and fragrance line.

11. Photomontage is a collection of several shots
joined together for artistic effect or to show
more of the subject than can be shown in a
single artwork. In pre-digital photomontages
images were composed by cutting, gluing,
arranging and overlapping two or more photos
or reproductions of photos together, sometimes
in combination with other non-photographic
material such as text or other abstract shapes
One of the most famous photomontage’s came
during the mid-Victorian era at this point in
time it was called “combination printing” and
was created by Oscar Rejlander.

12. Digital photo compositing is the
composition of images into a singular photo,
in shorter terms taking pieces of other
photos and layering them together to form
one image. In photoshop this would be
done through cutting bits and pieces of
certain images using the quick selection tool
and then dropping them all on one page
and merging the layers together in a way
that looks natural or achieves the desired
affect. These images are an example of
digital composition and layering.

13. The use of photo compositing here is clearly effective as it is able to
create a singular character out of separate images and make it look
somewhat streamlined and normal effectively.

14. Visual effects and filters are regularly used in
the manipulation of an image as they can
be used to enhance an image, at times
adding things that were not even there in
the first place. For example as we can see in
this image the use of visual effects and
compositing to add fire and backgrounds
that were not originally there and as well as
this filters were clearly used to give the
image a different tint and again linking to
colour correction this was also used to
change the levels of hue, colour and
contrast in this image.

15. This is another example of the use of digital visual
effects and filters but this time these examples show
how it is used for films and their eventual promotion. In
this case the image has been composited in front of a
gloomy dark, cloudy back ground ( the characters have
been put in front of this background) and after this
effects have been added such as a lens flare and
embers being blown in the direction of the characters
as well as the doge and burn that that has clearly been
used to make the sections of the clouds look dark and
light to add to the tone that the filmmakers are trying
to achieve (dark and gritty). This appeals to the
audience of the film as the image and the effects used
help give the audience and idea of the tone of the film
and as we can see the image has been used on the
physical media covers for the film again to appeal to
the audience that would appreciate a film with this
tone.

16. The image manipulation of ‘digital visual effects and filters’ here is effective because of the
way in which it is able to give the viewer an idea of the tone of the film and this in term
would help attract and build an audience for the film in term helping the film in the long
run in terms of financial gain through physical media and other merchandise (toys,
posters,etc).

17. The legal and ethical issues that come
with the retouching and manipulation of
images is mostly to do with the false
advertising issues and creating unrealistic
expectations when it comes to certain
products and beauty. An example of this
is the Lancôme advert for foundation
makeup featuring Julia Roberts which
featured heavy airbrushing of Julia
Roberts’ face and this caused Jo Swinson
(MP) to bring the advert to the attention
of the Advertising Standards Authority,
which banned them for being
misleading.

18. This is an example where Britney Spears is on
the cover of magazine ‘marie chaire’ and
excessive airbrushing and other Photoshop
tools (her hair has been made to look longer
)have been used to clear any blemishes and to
make her overall appearance more ‘appealing’
to the audience. In the case of this advert the
ethical issues that might plague this issue is that
the audience members that look up to and
aspire to be like Britney Spears and this would
cause them to have false ideas of beauty and
cause them to be unhappy with the way they
look and this is where the ethical issue would
lie in the fact that giving people a unrealistic
view of beauty could potentially cause them to
have a worse perception of how they look.

19. In terms of effectiveness both adverts are not very effective, because of the how
obvious the changes are to the general audience members, and how they are easily
perceived as unrealistic and far fetched and this in terms could cause a potential
ASA complaint to be filed. On the other hand, the use of airbrushing might be seen
as effective by some as it is able to mask the original way the celebrities looked and
their ‘blemishes’ effectively.