Post-production editing of images has been controversial since the early 1900s. While it can make images more appealing by enhancing color or adding effects, heavily editing photos to change subjects' appearances sets unrealistic standards and harms self-esteem. However, mild edits to improve color or make images unique are generally acceptable. The document concludes that post-production is acceptable to an extent to enhance images, but should not involve changing subjects' sizes or shapes, as that amounts to deception.

1. Should Post-Production be carried out on images and if so when?
There has been much controversy over post production since it was first founded around
the early 1900’s, the reason for this is that when doing post production on finished images,
it’s not the original image and is in fact edited to fit the desires of the producer and the
public – or whomever may view said pictures. The problem with this is, the producer is
pretty much lying to the public, feeding them fake, edited visual information rather than
original work – this could mean ridding of any blemishes, changing lighting, blurring out any
wrinkles, making the subject thinner, more beautiful – setting an idealistic figure that the
viewers long for but will almost never achieve because its lies! Some images can be
extremely over the top and it’s very obvious that the image has gone through post
production to such an extent that it can be pointed out by both professionals and the public;
this can cause a lot of problems with both the consumers and the company that supplied
the images.Relating to this, post production on images and creating this ‘desired figure’ has
caused quite a ruckus in society – causing young or older consumers to feel uglier, sadder,
even pushing some consumers to challenge their health by trying to achieve the same look –
self esteem problems have risen significantly in the younger generation which is mostly
worrying as they are the most easily converted and a lot more vulnerable.
Although there are these bad points, there are also some positive things about post
production effects, if an image is dull and boring – the image can be edited to add colour
and effects that make the end image look fun and eye catching for the public, post
production techniques can also be equipped to make the final image unique and differ from
other photographs in the same genre and be more appealing than they are, the thing about
post production is that it’s often used to make a final product look better, brighter, unique –
and depending on how heavy the post production methods are used, the final result is
usually okay – changing colour, contrast and adding effects – that’s fine but pushing it too
far can cause problems and make the image look fake rather than ordinary.
What is my conclusion? I think that post production should be carried out on images to
make them stand out, look unique and eye catching however; I extremely disagree with
changing the size and shape of celebrities or subjects because that is straight up lying to the
audience and I think that is wrong – personally I’d rather see a set voluptuous models rather
than stick thin ones – it’s natural and I think that media images should be as honest and as
natural as possible, also it is one hundred per cent more beautiful!