Body Image and the editing of photographs

Much has been written about the emphasis on an ideal (and mostly unattainable) concept of beauty, especially in the popular culture, and the negative effects this can have on young women and girls.

The AMA (American Medical Association) came out recently with a policy recommending a different approach to editing pictures. Here’s part of what they said:

BODY IMAGE AND ADVERTISING TO YOUTH: Advertisers commonly alter photographs to enhance the appearance of models’ bodies, and such alterations can contribute to unrealistic expectations of appropriate body image – especially among impressionable children and adolescents. A large body of literature links exposure to media-propagated images of unrealistic body image to eating disorders and other child and adolescent health problems.

The AMA adopted new policy to encourage advertising associations to work with public and private sector organizations concerned with child and adolescent health to develop guidelines for advertisements, especially those appearing in teen-oriented publications, that would discourage the altering of photographs in a manner that could promote unrealistic expectations of appropriate body image.

Over the last four years, I’ve had the privilege of photographing dozens of females – from age 6 months to the 80’s. And I’ve had the responsibility of editing hundreds – no thousands – of these images in Photoshop.  So I have some thoughts on this topic.

But first, two rather outrageous (and true) stories.

1)  Alistair Macaulay, the lead ballet critic of The New York Times, in his review of The Nutcracker, said of Jennifer Ringer, a principal dancer at the New York City Ballet, who danced the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy, that Ringer “looked as if she’d eaten one sugar-plum too many.”

2)  Deborah Voigt, one of the top opera sopranos in the world, was scheduled to sing Ariadne at Covent Garden in London. At the last minute, she was fired because the producer did not like how she looked in the little black dress she was to wear in the performance. Miss Voigt underwent gastric bypass surgery after losing this gig.

In both of these cases, the hue and cry from ballet and opera fans was tremendous, and almost all in support of Ringer and Voigt. Of course, as both of these were live  performances, there was no opportunity to “edit” the images of the women in Photoshop.

So where do I come out on all of this?

1) I certainly agree with the AMA that we should not create unrealistic expectations of an ideal body image. And we should do all we can to support and encourage every young woman or girl we know to have to a healthy self-image – whatever her shape is.

2) Almost everyone I shoot – men and women – is self-conscious about his/her appearance. It’s part of human nature. In my work, I try to put my subjects at ease.  There’s usually one particular thing the client is most concerned about. I’ll often reassure them by offering to “fix” some things in Photoshop – it often does help to make the person comfortable and relax.  I tell the client I’m as interested as she/he is in creating a beautiful and flattering image – which is the truth.

3)  I still want to celebrate natural beauty in my work. It’s been done since the beginning of time in art. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and can be represented in positive and affirming ways.

4)  In editing images, I work hard to make the person look as good as possible – but still look like them. The two images in this post are of Ashley, a very accomplished model. We were shooting lingerie images in a catalog style. Ashley has a lovely figure – but there were still lots of small edits I did to make the images – and Ashley – look better.

5)  Something I learned from one of my mentors – you don’t tell the client the things you work on in Photoshop.  I love it when I hear, “Wow! you made me look great! And yet it really looks like me!”

6)  All my edits are subtle. Lots of small things can have a cumulative big effect. When someone looks at my images, I hope that the Photoshop work is invisible.

7) When I see images of myself, I’m amazed at how wrinkly my neck is. In the rare times I edit images of myself, the neck the first thing that gets smoothed out!

As always, your comments are appreciated. Thanks for reading!

our perceptions of people in pictures

Today I’m posting three more images from my recent fashion shoot with Nicole. If you missed the post from June 15th, you can see it at Beauty Lighting.  If you go back and forth between the beauty shots and these images, the look is very different – not just because Nicky’s hair is pulled back in the beauty images. The lighting makes a huge difference in how we perceive a portrait image, as do many other aspects of the picture. I believe there’s lots of subconscious stuff going on as we view photographs.  The colors, the pose and expression, the closeness to the subject and our own experiences and memory of people we’ve seen in real life, movies, etc. all impact how we respond to an image.

Here’s an experiment. Choose one of the images in this post. Spend some time looking at it. Try to imagine what the subject – Nicole – is like. What is her personality? How does her voice sound?  How old is she? What are her interests? What are her dreams? I’m guessing you can conjure up a pretty full and detailed description of Nicole in your imagination. Now look at one of the images from the June 15th post. Does your perception of Nicole from the beauty image differ from how you imagine her after looking at the first photograph? How does it differ?

Let me know how this experiment turns out for you!

beauty lighting

Faithful readers may recall some beauty shots similar to these in posts going back a few months ago. The images here are from a shoot with Nicole, a lovely aspiring model. Nicky’s facial structure is perfect for this lighting – sometimes called the Oil of Olay look. There’s a softbox behind her, with her head right up against the softbox. Over the camera, aimed down at about 45 degrees, is another light in a “beauty dish” – so-called because of the flattering look it provides. We also had a reflector just under the frame, to bounce some light back into the face. 

I often try to put hands in portraits to add some interest. Does this work here in your view?

Another image from the shoot, in black and white, without the hand. As always, your comments and questions are appreciated! Thanks to Nicole for a wonderful shoot!

people of santa fe

This week, I’m in Santa Fe for a photography workshop. Here are a few of the people I’ve photographed on the street. The teenaged girl, above, is a young aspiring model. As we were walking along the street, I saw this doorway, and particularly liked the long strip of light on the left side of the doorway and the little square of light on the right side. I positioned her so that the light would hit her hair.

Saint Francis Cathedral has some beautiful sculpture and paintings. Today, with Pope John Paul having been moved up another step toward sainthood, the altar area had a big portrait of him and an amazing array of flowers. But what really caught my attention was  the light coming in the front door. I stood and watched many people come in and out, and grabbed a few shots, including the one of this gentleman, above.

There are always some interesting characters in the plaza in the center of town. This man’s name is Cuba, and his dog is Oxy. He is a school teacher in Santa Fe. He liked this image and asked me to email it to him, which I have done tonight. I used a wide angle lens on this shot and had the camera about a foot off the pavement.

It’s snowing tonight and the temperature will drop into the 20’s. Later in the week, thr forecast calls for sunny and in the 80’s. A very speical place to be in any weather!

headshots (and more!) for an actor

Does Green on Green work?  It does for me~!

This week I photographed Alisson,  a lovely and experienced actor.  Alisson needed headshots for her acting career and we made a number of fashion images as well. We were joined by Maria Dominici, makeup artist, and Sam, an 8th grader and my fabulous photo assistant for the day.

Normally, actors do not use beauty images for their headshots.  But Alisson really connected with these photographs and will likely use one for her main headshot.  This image certainly would show a casting director what she looks like. And I’m hoping it will lead to lots of gigs for her.

Headshots for models and actors by New York photographers are expensive. More and more, people are coming out to Connecticut to shoot with me – the $20 train fare is covered many times over by the cost savings.  My goal is to make images that are unique, full of energy, creative  and revealing  about the character of the subject.

Faithful readers will recall I often try to put hands into a portrait. Hands can add interest and be very expressive.  Does the hand work for you in this photograph?

You can see more images of my shoot with Alisson on my website, here.  As always, your comments and questions are welcome. Thanks for following my blog!

Natural Beauty Headshots

Recently I had the pleasure working again with my friend, Erica.  For part of our shoot, we did headshots. 

Normally, when I work with a model, there is a very careful makeup application, by the model or a makeup artist. The hair is carefully set. In these images, Erica is wearing no makeup at all and she didn’t fuss over her hair. The pictures, to me, have a natural, informal and intimate quality.  The compositions are, purposefully, very simple.  As I often do, I was shooting from fairly close in, with the camera about 3 feet away from her face, to connect the viewer to Erica. I did very little editing in Photoshop, to maintain the natural feel of the images. 

Let me know what you think, by email of comment on the blog.

1940’s glamour headshot

Faithful readers will recognized Tori – a friend and a wonderful model I’ve worked with before, for example here.  In this shoot, we were going for a 1940’s glamour look – think Hollywood publicity still for a movie star.

A couple of notes about the image.

I used just one small light, about 5 feet to camera left and aimed down from above. This gives a very high contrast and dramatic look. I converted the image to black and white with a special software, Nik Silver Efex Pro, which provides a film-style effect to a digital image. Finally, I cropped the image as a perfect square. The square crop isn’t used much today, but it’s a classic and goes well, I believe, with the feeling of this picture.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

Critique of Beauty Lighting Image

Today, this image was critiqued by Craig Tanner of The Mindful Eye. You can see the critique by clicking here.

The Mindful Eye is one of the most popular photography websites.  The website  is terrific – lots of really helpful resources, education and inspiration. I’ve taken a couple of workshops with Craig and he has been a mentor and friend for several years.  Craig is an amazing teacher.

The video is quite long – over 21 minutes.  The last half of the video is a fairly technical discussion of making color adjustments in Photoshop, which may not interest everyone. But the first part of the video talks about the beauty lighting setup and balance in composition.

There are more images of my shoot with this model here.  As always, any comments or questions are welcome.

fashion and headshot shoot

I shot recently with my friend, Laura. Faithful readers will recognize her from earlier posts, such as this one. We did a few headshots and a few fashion images.  As I’ve talked about the lighting and Photoshop editing of similar pictures in the past, today I’ll just let the images speak for themselves. As always,  you comments and questions are welcomed. Thanks for having a look at my work – or, I should say – our work.

Fashion Shoot – glamour and casual

A few more images from my recent shoot with Tori. The first two were high glamour concepts – the dress, the pose and the make-up.  The third is, of course, much more casual. Tori moved into each role easily. She is, by the way, an accomplished singer and actor.