Last weekend Photolate was exhibiting at a Beauty Show, where the stall was visited by Dr Christian Jessen of Supersize vs Superskinny fame.

Examining the before and after retouched photos, Dr Jessen seemed amazed at the difference between the everyday photos, despite knowing that celebrities - including himself - have had their photos airbrushed for years.

Amazing Retouch

Most women at the show were also blown away by the difference between the before and after retouched photos that we showed them.

My own experience in starting Photolate, was one of surprise by the extent of retouching. I’ve taken great enjoyment since, looking at photos and front covers of magazines to see if I can spot where changes have been made!

Spot The Difference: Have You Played Yet?

It pretty much goes without saying in this digital era that every photo we come across will have been retouched in some form or fashion.

Whether that’s a few tweaks to colour and contrast or a full body transformation, the photo will have been run through Photoshop at least once.

Since the people at the show were divided between those that knew about photo airbrushing and those that didn’t, I’m interested to find out a more.

Have Your Say

Do you know when a photo has been retouched?

Do you think is it important to clearly state when a photo has been retouched?

I’d love to know your answers, if you’d like to leave a comment.

OK! Magazine ran an article today on how Abbey Clancy loves airbrushed photos.

She is the latest celebrity to speak out on the topic of photo retouching which has been around in the celebrity and fashion worlds for years.

She is quoted as telling FHM, “I absolutely love airbrushing. To be honest I can’t bear looking at a picture of myself that’s just taken on a camera. I’d like to see a picture of myself in other people’s eyes. Because I always think ‘my legs look fat’ or something.”

According to OK! Magazine, “the star admits she’s overly critical of her body and hates seeing bad paparazzi shots of herself”.

What do you think? Please leave a comment and let me know.

This weekend I saw a video on photo retouching and how it is used everyday by celebrities.

Tim believes that 99.9% of images used in magazines are retouched. But how many of us really know that?

When I had the idea for Photolate I wasn’t really aware of the extent to which photo retouching is used in the beauty & fashion industry or the reasons why. I was approaching photo retouching from a photographers point of view and because I was unable to find the time to colour correct my travel and landscape photos (and these didn’t even have people in!).

Of course I’m a lot more aware now of how photo retouching can be used having studied the topic for the last 8 months! However before starting Photolate, although I knew that magazine covers were airbrushed I did not really know. More on this in future blog posts…

According to Tim a lot of celebrities have staff or freelancers on demand to retouch every photo of them; not one photo of them is released without their permission. They want to be viewed by the world to have this perfection. That’s the reality of it.

Knowing this, I also want my photo retouched! It was wanting to see what I would look like having my photo airbrushed, and how it made me feel, that led me on this journey of founding Photolate.

I’d love to hear from you on this topic. How does knowing that a probable 100% of magazine photos are retouched, make you feel?

Airbrushing it seems is not only for the girls.

Men too like a little help from the digital darkroom if George Clooney’s latest blockbuster posters are anything to go by.

As rightly noticed by the Daily Mail,” the 46-year-old actor appears to have been given a careful polish in new promotional images for his upcoming film Leatherheads”.

Great work and pretty natural huh?

“I like a certain amount of retouching, like anybody” was Liz Hurley’s quote last week as she launched her latest Mango swimwear range.

Confessing that she now relies on “nice photographers” and retouching for swimwear shoots, she said she didn’t mind being made to look a “bit thinner and a bit younger” through the use of digital enhancement.

Like anybody, Photolate’s photo retouching can now also give you this look.

Been interviewed by The Sunday Times, Liz said, “We all like to get rid of spots and shadows under our eyes. I’ve always been quite particular – I don’t like my face to be retouched.

Often, people will want to correct one’s face, and with me, they always want to change my nose and I’m like, ‘No, no, no, I can’t look like that. I don’t mind if you want to make me a bit thinner and a bit younger, but you can’t give me a different jaw or eyebrows.

But the vanity retouching – well, who wouldn’t?”

Yes Liz, we think that’s what Photolate’s natural retouch package is all about.

Interestingly, as her roadshow moved onto Munich, we don’t see her posing in a bikini with the rest of the girls.

Could it be that she wasn’t prepared to pose in a two-piece without any digital help?