I think the biggest contrast between the real and ideal pictures in both of these sets is the amount of editing that went into the ideal picture versus the real picture. I did a lot of touch-ups to Erin's ideal picture, such as making her teeth whiter and adding highlights to her hair. I didn't do any editing to enhance her in the real image. Josh also touched-up my photo, as cued by my very white teeth! Also, in both of the real photos, neither Erin or I are posing. I snapped her real picture when she was actually smiling about something we were saying, and obviously the wind is blowing her hair in her face. Josh took my real picture when Erin and I were joking about something and I made a silly face.
When I was retouching Erin's ideal picture I was thinking about this movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U
I like their last line- "No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted". It's distorted because people see all these beautiful images in magazines, on billboards, etc. and think "Why don't I look like that?" And the truth is, NO one actually looks like that. Computing editing has completely changed what we see as ideal, and now it's not even truly attainable. Only in photos.
I perceived the top photo as the ideal and the bottom photo as the real.
ReplyDeleteThe top photo is ideal because everything seems perfect - Erin is posing in front of a fake sky background and her hair is in place and she is smiling.
In the bottom photo, Erin is outside, so its a natural background and not fake, and the wind is blowing her hair all over her face, it looks like she may be squinting a little because of the sun, but she looks happy and relaxed.
I thought it was interesting how the focus of the top photo was a little farther out than the bottom photo. It is usually easier to see imperfections the closer the view is in a picture (not that there are any!)