The Abilities of Photoshop

For my photoshop blog, I decided to select the image of OJ Simpson on the cover of Newsweek and Time magazine. I decided to use these images because I think it accurately reveals the great effects and potential of photoshop. These images stirred up a lot of controversy, and photoshop and picture alteration certainly played a part in distorting the image. The image on the cover of Time is the photoshopped mug shot. The picture is Simpson's original mug shot. The photo was manipulated by dramatically darkening Simpson's face, which makes Simpson appear more "killer-like" because he appears angrier and more threatening. The photo was manipulated because Time believed it would grab more peoples attention if Simpson appeared more frightening and it would draw people into buying their magazine because they would want to know why he appeared on the cover. There are many perspectives in determining whether the manipulation was negative or detrimental, however I believe that photoshop ultimately was negative for this photo. Because the photo was manipulated, OJ Simpson was portrayed as a dark, menacing killer. Fair or not, the media altered his mug shot so they could sell more copies of their magazine. I believe that is wrong to harm someone else's image for financial gain.
I also selected a short Youtube clip on photo editing and image manipulation. I decided to use a video that was more of a practical, positive tool. The video outlines the various uses and abilities of photoshop. The uses that they highlighted were: photo touch-ups (for blurry or faded photos), the ability to add special effects (enhanced coloring), to look slimmer and younger, and colorizations. I think the point and message of this video is that photoshop and image manipulation can improve your photos, regardless of the problem. There are many tools that are out there that can help your pictures, so they hope that people recognize the vast abilities of photoshop to improve their photos!