Two Decades Of Transplanted Heads

Since I have fallen into weird a custom of recognizing geeky website birthdays, I might as well go ahead and add software to the mix and wish Photoshop a very happy 20th birthday!! I can't begin to describe how much this program has changed the art of photography, for better and worse.

Photoshop 1.0 was released on February 18th, 1990 and was in its early years, a Mac-only program. Over the last 20 years it has become the defacto standard for digital photographic editing.

Thanks to Photoshop you can do anything to a photograph that your imagination permits, and it's the main reason you can no longer trust an image to be real.

Happy Pixels, Photoshop.


Photoshop 1.0 (1990) and CS4 (2009) interfaces:

Fridge Photos

These have to be, hands down, the coolest fridge magnets I've ever seen. Too bad we have a stainless steel refrigerator that magnets don't stick to. And no metal plate in my skull eaither, despite the rumors.

Lexie Remixed

Here's a photograph that is more "tweaked" than the previous one. I think it's really dramatic, and very "old-school 1940's drama movie-ish". A partial list of mods:

- Increased red channel to give the skin a sort of porcelain glow.
- Combined two exposures to give more dynamic range and used the darker one for the background.
- Lightened irises in eyes, leaving iris edges darker.
- Removed second set of catchlights in eyes.
- Added eye liner for more contrast with eye.
- Lightened parts of hair to add highlights.
- Darkened lips, especially near edges.
- Removed about thirty blemishes.
- Removed stray hairs.
- Darkened shirt to reduce distraction.

Seems like major surgery, but these are really minor tweaks. For professional shots, especially cover models, they usually do MUCH more, even major restructuring of the face.

Lesson learned: Never trust any photo.