Visual Culture & Photoshop

This week our topic of discussion was Visual Culture. We were made to question the significance of the digital image, thinking about how it relates to conceptions of photographic truth.

http://think-silly.com/2009/06/25/visual-culture-optical/

I found the readings this week really interesting. In particular, Walter Benjamin's 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' talked about the implications of the reproduction of the visual/works of art. Benjamin argues that reproductions are lacking a presence in time and space, and therefore destroy the aura of the work of art.
Nowadays it seems that nearly everything is reproduced, and often on a mass scale. For example, pieces of art, such as Andy Warhol's, have been reprinted to make millions of copies, and therefore losing their worth. Photographs can be reprinted as many times as people wish for barely any cost, and they can now be digitally enhanced, often without people's knowledge, which is considered by many to be a dangerous thing.

The week's workshop was based on Adobe's Photoshop. Indeed, the debate surrounding Photoshop is certainly a lively one. There have been many cases where it has come to light that Photoshop has been used to manipulate images from advertising campaigns, most notably in the beauty and fashion sector.


http://prolificphoto.com/2013/01/07/focus-stacking-with-photoshop-cs5/adobe-photoshop-logo/
http://www.notcot.org/post/6288/
http://all-odesk-test-answer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/odesk-adobe-photoshop-cs3-test-answers.html


One particular case where Photoshop was used particularly badly was with the Ralph Lauren advertisement below. After touch ups, the model was left looking more like a Barbie doll than anything, with her head too big for her tiny body, with especially small waist. There was uproar about the photo which led to the ad being hastily pulled by Ralph Lauren.

http://stylefrizz.com/200910/ralph-lauren-and-the-photoshop-issues/

There are some interesting articles I found relating to the regulating of the reality of images that comes about with the use of Photoshop (excuse my use of the Mail Online..):-

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2138998/Teens-protest-Photoshop-use-outside-Seventeen-magazine-offices.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2048375/Self-Esteem-Act-US-parents-push-anti-Photoshop-laws-advertising.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vivian-diller-phd/photoshop-body-image_b_891095.html

Anyway, moving on to the workshop, I had never used Photoshop before and for some reason had it in my head that it would be fairly easy to use, when in actual fact I found it anything but. I found the software pretty confusing, with there being so many different buttons and options of things to do, but it not being particularly clear how to do each thing (in my humble opinion).

Despite my difficulties, I was keen to learn my way around Photoshop as I know it's a very widely used piece of software, so I did my very best to follow our workshop tutorial.
I think the thing that most confused me was the whole thing about layers. Perhaps if just working with one single layer the whole programme would be a lot easier to use.

I experimented a bit with a few different images, such as with this one below...

I was trying to create a pinhole camera effect, and although it kind of worked I think it could be a lot better (it looks like I don't have a nose).

All in all, I think I just need to spend a bit more time messing about on Photoshop to really get to grips with it.