The Perfect Lie in PhotoshopListThumbs

The Perfect Lie in Photoshop

August 06, 2009

Everyday we see images of celebrities and models showing us the image of perfect. However this image seems to be nothing more than a "lie". "A Perfect Lie" - is an experiment by a young photographer, Cameron Rad, to show the truth behind the images we see everyday. In the video he uses various techniques in Photoshop to achieve this image of "perfection".

But before the view we have this short interview with Cameron where he shared with us a bit of his motivations and what he has been doing lately.

Please explain some of the techniques used in this video

Cameron: Well basically I start off by examining the image and seeing what parts need work. Then I proceed by using the heal tool (not spot heal) to get rid of blemishes and "imperfections". I then also noticed she had quite a bit of facial hair, so to get rid of that I used the clone stamp with the mode on darken and lighten to blend in the hair with the skin tone. I also did quite a bit of dodging and burning and a very small amount of liquifying

I understand you are part of an Artist Collaboration program in Los Angeles, can you give a run down on what that is about?

Cameron: Ya. I am with a group known as BOXeight in Los Angeles. It is basically an artist collective. We all work to make BOXeight better and bigger and in return we get this badass studio to work with, place to live (if we need it), showcase our work, and communicate with other artists daily. I'm very fortunate to have found BOXeight and be part of it. If anyone is in the Southern California area, I recommend checking it out. We also have art shows and other events regularly.

Is their anything else you'd like to mention before we finish?

Cameron: Ya I'd really like to thank Abduzeedo, BOXeight, and all the people that have supported me. Also for anyone that has a Myspace please add me. http://www.myspace.com/project8cam
Thanks everyone! :)

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About the author

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My name is Fabio Sasso, I'm a graphic/web designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil and I'm the founder of Abduzeedo. I hope we can share lots of information, tips, and ideas through Abduzeedo. Also you can follow me on Twitter or my personal site at http://fabiosasso.com.

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36 Comments

Jasmin Halkic08/06/2009

Fantastic, good job Cameron =)

Erika Martinez08/06/2009

Excellent post, Fabio. It's so wonderful for women (and men) to see the truth behind the photos. Great stuff! Thanks for sharing and many thanks to Cameron as well.

unbrandedbutter08/06/2009

that's really cool! it was mesmerizing to just stare at the video and watch the process unfold.

Anonymous08/06/2009

boring...

Elizabeth K. Barone08/06/2009

I already knew how easy it was, but it's still always stunning and totally heartbreaking to see how easy it is to remove "imperfect" things like freckles, small pimples, and light facial hair -- that EVERYONE has -- from models' photos. (It's also almost a little sickening.) This is why I love Dove's True Beauty series, because they aim to show people (especially young women) that everyone is beautiful in their own way.

John Kirk08/06/2009

Wow!
So cool. LOVE the song too. who is that...?

The only thing that sucks is that it moves so fast, it's hard to make sense of how he's doing it. The tools and so forth. But, i'm sure it wasn't meant as a tutorial.

Danté De Rycke10/10/2009

So Damn Beautiful by Poloroid

Daan08/06/2009

Great post AND statement you made here..
You might also want to take a look at Dove's video on a (sortof) same subject;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4y5b7INvqE

Gavin08/06/2009

This is great, but I can never find the starting image with the sam quality? where do you get them?

shae101s08/06/2009

nice..I always liked that video.

Labeed Assidmi08/06/2009

One of a kind post. I like how he made so many changes YET she looks real and natural.

One thing though, was the designer chatting while working on this?

Labeed Assidmi08/06/2009

LOVE IT!
Even though the designer made so many changes the picture still looks real and natural.

One thing though was the designer chatting while working on this?

Cameron08/06/2009

@daan I'm working on actually remaking that Dove video myself. From makeup, to photoshoot, to editing. One issue though. None of my model friends want to do it. Since it is negative towards the model in a way.

Anonymous08/06/2009

Freaking dope, man.

Anonymous08/06/2009

what music?

Rolando Bouza08/06/2009

Haaaa! good one!

kiddflux08/06/2009

Nice to see someone's techniques and style.

However, couldn't he have not IM'd and messed with his itunes playlist for the duration of one video??

parksandwilson08/06/2009

yeah it would be great to see an in depth tutorial. i saw some things ive never see done before. great vid.

ross08/06/2009

Photoshoped or not, she is still pretty. Nice video.

MisterG08/06/2009

lol I remember I had an assignment like this in design school.

TheAL08/06/2009

Neat

Anonymous08/06/2009

Hmm... Took a photo and fixed the few blemishes. What am I missing here?
Should've started with a worse looking stock model for the completion to be impressive.

hoji08/07/2009

Great clip. Bit annoying with all the IM messages flashing up every now and again through the first part of it, but great none the less.

shehb08/07/2009

too much work for little improvement

toobad08/07/2009

do you really have to change to your chat / itunes all the time when making a video? :-)

SJL Web Design08/07/2009

Truly amazing video, got lost in it just watching the the transformation process unravel. Good interview with Cameron too, nice to hear about the techniques used and the artist's view.

imonabduzeedo08/07/2009

Not bad… but he doesn't know the shortcuts to reduce and enlarge the brush tool size… ?

imonabduzeedo08/07/2009

@Cameron : except that the software used in Dove's video is not Photoshop…

Lucas Tetrault08/07/2009

Granted it's an improvement but the woman was beautiful to begin with.

Great techniques to make the subtle changes!

Cameron08/08/2009

@imonabduzeedo

The software used in the Dove video is Photshop however they did a Flash representation of it. That "program" they used is nothing more than a fake flash program, animating the effect they did in Photoshop. And I do know the shortcuts however I find it way faster to ctrl+click and adjust. Shift + Bracket = Brush hardness Bracket = size

Anepic08/08/2009

Outstanding!!! The tiny details are really insane. This is what separates professionals from amateurs!!

Alec Schmidt
http://www.behance.net/anepic

drahcir08/08/2009

Thats wild. I knew it happened but to such detail is amazing. I kinda wish thier was some commentary on the video because it was going so fast that I couldn't keep track of everything that was going on.

Anonymous08/09/2009

toooooo boring...

Juli_K08/11/2009

i liked music on background, can i ask what is it?

Shamus Shai08/12/2009

This video is boring even though all photo retouching is boring, lol, but very cool! I loved your techniques

and I looked up the music and it's : The Engine - Beautiful Lie, and Polaroid - So damn Beautiful

ade10/19/2009

wow! es increible!!
y son pasos sencillos, lo que se necesita es un poco de tiempo y cuidado ..
sin embargo, cualquiera puede ser bello con un poco de maquillaje y photoshop haha
muy buen video..
gracias por subirlo!

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