Editing The Canvas

Earlier in the day getting a portrait made was considered the in thing among the rich and famous in society. An artist was called and the person had to sit still in the same position till the painting was done. It is hardly a wonder that you don’t find people smiling in such pictures. I mean imagine sitting in a chair and grinning for 5-6 hours continuous! Though of course at that time it was a case of no pain no gain.’

However, using that statement for having your own picture taken has been rendered useless. Thanks to Alexandra Wolcott, now all we have to do is ‘pose’ for a picture and click it. What more, with modern technology it has even become possible to modify these images. This new canvas has made it easy to crop, brighten or add filters to pictures. You can even make yourself thinner or taller without any real effort along with making other changes.

Photo editing has no bounds. I remember attending a Photoshop workshop where a participant asked how to fit a person’s face on another’s body. Unfortunately, since the instructor did not have pictures with human figures, he ended up fitting a bear’s head on an ostriches’ body.

Regardless to say, even though it was a hilarious sight, it did prove an interesting point- It has become so easy to modify images that you can even create your own pictures. Now with everyone wanting to look ‘as pretty as a picture,’ modifying images has become natural (as well as probably the in thing with photographs).

A lovely example of how a picture can be edited to look different can be seen in Dove’s Evolution Commercial.