Looks Can Be Deceiving

Posted By elissa on Aug 9, 2008 | 5 comments

Paul and I had an e-mail exchange concerning his recent review of a diet supp called “Prescopodene“.  He sent me a link to the site – to me, it looked just like dozens of other internet supp sites I’ve seen.  Y’know, the hottie in a bikini; claims of scientific validation; big, eye-catching display fonts, testimonials – the usual stuff.  And – of course – there was a picture of a smiling doctor, next to a product recommendation from a “Dr. Robert Johnson, Ph.D.”  It turned out that the pic of the doctor actually came from a stock photo archive like this one.  We both had a good laugh about it, as it was such a transparent tactic.

But on second thought, it occurred to me that maybe this wasn’t so funny.  I know all about stock photos, after all, as I use them to illustrate some of the e-books and articles I produce.  But how many people who read ads realize that professionally-produced photos of “doctors”, “nurses” and “scientists” can be had for comparatively little money?  These pics lend credibility to claims of scientific validity, yet they’re as phony as a three-dollar bill.

There are other visual tricks you might not know about, either.  Take those “before” and “after” pics, for example.  These look convincing, ’cause they feature ordinary folks, and – as we all know – the camera doesn’t lie. 

ROFLMAO.

Now, I’ve written before about the sophisticated Photoshop artistry used to create beauties out of more ordinary-looking people.  I’m no expert myself, but I’ve seen the work of people who are – guys like Deke McClelland and Mark Monciardini can produce some amazing stuff.  But the reality is that one need not be an expert to “enhance” pics…there are also some pretty simple, yet effective tricks that can be used.  Just to demonstrate, I’ve subtlely altered one of my own recent photos:

The pic on the left was taken last week…that’s the real me.  My husband thinks it’s a “hot” pic, but I actually look kinda chunky, compared to my alter ego on the right – who looks a good 5+ pounds thinner.  How did I do it?  It was pretty simple, really…I opened the pic in Photoshop, selected the whole thing, chose the “Edit>Distort” function, grabbed the “handle” on the right side of the pic, and dragged it a few millmeters to the left. 

In other words, I just gave the entire pic a little “squeeze.”

This made my face look a little too thin and stretched, so I selected the area of the pic above my neck, and repeated the process, only this time, “squashing” the top down a bit to restore a more normal look.

The whole thing took about 5 minutes.  Maybe I should start my own diet pill site…”Former University Research Scientist Discovers Weight Loss Secret: Lose 5 Pounds In Only 5 Minutes!”  Hmmmm… 😀

Jokes aside, the point is that people can easily be made to look somewhat thinner than they really are…no whiz-bang techniques required.  You don’t even have to own Photoshop to do it…there are lots of inexpensive, lower end programs you can use to perform this same, basic operation.

And yes, the process can be used in the other direction too, so “fat” pictures can be made to look fatter.  It wouldn’t be hard to make a modest change look more dramatic – it’s all in the contrast.

As Paul and I have pointed out before, you can’t always take what you read in an ad at face value.  Needless to state, this also holds true for what you see.