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Photoshopping

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File:Photoshopped scream.jpg
The Scream by Edvard Munch has here been photoshopped to include two policemen.
File:Lukket-50s-computer-HOAX.jpg
Photoshopped "early computing" hoax by Lukket of Fark.com, this image even fooled news publications as to its authenticity.

Photoshopping, or simply "shopping", is the art and practice of digitally editing pictures with image editing software. The name comes from Adobe Photoshop, the image editor most commonly used for the practice, although other programs, such as Paint Shop Pro, Corel Photopaint, or the GIMP may be used. Adobe discourages use of the term "photoshop" as a verb [1] out of fear that it will undermine the company's trademark; for this reason, some people have called it photochopping.

Although professional graphic artists and designers might describe elements of their work as "photoshopping", the practice is more commonly associated with creating visual jokes on Internet sites. In this way, photoshopping can be seen as another way of producing cartoons, but without the need to generate original drawings. As such, the edits can be done in a very basic way, so it is clear that the image has been altered (often humour is derived from this fact), or in a hyper-realistic way so that the changes are seamless. The shorter term "shopped" is also frequently used to describe an image that has obviously been edited.

File:Evercrack.jpg
The EverCrack box cover is an example of photoshopped packaging.

Examples of photoshopping include people changing a picture of a well known actress to make it appear as if she has posed nude. In other examples two or more pictures are combined together for humour value. Another example, commonly seen in MAD Magazine, involves the “rebranding” of products for satirical purposes; this is often difficult, because new letters must be drawn that match the style of an existing logo.

Similarly to photoshopping, some neologisms are derived from the names of other image editing packages, for example "to gimp up" an image.

Many Photoshopped images are propagated memetically via e-mail as humour or passed as actual news. Some well known images include Every time you masturbate... God kills a kitten and Shark and Helicopter. The latter image was widely circulated as a National Geographic 'Image of the Year' and was later revealed to be a hoax.[2]

Tools

Modern image editing software has introduced two tools of particular use to Photoshoppers: the magic wand tool, which helps isolate an object for copying or deletion; and the clone tool, which can often fill in the gap left when an object is removed.

See also

References

  1. ^ Proper use of the Photoshop trademark at adobe.com, retrieved on 20 May, 2006
  2. ^ Shark "Photo of the Year" Is E-Mail Hoax from National Geographic News, retrieved on 20 May, 2006