In stark contrast to my post this week about really bad photo manipulation, take a few minutes to check out Webdesigner Depot’s entry about great photo manipulation.

As you go through the entry, really take a close look at some of the work there because some of it is truly spectacular work. And just think, you can get that same quality of work from 989 Design! Okay…that might be exaggerating a bit. We’re pretty masterful with Photoshop, but we aren’t doing photo art like that. Some of the pieces we could do, but a lot of them are outside our area of expertise.

See this guy on the left? He’s a comedian, but that’s not what’s funny about this picture. Notice how he sort of looks like he’s been recently embalmed? That’s the work of a true Digital Hack. Designers often have to make tweaks to photos or images to make them work better, but this is a nightmare.

When I worked for Coors’ agency (so, so many years ago), we handled a lot of print work for the Coors family of brands. One of the brands we worked with was Keystone. While the bigger name brands such as Coors Light and Killian’s got top-shelf spokesmodels, Keystone had a tighter budget. The models for Keystone were still very attractive, but they were a little…um…sluttier looking.

Even as attractive these models were, we still often ended up doctoring them quite a bit. Thinning out arms and legs, taking inches off of their hips, thighs, etc. Oddly enough, they never had us doing digital breast reductions. By the time we got done with these models, they were the print equivalent of a Barbie doll, with measurements that just aren’t natural looking.

I ran across a website recently that I hadn’t seen before (and I’m sure there are more like it) highlighting some really horrible Photoshop work. The link below shows a headshot that has been worked…and worked…and worked…until the guy barely looks human.

Photoshopd