Monday, October 18, 2010

the Buddhism of Photoshop

I am no Buddhist, but I believe in the middle-way philosophy Buddhism endorses. I think it well applies in the use of photoshop.

My baby cat Brownie had to wear this "martini glass hat"(It is a nickname invented by my vet. The umbrella term is Elizabeth ring.) because of her surgery last month and I captured her yawning before I went to bed one night.

In such a dim light, it turned out to be very surprisingly in focus, for which I felt glad. Yet you can see the yellow tone in the picture seems a bit surreal and the brand label of the ring is more than disturbing.


Therefore, I made a few changes with photoshop. Look how it turned out!



There is nothing better than these moderate changes in terms of representing my philosophy of using photoshop. Photoshop is indeed evolutionary, yet people's tendency to over-photoshop in the past decade has definitely brought certain bad reputations to this innocent software.

If you are a girl, covering one pimple or two with the "clone" tool in photoshop can be a very empowering experience, but going under a "photoshop plastic surgery" to perfect the shape of your nose or lengthen your legs is a whole different story. In later case, you may have to reevaluate where your problems really are, on your body, or, very often possibly, in your head.

I am not suggesting that it is easy to free yourself from the "ideal beauty" media has brutally forced on us. In fact, I don't know what the solution is, but I know for sure it is definitely not photoshop.

Throughout history, Buddhists often warn us of the danger of binge drinking. It seems that the danger of over-photoshopping shouldn't be overlooked either.

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