Tool developed to rate how much images have been digitally altered
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK has been called into action a number of times due to complaints that adverts for skin care products and other cosmetics feature digitally retouched images that do not accurately present the results a product can achieve.
Restore perception of natural beauty
Researchers from the Department of Science at Dartmouth College may have come up with a solution to this by developing the software tool that can rate photographs based on how much they have been digitally altered with programs such as Photoshop.
According to the research, published in the journal National Academy of Sciences, the new software is being developed in a bid to bring truth to advertising and restore the perception of natural beauty.
“In recent years, advertisers and magazine editors have been widely criticized for taking digital photo retouching to an extreme. Impossibly thin, tall, and wrinkle- and blemish-free models are routinely splashed onto billboards, advertisements, and magazine covers,” said researchers Dr Hany Farid and Eric Kee.
“The ubiquity of these unrealistic and highly idealized images has been linked to eating disorders and body image dissatisfaction in men, women, and children.”
Photo labelling
Farid and Kee suggest that due to this several countries have considered legislating the labelling of retouched photos and go on to describe a quantitative and perceptually meaningful metric of photo retouching.
Photographs are rated on the degree to which they have been digitally altered by explicitly modelling and estimating geometric and photometric changes.
This metric correlates well with perceptual judgments of photo retouching and can be used to objectively judge how much a retouched photo has strayed from reality, according to the research.
“The industry-wide deployment of a system to rate and label published photos will require buy-in and feedback from publishers, professional photo retouchers, and body-image and health experts,” explains the report.
A full explanation on the rating system and the full report can be found here
Cosmetic cases
Earlier this year, L’Oréal had its knuckles rapped by ASA after two adverts for its Lancome and Maybelline brands were deemed to have been ‘too airbrushed’.
It has also come under the spotlight following accusations it had lightened the skin tone of brand ambassador Freida Pinto in a number of images. However, the French firm deny these claims and perhaps this new tool could work in its favour to prove its case.
Other cosmetic players such as Procter and Gamble and Johnson & Johnson have also been in trouble with the ASA over enhancing images in the past.
