Best Foot Forward?

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The Final Solution it ain’t. But when I saw this ad today, I scratched my head and wondered whether the ad folks doing the creatives for Microsoft’s Surface campaign weren’t aware there is some controversy about the ubiquitous practice touching up, slimming, flattening and general re-body-shaping women for photo shoots in magazines. (The ad helpfully notes “program sold separately.)

Now, the outline on the back of the woman’s hair to the right looks like it might be wanding to create a silhouette and superimpose the image on the different background. But the rest seems pretty straightforward notes for a standard digital nip and tuck. Photo-editors: if I’m wrong on this, please let me know. At one point in his life my dad had a sideline doing custom printing for professional photographers and there’s always been adjusting contrast and exposure in different parts of an image.

Again, to be clear, it’s not a felony. It’s pervasive. And even we will sometimes do some adjustments on a photo image to improve the color tone or bring details out with contrast. But it struck me as a little tone deaf in popular culture terms.

I saw this on the LIRR train platform in Syosset, New York.

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