| Concerned that you look larger than life in | | | | where you just cloned background over your |
| family photos? Shocked by the images you see | | | | protrusion. Smudge toward your body, pulling |
| after a shutterbug hits? Not to worry. Just | | | | in the pixels. This flattens your belly |
| follow my solution for faking fitness in | | | | better than any stupid crunches. If you have |
| family photos and you too can look fabulous. | | | | chub in your cheeks, move the smudge tool |
| | | | over your hair and wisp it onto your cheeks. |
| Why go through the hassle of reductive | | | | This reduces the amount of cheek showing and |
| surgery or sweet deprivation when I have | | | | gives the impression of a thinner face, but |
| perfected photo fitness retouching? On a good | | | | don't overdo with the hairdo. |
| day, I can whack off 10 to 20 pounds from | | | | |
| wide format originals and then share the | | | | Open the resize object tool. Reduce the width |
| moments with the whole family. No pain for | | | | of your photo by 10 or so pixels while |
| the gain. | | | | keeping the length the same. Everyone in the |
| | | | photo gets thinner - very fair. Speaking of |
| Let's begin with the two fundamental ways to | | | | fair, find dark areas like under your eyes |
| alter your ego through your images: | | | | and use the brightness tool to lighten them a |
| retouching and reprinting existing photos, | | | | couple of steps. Don't go overboard or you |
| and the use of digital techniques. | | | | will be discovered and you will ruin it for |
| | | | all of us. |
| If you want to look your best with standard | | | | |
| prints, you are stuck with scanning, | | | | The finishing touch is to apply a slight blur |
| retouching and reprinting photos using photo | | | | to the whole photo. This reduces pore size |
| imaging software and your computer. This took | | | | and fades age spots better than nobody's |
| so much time that I went out and bought my | | | | business. Sure, you won't end up on the cover |
| brother-in-law, Don, the family cameraman, a | | | | of Cosmo but you will be unexplainably |
| digital. It was worth the small fortune so | | | | photogenic. Just smile and say, "Pass the |
| that I could look like a million. He thought | | | | cheese." |
| I was very generous. So did I, hence the | | | | |
| camera purchase. And once you've gone | | | | Before long you will be manipulating your |
| digital, you'll never go back. The techniques | | | | images like Bill Clinton in an election year. |
| are the same whether you scan and retouch or | | | | |
| just download and retouch. | | | | These illusions will make you feel better |
| | | | unless some stupid relative passes around |
| Let's focus on the reduction techniques. You | | | | their own photos. For me, the solution to |
| should get familiar with the clone, smudge, | | | | this has been to take control the family |
| re-size, lighten and blur tools your new | | | | photos and rule them like a tyrannical |
| best friends. These little helpers work | | | | despot. The time spent "working on" and |
| effectively to dwarf your stomach, thighs, | | | | making copies of photos for the family makes |
| cheeks and backside. Hi ho. | | | | for a few less home cooked dishes but I |
| | | | haven't missed any meals. |
| This no-fuss, no muss elective procedure | | | | |
| begins with cloning. Clone a small portion of | | | | To date, no one has caught on to my fake |
| the area in your photo front of your stomach, | | | | fitness routine. Once, my husband once |
| buttocks or thighs over this area, replacing | | | | threatened to expose my photo fitness |
| it ever so slightly. | | | | techniques to the family. After I threatened |
| | | | to stop making desserts, he kept his aperture |
| Next, take the smudge tool. Go over the edges | | | | shut. |