How many magazines use airbrushing

Is anyone else weary of the media's hunt for retouched images to ridicule? A little more than a week ago, blogs were abuzz over unretouched photos of Jennifer Aniston, outtakes from a cover shoot for British Harper's Bazaar , in which the ever-tan actress looked less sun-kissed than sun-abused, a mere human not yet buffed to a celebrity gloss.

Airbrushing in magazines? Is the quest for perfect images out of control? No Background Yes. It would be incredibly difficult to police and to categorise what was appropriate digital alteration for the sake of a glamorous picture, and what was unnecessary retouching that promoted unachievable standards of beauty. Last year a 1-to-5 manipulation "rating system" for photos that would reveal how much an image had been altered was proposed by two students from Dartmouth University, although campaigners such as Johnston argue that being told an image has been retouched makes no difference, just seeing it is damaging enough.

A proper investigation is sorely needed, but in the meantime, it is cheering to see a group made up of members as young as Bluhm and her peers speaking out when a magazine aimed at them fails to represent them. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies.

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Leading model manager and publicist Nadja Atwal is very familiar with the growing practice of body plumping prior to print. The art director for health and fitness-orientated magazine SELF also confessed that models are retouched to look bigger and healthier, essentially faking fitness. In addition, former Cosmopolitan editor Leah Hardy admitted that during her reign at the magazine, bulk was added to models during post-production, and even the editor of British Vogue, Alexandra Shulman, revealed that she often has had to ask photographers to specifically make models not look so skinny.

They're images. Any photographer will tell you: airbrushing has been around for decades. The problem today, of course, is how easy technology has made it to perfect those images. Buy a digital camera and it comes with retouching elements. Anyone can learn how to use Photoshop to blend and tighten and thin—people do it for their MySpace photos all the time. As actress and bikini model Elizabeth Hurley told a British newspaper recently, she so loves being airbrushed to look "thinner" and "younger" that she's taken to Photoshopping her own holiday photos.

That sounds good in theory, but it's a joke among industry insiders—and anyone with a basic knowledge of graphic design. To be fair, the editors of most women's magazines would rather talk about anything but airbrushing. And in the world of fashion isn't misleading the reader, well, the point? It's wearable art," says Andrew Matusik, a New York fashion photographer and the owner of Digital Retouch, which specializes in celebrity and fashion retouching.

That might lead us to buy, but it's not making us any healthier. Several studies show that women feel worse about themselves after reading fashion magazines, and kids as young as six are having their photos retouched. An average girl today will see more than 77, advertisements by the time she's 12—and you can bet that most of those have been retouched.