Stars Who Were Photoshopped To Actually Look Bigger
Ever since photographs have been snapped, they've also been manipulated. Yes, when photoshopping is done well, it's almost impossible to spot with the naked eye. But we're not talking about small changes, and we're definitely not talking about photoshopping that's done well.
In our current climate, we expect celebrity photos to be retouched and perfected. In the past, however, the photo-refinement process on celebrity images almost always made the stars smaller and tighter. These changes are so pervasive that people barely even get worked up about it anymore. But what about the photoshopping that goes the other way? As curves and muscles become more and more desirable, we're seeing a rise in photo manipulation making stars look bigger than they are in real life. Now this is a topic that people want to talk about.
Here are the stars who were photoshopped to actually look bigger and the controversies that followed.
Lindsay Lohan gets curvy
You have to feel for Lindsay Lohan. Over the years, she's been front-and-center in the public eye for some very embarrassing things. While her celebrity-status took a nosedive mainly because of her legal troubles, some of her most cringeworthy moments have come via social media. It seems that Lohan's photoshop skills are not as strong as she thinks they are. Back in 2015, when she posted a few different pictures showing off her figure, Lohan failed to notice that each picture showed some rather obvious signs of photoshopping.
It's possible that Lohan thought people would be so enthralled by her digitally enhanced waist that they wouldn't noticed the wavy background. Well, people noticed, and they let her know. But it wasn't just her waistline that Lohan was photoshopping. In one photo, a picture of her in a black bodysuit, Lohan decided to give herself a larger derriere. Unfortunately for her, the door behind her curvy backside was made equally curvy, a clear photoshop giveaway.
Leg day with Khloe Kardashian
In terms of beauty standards, the gorgeous Kardashians are some of the most influential people in the world. Yet, with great power comes great responsibility — they face significant criticism everywhere they go and for everything they do. While many people look to the family for beauty tips and trends, others look for reasons to discredit and disparage them. That's likely one of the main reasons why Khloe took heat for photoshopping a picture of herself post-workout to Instagram.
Though Khloe looked fit and fabulous in the photo, fans noticed the door frame behind her looked distorted, and many roasted her for it. Shortly afterward, Khloe deleted the altered picture. She then posted the original with a response to her critics. Khloe explained that she altered the photo to increase the size of one of her legs. At 16, she was involved in a serious car accident which injured her right leg quite severely. After multiple surgeries and subsequent muscle deterioration, Khloe's right leg was significantly thinner than her left. "Yes, I did Photoshop it," she said on her website, "but I was trying to make my thinner leg look bigger to match my other leg!!! All I want are big, thick thighs and I hate how skinny my legs are."
Alicia Vikander sticks her neck out for Tomb Raider
There's no doubt that Alicia Vikander got into excellent shape in preparation for Tomb Raider, but no amount of exercise can account for how she looked on one of the promotional images for the film. In the poster in question, Vikander's heavily sculpted arms aren't the issue; it's the freakishly long, giraffe-like neck that freaked people out. Since Vikander has a regular-sized neck in real life, the only explanation available is that shockingly bad photoshopping is the culprit.
It didn't take fans long to spot the error. Shortly after the image was released, social media lit up with posts mocking the photograph. It seems that photo editor was keener on Vikander's face being visible than they were keeping her neck anatomically correct.
Incredibly, this type of gaff isn't all that uncommon. The ridiculous length of Vikander's neck on this movie poster even reminded some fans of the poster for Octopussy in which Maud Adams was given extraordinarily long legs.
Ashley Graham wants her cellulite bigger
While most models and photo editors are looking to shrink body parts, retouching photos to make everything look more smaller and tighter, at least one curvy model, Ashley Graham, is vehemently opposed to any photoshop usage on her photographs. In fact, Graham regularly checks in on photo editors during photo shoots to make sure they aren't retouching specific areas on her body. When Elle Canada allegedly published some photos of the her that had been refined, Graham posted the originals to Instagram to proudly show what her body actually looked like.
Thanks to her openness and honesty, Graham has become the face of a new body and image movement. Not only is Graham not ashamed of her cellulite, she wants more attention brought to it . According to an interview and photo shoot with The Cut, Graham asked the photo editors to highlight (rather than hide) her "thigh brow" and added, "It's better to keep the cellulite if you can. You can make it bigger!"
A Ludacris workout regime
When Ludacris released the music video for his 2017 single, "Vitamin D," fans seemed less concerned with the music than they were with the rapper's altered look. Many critics took to social media to mock Ludacris' well-chiseled chest and abs in the video, ridiculing the rather blatant use of CGI to enhance his build. But that's the joke, and it's perfectly in line with Ludacris' video style. In the past, Ludacris' videos have seen the rapper morph his image in strange ways. He's enlarged his head, put his face on a baby, and increased the size of his hands and arms.
The difference this time around is that the CGI in "Vitamin D" is much subtler than in his earlier videos. This led some people to believe that the rapper was trying to slip one by fans. With the joke falling flat for a large portion of fans, Ludacris was forced to address the criticism. "This is typical Ludacris behavior," he said on Conan. "If anyone has seen any of my videos, this is 100 percent meant to be."
Photoshopping Lil' Kim into Big Kim
While performing at Boom Bash in Philadelphia, an ordinary picture of Lil' Kim was snapped backstage during the show. But when a manipulated version of that photo hit Twitter the following month, it created a controversy. In the altered photo, Lil' Kim's body size had been stretched, particularly her backside. Lil' Kim was quick to post the original image in a side-by-side comparison to her own Twitter account, exposing the photoshopping.
Lil' Kim wasn't finished there either. In a follow-up post, she blasted those who posted and mocked the image, saying "You bloggers should be ashamed of yourself for promoting this foolishness knowing that this is SO fake just like all of you haters." While she doesn't deny putting on some weight, the photo stretched her proportions ridiculously.
Lil' Kim's interviews and comments on the issue have been positive and even inspiring for fans. Still, the dramatic photoshopping of this image is clearly a ploy to create interest through shock value, degrading a human being in the process.
Big things come in small packages according to Justin Bieber
The war between Justin Bieber's Beliebers and his haters has raged on for years. That's why no one was surprised that, as soon as the pictures from the singer's Calvin Klein photoshoot were released, accusations and denials about photoshopping fired up on social media. In the shots, critics suggested that Bieber's muscles were digitally enhanced in post-production, but that wasn't the only accusation. After BreatheHeavy.com, a music news site, posted the alleged original photos from the shoot, the most noticeable difference between the shots for many was in Bieber's, er, underwear area. Shortly afterward, the alleged originals were taken down after Team Bieber sent a cease and desist letter to the site.
Still, that didn't stop the discussion. TMZ joined in the fun as well, posting images from the raw video. Between this set of photos, the biggest change is in Bieber's body hair — he seems to have more in the final images. He responded to the accusations with a simple Instagram post. Posing in nothing more than a towel, Bieber commented, "Photoshop lol."
Lucy Hale gets a new job
In addition to landing a new gig on CW's Life Sentence, it appears that the people in charge of the promotional images for the show also gave actress Lucy Hale a new chest. When Hale posted the poster to Instagram, a photoshopped-looking Hale was noticeably larger in the chest area, causing many fans to criticize the marketing campaign. Now, this isn't the first time Hale has been involved in a photoshop debate, so the actress has an idea how these things work.
In 2014, Hale and the rest of the cast of Pretty Little Liars did a photo shoot for GQ. Afterward, a controversy about photoshopping erupted on social media. In speaking to E News about the GQ photo shoot, Hale saw the photo retouching as a reality of the system. "As long as people know that that's not real," she said. "I think that those pictures were just an image that they we're going for." So what does that say for the Life Sentence poster? What type of image were the photoshoppers going for?
Mischa Barton turns 80
More than a decade ago, when Mischa Barton was only 22, Daily Mail released photos of the actress from her vacation in Australia. The publication pointed out some cellulite on Barton's backside and legs, suggesting that her smoking habit may be the culprit.
According to Barton's publicist, Lisa Perkins, the published photos highlighting the actress' cellulite had been photoshopped. "Those photos are doctored," she said. "I'm not saying she's perfect, nobody is. But they've given a 22-year-old woman the legs and bottom of an 80-year-old." But the story gets more interesting. Perkins alleges that the photographer who snapped the shots, Jamie Fawcett, was out to get Barton. Apparently, Barton had been sunbathing topless. Perkins suggests that, after "she called [Fawcett] out for taking the topless shots," he took it personally. While it's unclear if the photos were actually doctored in the first place, it's obvious that pointing out a young woman's cellulite is not the way into her good books.