I believe it was on a repeat of City Line that Kim Seldon stated that you would never get a room as displayed in many of the home fashion magazines, they were all "air brushed". She was very witty about it. :rolleyes:
I have seen some fab pics in the mags and have also seen forum members post pics which were worthy of the mags (not air brushed). I wonder what degree of truth there was in this statement. : :confused:
And how do they take pics of small rooms????
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Just take a look at any mag and see how many electrical outlets, light switches, cords, you see. They photoshop anything that doesn't work out. They can make things bigger or smaller, add lighting, change colours, you name it. It's not much different than what they do with live models who end up looking nothing like they do in real life. You can 'enhance' anything or anyone if you know what you are doing.
Meanwhile photographers only need the right lenses and can also paste together two or more pictures but for the most part they will avoid small spaces because it's very hard to get a shot that isn't distorted in some way.
That's not to say there aren't some rooms which are probably pretty much perfect, but trying to achieve a mag type image is just as futile as trying to look like a live model most of the time. It's just not possible because the photos have been doctored.
Maybe that's why they only feature larger homes or homes with larger room sizes in magazines too to photograph them properly. The only way my bathroom would be photographed in its entirety would be with a fisheye lens and then the sides would be all curled up..
If you look very closely at some pictures in magazines you will see that some chairs (for example) are REALLY too close to another piece of furniture. I think the photographers/production crew do this to create an optical illusion. And then there is the lighting...Lighting can make all the difference in the world. And let's face it, we do not live in rooms with camera lights.
I have also noticed on some of the "before and after" type decorating shows that the after shots have beautiful subdued lighting and the befores were taken "as is".
As for taking pictures of small rooms, the professionals can set up their cameras high up or low down, tight to a corner, etc, (whatever the case may be) and "snap" from somewhere else. They also have wide angled lenses, etc. Our little digital cameras just can't do the job. :cry:
I think Kimberley was being honest and telling it like it is.....
Most of the magazine pics are highly staged and 'fluffed' They have spoken of their little tricks that they do many times on Cityline.