Friday, October 17, 2014

"Photoshopping" in the 1930s

Joan Before

Photographer George Hurrell shot the above portrait of actress Joan Crawford as a publicity shot for the 1931 film Laughing Sinners. He then passed the photograph to a retoucher named James Sharp, who spent six hours smoothing skin, removing spots, and erasing wrinkles. Sharp used a retoucher machine, which backlit and vibrated the original negative, allowing Sharp to physically smooth out the film using a pencil. Below is the retouched photo:

Joan After

This animated GIF created by Redditor 1SweetChuck shows the changes:

1 comment:

  1. Ah the joys of retouching.
    Celebrities always look strangely ordinary when seen in real life. Mostly because they are ordinary.

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