Friend or foe: celebrities and Photoshop

We may be used to seeing celebrities perfected on supermarket shelves but there is another side to Photoshopping: it's also used to do the opposite.

Another media trend is to pick up on celebs' faults ('knobbly knees', 'saggy tums', 'dimpled thighs') and paparazzi shots exaggerate these by using the same software that usually airbrushes them.

Former OC actress Misha Barton has been ridiculed by the press for her apparent 'cellulite problem'. The 22-year-old's rep spoke out about the pictures: "Those photos are doctored. I'm not saying she's perfect, nobody is. But they've given (her) the legs and bottom of an 80-year-old. Look at the shots that were taken shortly before on a beach in L.A. Did she develop all that cellulite in a couple of weeks? There's a lot you can do with Photoshopping."

Misha herself has spoken out about these images: "every woman has cellulite," she has said. "I just feel like the photographers try to get the most unflattering shots. They know they are worth more money. I've never claimed to have a perfect body, but it is what it is. I have a woman's body".

Keira Knightley has also experienced the negative side of this technology: a Photoshop blog recently exaggerated her already skinny frame to look as though she was a full-blown anorexic.

The reality is that a cover girl's friend can also be their enemy.

Picture credit: Barcroft Media, Destination Creation

Listen to what LOOK magazine's picture editor had to say about Misha's airbrushed paprazzi pictures HERE

Also, check out:

READ what the celebrities have to say about being retouched

SEE pictures of hilariously bad Photoshop