Digital imaging enables Average Joe to do some truly amazing photo retouching. Software such as Adobe Photoshop allows you to easily zap zits, whiten teeth, wipe out wrinkles, remove fat, ditch scars, and well, just about anything. The ability to misrepresent yourself and others in photos is a real possibility. This has arguably led to some social problems in today’s society. Surely you’ve heard this before: teenagers everywhere (especially girls) feel increasingly self conscious given the flurry of perfect images thrown at them every day.

This issue was highlighted on July 16th when Jezebel wrote an article on how Redbook magazine retouched the hell out of Faith Hill’s photo. They even paid $10,000 for the original picture, and show it to you next to the retouched version.

Here’s a short film from Dove. With the help of makeup artists, hairdressers, and a Photoshop guru, the star of the video makes the transition from attractive but average woman to billboard diva. It’s an interesting little flick and I recommend you take the 70 seconds to watch (if for no other reason than seeing cool photo magic).

So this begs the question: should you use software to improve photos?

I stumbled on this video which is a great primer on aperture and depth of field. This video is geared toward the beginner who is still working on figuring out some of the basics.

Shelton Muller of Total Image magazine hits on the differences between landscape and portraiture as it relates to depth of field. There’s even a tip or two in there, such as to focus your camera on the subject’s eyes when taking a portrait.

This is a great video for anyone who is trying to wrap their head around the creative aspects of their camera’s aperture settings.