When working with photos, how would you feel about being asked to re-colour skin tones because the model(s) do not fit the branding strategy of the company portraying a racially diverse culture?
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Recolouring skin tones is never going to be convincing and is ethically dubious. I’ve added in ethic groups from different pictures from the same corporation, but that’s as far as I’ll go.
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Altering the perceived race of a model via image editing is more offensive than any lack of diversity such an act would seek to rectify.
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You might even find that altering the appearance of a model violates model releases.
Very bad practice. Adding people like SM said works.
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This has a big red flag flying right over the top of it.
Altering skin tones is NEVER a good idea and is highly unethical.
Several magazines have gotten in trouble for this. Vogue, InStyle, Elle … they’ve all done it on the sly and then played dumb about it. It never goes over well.
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Line up an East Asian, an African, a Caucasian, a South Asian, an Inuit, an Arab. Study their facial structures. You think simply altering their skin tone will change their ethnicity?
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John Wayne playing Genghis Khan in The Conqueror comes to mind.
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Exactly
I was thinking more of Laurence Olivier’s Othello but yeah 
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My tortured mind imagined what might happen if one force-fed the cast of The Sopranos unusual Japanese cuisine for a year. Probably just piss 'em off.
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I guess, today, I’m supposed to be ashamed of the fact that I performed in The Mikado in high school? Over 40 years ago.
I’ll never be able to run for public office now!
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Don’t feel bad PD I couldn’t run for public office either … they would have a field day 
LOL
Ny friend from 2000, Diallo Shabazz, who never went to a Unv Wisconsin football game was photoshopped in a campus guide. after months of bickering over ethics and controversy crap-
i have no idea of just forgot what the outcome was.
the truth is the truth no matter what hashtag or lying humans may do.
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Just give me the crayons, black, brown, yellow, white, whatever, I don’t care; I’ll even staighten or curl hair in Photoshop.
If liberals believe people can effortlessly change their sex, then they can’t moan at me.
I happen to be a staunch conservative and I don’t have a problem with people following every American Citizen’s right to Life, Liberty and especially Pursuit of Happiness.
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Where did that come from?
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Right field
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Putting on my moderator hat for a moment.
I’m not sure how complex issues get pared down into binary oversimplifications of liberal vs conservative, but I suppose it’s one of the reasons why we avoid talking politics here. Let’s please keep this thread focused on issues related to design, not polarized politics.
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There’s also We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal under God…
The point being that the rights of American Citizens include the right to be treated equally. When we as graphics professionals are asked to fake a photograph to give a false impression of inclusivity, that is just wrong. It may even be unconstitutional.
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This has already been said, but just to add to the pot; it’s a no-brainier for me. Ethically, it’s just plain wrong and practically, it will never be a convincing solution.
The request is also more than a little ironic. A client wants to appear ethnically diverse by being about as ethnically inappropriate and offensive as it is possible to be. I think they may just have missed the point here. All a bit of a white-washing really – so to speak!
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