InfoSearched
Ten celebrity photos where the retouching got so heavy fans could see the seams.
By the summer of 2016, Photoshop controversies had become a recurring news cycle in their own right, with warped tile grout and bent doorframes doing more to expose magazine editors than any exposé could. TheThings Celebrity’s rundown of ten before-and-after shots traces how the backlash moved from anonymous internet sleuthing to celebrities themselves posting side-by-side comparisons and naming names. The video lands at a moment when stars had stopped just tolerating heavy retouching and started publicly calling it out.
- Zendaya publicly called out Modeliste Magazine in October 2015 after the publication slimmed her hips and torso for a cover shoot, posting the raw image alongside the retouched version on Instagram.
- Editor-in-Chief Amy McCabe pulled the Modeliste issue from distribution following Zendaya’s callout and replaced the doctored images with the originals.
- Kerry Washington and Iggy Azalea followed with their own pushback in early 2016 — Washington over an over-smoothed April 2016 Adweek cover, and Azalea over a March 2016 Schön! Magazine spread that trimmed her hips and thighs.
Zendaya Draws the Line
Zendaya was 19 when Modeliste ran its cover shoot in October 2015, and the finished product bore little resemblance to what she’d actually posed for. Editors had narrowed her hips and torso to the point that her own team flagged it immediately. Rather than let it slide, she posted the unedited photo directly next to the published one on Instagram.
These are the things that make women self conscious, that create the unrealistic ideals of beauty that we have.
The statement traveled fast enough that Modeliste couldn’t just quietly move on. Editor-in-Chief Amy McCabe pulled the issue from distribution and reissued it with the authentic, unretouched images restored — a rare instance of a magazine reversing course in real time rather than riding out the criticism.
Washington and Azalea Add to the Pattern
Zendaya’s callout wasn’t an isolated case in the months that followed. Kerry Washington’s April 2016 Adweek cover drew immediate attention for how unrecognizable the retouching made her look, with the smoothing effectively erasing her actual features rather than just cleaning up lighting. Iggy Azalea hit Twitter the following month with her own side-by-side, pointing out that Schön! Magazine’s March 2016 spread had trimmed her natural hips and thighs down to a shape she didn’t have.
Taken together with Zendaya’s Modeliste incident, the pattern by mid-2016 was unmistakable: publications were still defaulting to slimming edits, and the subjects of those edits were increasingly willing to post the receipts themselves rather than let a flattering-but-fake cover stand unchallenged.
The Kardashian Family’s Self-Inflicted Fails
Some of the more embarrassing examples in the video didn’t come from magazines at all — they came from the stars’ own social accounts. Kim Kardashian’s gym selfies with Blac Chyna became an early, oft-cited case of amateur Photoshop gone wrong, with warped floor tiles and bent doorframes giving away the editing before anyone had to zoom in. It’s the kind of blooper that turns up whenever people rank reality stars’ most awkward moments next to each other.
Kourtney Kardashian’s case was arguably worse because it wasn’t her posting the image. A tabloid ran a photo taken just seven days after she’d given birth, retouched to look like a fresh, brand-new shoot promoting a fake post-baby diet story — her body slimmed down and even the color of her dress altered to sell the illusion. It was a clear example of outlets manufacturing content around a celebrity without her involvement, which is a different and arguably more troubling problem than a star touching up her own selfie.
Men Weren’t Exempt Either
The video also makes a point of showing that Photoshop scrutiny wasn’t limited to female stars. A retouched image of George Clooney stripped away his visible aging entirely — no wrinkles, no grey hair — despite Clooney being widely regarded as someone who’s aged well without any help. Jon Hamm got a similar treatment in a Mad Men-era campaign photo, with editors squaring off his jawline and smoothing his skin to a degree that made him look noticeably different from his actual appearance on camera.
Those examples matter because they undercut the idea that Photoshop backlash is only about body image standards aimed at women. The same instinct to erase visible age or texture from a face gets applied across the board, whether the subject is a supermodel or a leading man already considered one of Hollywood’s most conventionally handsome actors.
What ties all ten images together is the same giveaway every time: a warped background, a mismatched shadow, a seam in the retouching that a magazine’s art department either missed or hoped nobody would notice. By mid-2016, plenty of people were noticing.
Amal Clooney Carries Her Adorably Dressed Twins Around NYC
The Untold Truth Of To Catch A Cheater
20 Things You Didn’t Know About The “Cash Me Ousside” Girl
Celeb Cheaters Who Later Got A Taste Of Their Own Medicine
I Bought A Water Park