Camouflage - Exploring the AI-Generated Beauty Ideal

Year 2022, , 100 - 121, 21.10.2022

Evelin Horváth

https://doi.org/10.32739/etkilesim.2022.5.10.171

Abstract

The retouching and altering of portrait photographs used to require extreme professionalism from the artists, thus it was a privilege of photographers. However, due to the modern image editing techniques, the process has become completely automated, to the point where it is no longer uncommon to find artificial intelligence-based software to perform portrait editing.
The present research uses a self-report questionnaire to investigate the functioning of an image editing software that uses artificial intelligence to anatomically transform portrait photos beautiful at one push of a button. Participants are asked to give their opinions on pairs of photographs, one of which is an original, unedited picture, meanwhile the other is its idealised version created by the artificial intelligence-based software.
The results of the research showed that the viewer's perception of the automatic image retouching was not influenced by the gender or age of the model, nor by the age of the recipients. However, the participants’ first judgement of the models’ beauty influenced their attitude towards both the model and the photograph. In most cases, the photo version that participants considered more beautiful was the one they would have preferred to see both in their own social media news feed and on the cover of a magazine, furthermore, more people would have preferred to meet the model based on the photo they thought to be beautiful. The research also reveals that viewers tend to associate negative emotions with image manipulation.
Although the enhancement of photographs is a phenomenon that media users regularly encounter, not much research have been conducted on the ideal of beauty in relation to AI-technology. The current study aims to contribute to the filling of the aforementioned research gap.

Keywords

beauty ideal, artificial intelligence, portrait photos, image manipulation, retouch

Supporting Institution

Ministry for Innovation and Technology, Hungary

Project Number

ÚNKP-22-3 New National Excellence Program

Thanks

„Supported by the ÚNKP-22-3 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology from the source of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund.”

Camouflage - Exploring the AI-Generated Beauty Ideal

Abstract

Eskiden portre fotoğraflarının rötuşlanması ve değiştirilmesi sanatçıların son derece profesyonel olmasını gerektirdiğinden fotoğrafçıların bir ayrıcalığıydı. Ancak modern görüntü düzenleme teknikleri sayesinde bu süreç tamamen otomatik hale geldi; öyle ki artık portre düzenlemesi yapmak için yapay zeka tabanlı yazılımlar bulmak hiç de nadir değil.
Bu araştırma, tek bir düğmeye basarak portre fotoğraflarını anatomik olarak güzelleştirmek için yapay zeka kullanan bir görüntü düzenleme yazılımının işleyişini araştırmak için bir öz bildirim anketi kullanmaktadır. Katılımcılardan, biri orijinal, düzenlenmemiş bir resim, diğeri ise yapay zeka tabanlı yazılım tarafından oluşturulan idealize edilmiş versiyonu olan fotoğraf çiftleri hakkında görüşlerini bildirmeleri istenmiştir.
Araştırmanın sonuçları, izleyicinin otomatik görüntü rötuşuna ilişkin algısının ne modelin cinsiyetinden ya da yaşından ne de alıcıların yaşından etkilendiğini göstermiştir. Ancak, katılımcıların modellerin güzelliğine ilişkin ilk yargıları hem modele hem de fotoğrafa yönelik tutumlarını etkilemiştir. Çoğu durumda, katılımcıların daha güzel olduğunu düşündükleri fotoğraf versiyonu, hem kendi sosyal medya haber akışlarında hem de bir derginin kapağında görmeyi tercih edecekleri fotoğraf versiyonuydu; ayrıca, daha fazla insan güzel olduğunu düşündükleri fotoğrafa dayanarak modelle tanışmayı tercih ederdi. Araştırma ayrıca izleyicilerin olumsuz duyguları görüntü manipülasyonu ile ilişkilendirme eğiliminde olduğunu ortaya koyuyor.
Fotoğrafların iyileştirilmesi medya kullanıcılarının düzenli olarak karşılaştığı bir olgu olmasına rağmen, yapay zeka teknolojisiyle ilişkili olarak güzellik ideali üzerine çok fazla araştırma yapılmamıştır. Bu çalışma, yukarıda bahsedilen araştırma boşluğunun doldurulmasına katkıda bulunmayı amaçlamaktadır.

Keywords

güzellik ideali, yapay zeka, portre fotoğrafları, görüntü manipülasyonu, rötuş

Project Number

ÚNKP-22-3 New National Excellence Program

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