14 DAY TRIAL // The latest “too much Photoshop” controversy has to do with the Billboard cover with rocker Bret Michaels and his seriously ripped abs. To set the record straight once and for all, the magazine is taking action.
The cover photo emerged online at the end of last month and, because of how fit the rocker appeared to be on it, immediately sparked speculation that it had been “photoshopped to death,” as word in the blogosphere would have it.
Recently, Michaels himself took a stand, saying he was regularly in a pretty good condition, but admitting that he had prepared extra for taking his shirt off.
Billboard now confirms this – and it does so in the easiest and most accessible method available: by issuing the before and after photo.
According to the magazine, Bret didn’t receive more than the “standard” amount of retouching, which, in his case, had to do with the elimination of wrinkles and giving him a tan.
While there’s a distinct difference between the two pics (as can be easily noted in the photo attached to this article as well), the abs are the real deal.
In the before photo, Bret has a few more wrinkles and is less tanned; the after pic eliminates all that while also adding a darker shade to his skin, which makes his abs truly stand out.
The Billboard photo editor promises that nothing was added on the rocker with Photoshop, which photographer Blair Bunting confirms.
“When he took off his shirt, I was like, ‘This guy’s in shape for 47!’ It’s always easy for someone to cry ‘Photoshop,’ so I wasn’t too surprised by that... but he takes his shape seriously,” Bunting says.
Proof that Michaels does just that is his statement of a couple of days ago of how nervous he was about posing shirtless – and how he really pushed himself to be in top shape for that.
“I said, ‘Listen, I have two requests – good lighting and a warm room. That’s all I’m asking for.’ I didn’t eat for a day and I did about 2,000 sit-ups,” Michaels revealed for E! in an interview, as we also informed you.