Photoshop can be a great tool when used properly. Sadly, some who use it don’t seem to really get the “used properly” part of my first statement. I’ve tried as often as possible to use photos that haven’t been altered after the initial Photoshop disasters but that wasn’t always possible. I left any and all watermarks on the photos because giving credit where credit is due is important but I’ve credited the photos to where I originally discovered the photo. It seemed like the fairest way to do things. Now, enough talking. Let’s get to the Photoshop disasters.
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30: Unusual for Photoshop Disasters
The vast majority of the Photoshop disasters on this list are the result of too much Photoshopping or sloppy Photoshopping. In this instance, however, the culprit is not enough photoshopping. Of course, the mystery object hanging between the model’s legs is the base of one of the trees behind her and Photoshopping it out likely would’ve been a little tricky but an attempt would’ve at least been nice.
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29: The Always Popular Random Hand
This is one of those Photoshop disasters that pops up time and time again but in this case, I can almost understand how it got passed the editors. The fingers on the hand sort of blend in with the model’s hair so it is easy to miss. In all honesty, I’m not sure I would’ve noticed it had it not been for the helpful white circle highlight someone added to the photo. There are far worse examples of the random hand, which we’ll talk about throughout this article.
image via hongkiat.com
28: The Erased Hangbag
I’m not sure I get what’s going on here. Was the handbag ugly? Was it not a Victoria’s Secret handbag? If so, why would the model be carrying it in the first place? Considering the hackjob someone did on the photo, I can’t help but think it would’ve been far less trouble to just leave the handbag in the photo.
image via hongkiat.com
27: The Forgotten Belly Button
Now see, I know to most this Playboy photo looks like a pretty big Photoshop disaster because of the missing belly button but without knowing who the model is or knowing what her belly button normally looks like, I’m not positive I’d call this one an actual Photoshop disaster. But the belly button, you say! I once knew a girl who did not have a belly button. She had a weird little dent that looked like it should’ve been a belly button but without really looking close, you couldn’t even see the dent. Perhaps this woman is the same way. I chose to include it on our biggest Photoshop disasters list all the same, simply because I just don’t know the deal.
image via huffingtonpost.com
26: The Teeny Tiny Ribcage
Okay,, I don’t know what’s going on behind this young lady’s arms but it definitely doesn’t look natural. Unless this woman has the tiniest ribcage known to man, something went horribly awry in the photo editing department. This distortion looks a little too extreme to blame on a weird pose. I suppose it’s possible but it doesn’t seem all that likely to me.
image via moolf.com
25: Miley’s Extra Hand
So this is my theory. Miley Cyrus and Nick Jonas had their photo snapped with a few other people but the magazine decided the photo would be better with just Miley and Nick. They cut out everyone else … for the most part. The random hand is a popular theme among Photoshop disasters but this one is pretty obvious. I’m surprised it made it past the editors. Of course, there are worse example to be found.
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24: Whitney Houston’s Extra Hand
The tabloids have never really been considered shining beacons of editorial virtue but this is a little ridiculous, isn’t it? First, it looks like the ice cream was just added in. If I had to guess, she was originally holding something else but the magazine thought it would only be worth printing if it looked like she was on an all out food binge. Regardless, that extra hand is proof positive this photo had at least a little manipulation – not cool.
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23: The Model With No Feet
I do enjoy the outfit the model is wearing in this photo but I’m not quite as crazy over her randomly missing feet. I can’t understand how anyone would think this looked acceptable! It’s just so unnerving. I get that the photo may have been too long to work in the ad but there’s this crazy thing called resizing that could’ve fixed that problem. Just. Too. Weird.
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22: All Around Hack Job
What is up with this photo? I mean, really … what is going on? There’s just so much wrong here. The entire bottom right corner is botched in a pretty obvious way and even the fence post on the left side has been screwed with. Was there someone else in the photo that had to be edited out? Wasn’t there enough money in the budget to hire a photo editor that knows that they’re doing? I’ll never understand how this one made it to the public.
image via boredpanda.com
21: The Extra Fingers
I like this design overall. Whoever did it did a great job … except for the extra finger on the hand holding the microphone. There are clearly five fingers and a thumb on that hand. I have nothing against those with extra digits, of course. It just seems like a weird direction to take this particular design in.
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20: The Extra Leg
This is one of those Photoshop disasters that just speaks for itself. In truth, it’s what really good Photoshop disasters are all about, at least in my opinion. At first glance, this photo looks perfectly fine. It isn’t until you really look at it that you see what’s gone wrong. Were it not for the red circle so helpfully added to the photo, I doubt I would’ve seen the problem at all and probably would’ve moved right along to the next photo.
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19: So Lightweight, You Carry It Without Touching It
I get that stock photos are a convenient way to save money. I use them on a fairly regular basis to illustrate my articles but … come on. If you’re putting a product out there either drop the cash on a professional shoot for your ads or be a little more careful with the Photoshop.
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18: Something’s Missing … Something Important
I get that airlines have been struggling in a pretty big way for the last few years and because of that, some cutbacks have been necessary. This is not a cutback I am comfortable with. I would gladly pay more for a plane ticket if it means the plane I’ll be flying in has two wings.
image via moolf.com
17: Something Is So Not Right Here
I don’t even know what to say about this one so I’m just going to let the photo speak for itself.
image via dailymail.co.uk
16: Adam Levine Is So Freaking Sexy But …
Where is the rest of his torso?!?
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15: Don’t Worry. No One Will Notice.
I wanted to stay away from selfies on this one because it doesn’t seem fair. I have never tried to Photoshop my own photos but I’m sure if I did, I’d have more than a little trouble getting them to look right. The reason I included this one is because it is one of the more recognizable Photoshop disasters and because it was a disaster born out of something so unnecessary. This young lady is very pretty and clearly has a lot to work with. There is no need to make the boobs bigger.
image via hongkiat.com
14: Professional Quality Photos Indeed
I wasn’t sure where to rank this one on my list. The random hand is back again but it’s somewhat subtle so I wanted to put it lower on the list. How did it make it all the way to #14? Simple. “Professional Quality Photos”. I get that pros make mistakes like this all the time – we wouldn’t have a list if they didn’t – but if you’re going to advertise a service that promises professional quality photos, make sure there isn’t a Photoshop disaster in the photo you put with the ad.
image via dailymail.co.uk
13: Something’s Up With KStew’s Arm … Not to Mention Her Leg
The first thing I noticed about this photo was the fact that Kristen Stewart’s right forearm seems to be missing from this photo which is disturbing. Upon closer inspection though, her legs began to trouble me as well. The biggest standout for me though is definitely the arm but something is up with the legs as well.
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12: What’s Up With X-Tina’s Arm
I had to call my husband in to help me with this one. I was sure there was something about this photo of one of my favorite vocalists that just wasn’t right but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what that something was. The hand and wrist position is weird, yes, but I think it’s something about the entire left arm. It looks … too short, maybe? Weird around the shoulder? Something just doesn’t seem right about it to me. My husband concurred so it made my Photoshop disasters list although I’m not entirely convinced it counts.
image via hongkiat.com
11: Breakneck Beauty
Either this woman can turn her head really far or her head has been Photoshopped onto someone else’s shoulders. Of course, just because a woman can turn her head that far doesn’t mean she should. The result here is just creepy an unnerving – not at all what the photographer was going for, I’m sure. Just weird. Flat out weird.
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10: He Stole My Heart … And My Hand
This shot makes me laugh every time I see it. If the art director decided he didn’t want too people in the shot, why not just do the shoot over again? “Eh, so he’s holding a disembodied hand. No one will notice … right?”
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09: Oh No. Just … No.
I want to comment on this one but I just can’t. There are no words. None.
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08: The Bad Fake Check
If you’re going to try to scam someone into joining some sort of ad program you’re running and you want to lure them in with the promise of money, at least don’t use some hacky Photoshop shot to try to sell your lie. To be fair, maybe this company is great at helping people earn extra income. Maybe you really can get a big fat check like that by working with them. I’m not inclined to believe it though. If the company is willing to post ‘evidence’ that has been this badly Photoshopped, I’m not sure I believe anything they say.
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07: The Cut Out Thighs
Now this is just sloppy, careless work. Surely J. Crew can do better. I will never be able to support the digital slimming down of models but if you’re going to do it, at least take a little care with it. Perhaps that isn’t what happened here though. What other explanation can I come up with? None, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one. It just seems a little too sloppy to have been a slim down attempt but stranger things have happened.
image via hongkiat.com
06: The Oddly Shaped Head
So I don’t know why someone felt it was necessary to crop off the top of this woman’s head, slap a green banner over her eyes and then paste the top of her head back on but perhaps it could’ve been done a little more carefully so, ya know, it didn’t look like she had a very oddly shaped hear. As you can see in the insert, the original photo looks pretty fantastic.
image via hongkiat.com
05: The Missing Leg
Legs seem to be tricky when it comes to Photoshop as we’ve seen in many of the other Photoshop disasters on our list so far but be that as it may, I find it nearly impossible to understand how this one happened. I mean, her leg is just gone. It’s gone. That’s so weird. How could this one slip past the editor? It’s nearly as perplexing as …
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04: This Leg Fiasco
I make a lot of mistakes while I’m writing. I mean, a lot of mistakes. I have my husband read over my articles before I publish them to try to catch any errors but even after two sets of eyes have been over them for mistakes, mistakes still happen. This … is something entirely different. How could a photo this badly butchered actually make it to print? Just … okay. Let’s ignore the fact that the leg this young lady is standing on seems to come out of nowhere. Let’s just push that aside. The shape of the leg seems all wrong as well. It looks to me as if someone started editing a photo, got bored, went to do something else and forgot to finish before submitting it. That still doesn’t explain how no one caught it before it went to print.
image via huffingtonpost.com
03: Yeah, So That’s Disturbing.
You would think that at some point, someone at American Apparel would’ve said, “Anyone else notice that horse doesn’t have a freaking body?” after seeing this photo. It seems a little obvious. With some of these photoshop disasters, I really had to look to see what the disaster was. Not with this one. Unless, of course, the bodiless horse was intentional which is just disturbing and weird – not two things I typically think of when I think of American Apparel.
image via boredpanda.com
02: Where Is His Head?!?
I’m so glad we can see the basketball in this photo or else I’d be seriously wondering what that man is dunking. Some have pointed out other editing issues here but no – I just can’t get past the headless basketball player. I can’t. Everything else in the photo is secondary to me.
image via boredpanda.com
01: Really? Really?
Out of all the Photoshop disasters on this list, this one is probably the most famous. I tried to stay away from controversial Photoshop disasters like skin lightening because it’s already been done but I couldn’t ignore this one. There was no way I could do a Photoshop disasters list without including this one. They didn’t just lighten skin. They removed the black guy from the table entirely. That’s just … so not right. It’s shockingly not right. I cannot understand the thinking behind this one at all. It just boggles the mind.
