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7 February 2011

Liberal magazine turns Romney into Wolfman Mitt

The New Republic placed a very tight crop of an “enhanced” mug shot of Mitt Romney on the cover of its 16 February 2012 issue (below). The tight crop doesn’t bother me. The so-called enhancement does.

Enhancement suggests a positive improvement. But that’s not what TNR produced. TNR used a grayscale image — most likely the blue channel of a color image — then stretched, equalized, and over-sharpened the image until every pore became an open pit mine, every wrinkle became a mountain range, and every hair became a porcupine quill. If the effect is not Wolfman Mitt, it’s pretty damned close.

I didn’t like it, but I did become curious.

How did TNR’s artist transform a button-down Republican into the kind of demonic face that even the producer of a horror movie would think twice about using? I experimented with the official portrait of Vice President Joe Biden. It’s wasn’t difficult, Biden’s being better looking than Mitt notwithstanding. You’ll find the images following my how I did it report.

First, I converted the image to grayscale, using the luminosity data in the blue channel. That darkens red and green. In fact, blue sensitive and blue and green sensitive films often were used to make strong featured portraits of men.

Next, I increased the contrast in the midtones to increase the tonal separation in the face. I boosted the effect with a light dose of equalization.

Finally, I used Adobe Photoshop’s Smart Sharpen function to over-sharpen the image (use lens blur, start with 300 percent and a radius of 2) until his face seemed etched in acid.

What I did to Joe Biden in less than 10 minutes is pretty close to what TNR did to Mitt Romney. Give me another hour and you’ll think Biden is Bigfoot.

Knowing how to do this is easy. Knowing when not to do it should be easy, too. Romney has a valid complaint.