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The rise of fashion magazine inspired Photoshop editing: Has Beyonce edited her Instagram images?

An image of the singer posted at the weekend reportedly show signs of having been edited

Emma Akbareian
Thursday 14 August 2014 18:19 BST
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Beyonce leads the MTV VMA Awards 2014 nominations with eight
Beyonce leads the MTV VMA Awards 2014 nominations with eight (Getty Images)

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Photoshop is a tool widely used in magazines and advertising campaigns, but are celebrities like Beyonce now turning to photo-editing tools to fine tune their social media posts.

A picture posted by the singer on Instagram on Sunday has come under fire for supposedly being edited.

In the image, Beyonce is pictured sitting on a sofa in the sun, however some followers have pointed out that the phone sat infront of her looks distorted, suggesting the image has been subject to some manipulation.

It's not the first time the singer has come under speculation for her social media posts. In April an image of the singer playing golf led to some followers suggesting she had edited the image to make her thighs appear slimmer.

Other celebrities who have also been accused of editing their Instagram images including Kim Kardashian.

The selfie-obsessed Kardashian has been outed for image editing when Kanye West admitted that the image posted from their wedding earlier this year rather than being an 'in the moment' natural shot, actually took 'four days' of work before it was posted to the social media site.

Models aren't immune to the pressures to look thin either. Miranda Kerr has been the subject of speculation several times for Instagram images that appear edited.

An image of Kerr alongside fellow Victoria's Secret models turned out to have been edited, unbeknownst to her, Kerr later took down the image and reposted the original.

The image below of the model has also been called into question due to the pattern on the carpet either side of Kerr appearing to bend.

You don't have to be a celebrity or a model to benefit from photo-editing. There's an array of apps now available to download straight to your phone that can do everything from trim off a few inches to alter hair and eye colour. One of the most popular ones is Perfect 365 which now has over 40 million users.

Fashion magazines and advertising images come under constant scrutiny for their use of post-production editing.

"I think Vogue is a magazine that's about fantasy to some extent and dreams, and an escape from real life," commented Alexandra Shulman, editor of British Vogue, in an interview with BBC Radio 2.

"People don't want to buy a magazine like Vogue to see what they see when they look in the mirror. They can do that for free."

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