Love Your Selfie: TODAY Show Hosts get ‘Fantasy’ Photoshop Makeover

Update on 12/16/21: This video has been removed by its creator.

In a bit of contrast to the RAW Beauty Talks portraits featured yesterday, today we have an interesting before and after Photoshop comparison of the hosts of the TODAY show

With the help (if you can call it that) of Cosmopolitan’s “Photoshop experts,” Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker and Natalie Morales were given a substantial post-production makeover.

Editor-in-chief of the magazine Joanna Coles calls the process of Photoshopping “tidying up,” but it’s up for debate whether adding hair, increasing bust size, changing clothing colors and making people taller — all of which was done in this particular transformation — is merely “tidying up”.

That being said, Coles did say that the final photo of the TODAY hosts would never get the go-ahead to be published in Cosmo because “this is sort of a fantasy version that you wouldn’t want to put out because no one would believe [it].”

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Overlayed image showing the changes made courtesy of TODAY

NBC enlisted Cosomo‘s help to create this image for its “Love Your Selfie” series — a campaign that strives to improve self-confidence.

Oftentimes we see smaller campaigns attempting to do this, but seeing the hosts of something as popular as the TODAY show shocked with the “fantasy version[s]” of themselves will probably have a bit more impact than something like the no-Photoshop magazine Verily.

Most of us being fairly familiar with the software, the program’s capabilities and the lengths to which some publications use it to create unrealistic standards comes as no surprise. Still, it’s nice to see more and more shows, individuals and publications taking a stand against the kind of extreme Photoshop use that gives all post-processing a bad name.

At the top of this post you’ll find a video of the process, including commentary by each of the hosts as to what they thought of the changes. Coming in at 7:25 minutes, it’s a bit lengthy, but it’s a great watch nonetheless … plus it’s the weekend, so no excuses.


Image credit: Photograph courtesy of NBC’s TODAY Show

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