# do news networks use post production or real time video editing to airbrush anchors faces?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-news-networks-use-post-production-or-real-time-video-editing-to-airbrush-anchors-faces/684290>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 22, 2014, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-news-networks-use-post-production-or-real-time-video-editing-to-airbrush-anchors-faces/684290 "2014-03-22T15:53:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2014, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-news-networks-use-post-production-or-real-time-video-editing-to-airbrush-anchors-faces/684290/21 "2014-03-23T10:48:12Z")

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> [@ftg](#):
>
> Compression programs have a hard time dealing with an area that is nearly, but not quite, uniformly one color. You see blocky raggedness as the color changes slightly from one tone to the next.
> 
> If the makeup is applied such that the tone is nearly uniform, this might explain the digital artefacts the OP is seeing.
> 
> All digital video goes thru a compression/decompression cycle if it is transmitted in any regular form. The amount of compression (and therefore the amount of noticeable effects) can be varied according to source type and bandwidth needs. Perhaps the TV station (or cable company) is ramping up the compression for some reason making the effects more obvious.

I think this answer bears repeating as I think it the most likely explanation.

It happens because compression schemes only send the parts of a frame which have changed from the last frame, thereby saving bandwidth by not transmitting huge numbers of pixels which haven’t changed. When the compression is too aggressive areas of subtle tonal changes will be deemed to be near-enough identical not to resend. The effect on a face, which is subject to constant small movements of the head and mouth, is that the more uniform areas lag behind the true movement of the face, whereas the detailed areas will move normally. You can see a similar effect on out-of-focus backgrounds in landscape shots. As the camera pans across, the background seems to float about as if attached to the frame by springs.

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