Read this if you want to know how long it really takes to Photoshop one model's face

By now, we all have some kind of idea as to how much work goes into a single magazine spread, commercial, or press release. A LOT. When you flip through a fashion magazine, for instance, the pictures of models you’re seeing most likely went through major retouching and Photoshopping. Skin is smoothed over, hair is glossed up, bodies are (sometimes) slimmed down — everything in the image becomes manipulated to project an often unrealistic aesthetic.

So, what does the process look like, exactly?

Elizabeth Moss, the founder and head retoucher of Rare Digital Art, a retouching company based out of New York, provided PetaPixel‘s Michael Zhang with a behind-the-scenes look at just how complicated Photoshopping really is. And how much the process can transform a person’s natural face into something more digitally, well, processed. She says, it take 6 hours to do this.