小資的噩夢 美如畫的宜家傢俱全靠PS

It’s hard to be the bearer of bad news, but most of IKEA’s print and digital glam shots of picturesque rooms and products are – wait for it – fake.

雖然不想帶來壞消息，但事實是，宜家的產品目錄中那些展示房間佈局和產品的美輪美奐的圖片大多都是---合成的。

That’s right. Those beautiful, “natural-looking” photos of gorgeous rooms and kitchens are mostly the work of computer magic, toggled and tweaked until they’re picture-perfect.

沒錯，那些用來展示華麗房間和廚房的漂亮、看起來很自然的圖片大多都是電腦合成的，它們通過電腦被不停地切換、調整直到變得完美爲止。

Martin Enthed, IT manager for IKEA’s in-house communications agency, spoke to CGI Society earlier this year and revealed that a whopping 75 per cent of the furniture company’s product images today are generated by computers.

宜家內部廣告部門的IT經理馬丁•恩賽德今年年初的時候表示宜家約有75%的產品圖片都是通過電腦合成的。

It’s a move that first caught the attention of photographers and graphic designers a few years back when the furniture giant announced it would scrap photoshoots in favour of computer-generated imagery (CGI).

幾年前這個傢俱巨頭就曾對外公佈說公司會對照片進行拆解，這樣只是爲了生成CGI(電腦合成的圖片)，這份聲明引起了不少攝影師和圖形設計師的關注。

Enthed said IKEA began shifting gears in 2009 when company officials called in his team and said they weren’t pleased with a batch of photos and CG images.

恩賽德說宜家於2009年開始改變產品圖片策略，當時公司的高管對他的團隊說公司對某一批圖片和CG圖像很不滿意。

“So we looked at all the images they said weren’t good and the two of three they said were great, and the ones they didn’t like were photography and the good ones were all CG, ” Enthed said. “Now we only talk about a good or bad image – not what technique created it.”

“我們查看了高管提出意見的所有圖片，發現其中三分之二很不錯，而且那些高管不喜歡的都是真實拍攝的照片，而他們認爲好看的都是CG圖片，”恩賽德說，“所以現在我們只管圖片好不好看，不管使用什麼技術。”

It’s a not-so-secret ruse used by top companies specializing in home and furniture design, though many consumers remain oblivious.

在頂尖的家居傢俱設計公司裏這並不算是什麼祕密，只是許多顧客被矇在鼓裏罷了。

“Most kitchen, bedroom and bathroom companies now use CGI to create their marketing material and no one has realized, ” said Pikcells creative director Richard Benson to Dezeen.

“在廚房、臥室和廁所產品等公司中，絕大多數會使用CGI圖片展示產品，但這沒人知道。”Pikcells 的創意總監理查德•本森說。

According to Enthed, the IKEA team plays with huge digital canvases measuring 4, 000 pixels x 4, 000 pixels for each image they render. Whether the image is of a Börje dining chair or of your dream Akurum/Lidingö kitchen, saving large files gives store designers the option to cover a wall with an image if they so please.

恩賽德稱他們提交給宜家團隊的每張圖片都會在4000*4000的巨幅電子畫布上進行修改。無論是Börje餐桌椅，還是你夢寐以求的Akurum/Lidingö廚房。大文件的好處是店面設計師可以將整面牆覆蓋上設計圖。

The company claims the shift is another way to reduce its environmental footprint, saying constructing digital files vs. building real sets produces less waste. It also helps the home furnishing empire's pocketbooks.

宜家公司聲稱此舉是爲了減少碳排放，他們表示用數字文件搭建場景比用實際產品產生的廢料更少，對公司的效益也很有幫助。

“It’s a clever way to save money, ” IKEA head photographer Anneli Sjogren said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in 2012.

宜家首席攝影師安內利•肖格倫2012年在接受《華爾街週刊》採訪時說：“這是個省錢的好辦法。”

That year, the furniture giant announced 12 per cent of its product and concept images would be CGI-rendered, increasing to 25 per cent in 2013. Since then, that percentage of rendered images appearing in the company’s catalogue and online has tripled.

2012年時宜家曾表示其12%的產品圖片和概念展示圖都是CGI渲染的，到了2013年這個比例提高到了25%。從那時起宜家產品目錄和網上的圖片經電腦合成的比例提高了兩倍。

“We don’t have to throw away kitchens in the dumpster after the photo shoot, ” Sjogren explained at the time.

當時肖格倫解釋說：“這樣我們就不用在拍照之後把廚房扔進垃圾箱裏了。”