Did they photoshop, etc the people on the cover of a magazine years ago?

Black in the 80’s and such.

While there was still editing done to photos back then, it was a more trying task as it involved manually painting or colouring a photo to remove the imperfections. Because of this, photo edits were done only when necessary (to cover a scar, remove bags under the eyes, etc.), and I, personally, have never seen a photo that was edited to make the model thinner.

Keep in mind that, back then, cameras were also lower in definition quality, so the tiny imperfections were rarely picked up on film.

I’ve manually touched up prints and negatives during the film era. I used tiny brushes and various dyes and retouching paints. Many professional photographers airbrushed prints to make model’s skin look flawless. Playboy centerfolds were heavily airbrushed all over. Individuals were sometimes painstakingly cut out from one print to be added to another print. Almost anything you can do with photoshop can be done with film and prints though working with physical media took a lot more time and skill.

They still do

how log ago are you talking about? View, press, and medium format cameras from the 1940’s had impressive resolution even by today’s standards. I’ve seen lots of tack sharp images from decades before the digital era. I never met a professional photographer who took senior pictures who didn’t touch up the prints to get rid of pimples.

When I was in Junior High… I took part in a mentorship program at a local printing company that handled photo touch up and cover layouts for many widely distributed magazines. This was the early 90’s and even back then… the company I mentored with had begun using prioritized raster graphics editing software akin to photoshop… and hardware like graphics tablets. Employees could do basically the same things that are possible now. They could lengthen and slenderize figures… whiten eyes and teeth… clear complexions…etc. The technology came with a much higher price tag… but I know it has been around for at least the last twenty years.