Seeing Is…. Unbelieving

Advance Notes : Can you be sure a photo you see in a publication you are reading is genuine? That is, has it been tampered with in some way?

Note : To see the images in the following examples, consult the website at the end of this article.

Source: http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/research/digitaltampering

Manipulation of photos (or “ enhancement ,” as it’s sometimes called) has been going on a long time. Here are excerpts from a web page that has tracked down famous examples of alterations or trick photography, down through history.

• “This nearly iconic portrait of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is a composite of Lincoln's head and the Southern politician John Calhoun's body. Putting the date of this image into context, note that the first permanent photographic image was created in 1826 and the Eastman Dry Plate Company (later to become Eastman Kodak) was created in 1881.”

• In this photo by famed photographer Mathew Brady , General Sherman is seen posing with his Generals. General Francis P. Blair (far right) was added to the original photograph.

• In this National Geographic magazine cover story on Egypt, the Great Pyramids of Giza, in a horizontal picture by Gordon Gahen, were "squeezed" together to fit the magazine's vertical format. Tom Kennedy, who became the director of photography at National Geographic after the cover was manipulated, stated that “We no longer use that technology to manipulate elements in a photo simply to achieve a more compelling graphic effect. We regarded that afterwards as a mistake, and we wouldn't repeat that mistake today.”

• This Pulitzer Prize winning photo by John Filo shows Mary Ann Vecchio screaming as she kneels over the body of student Jeffrey Miller at Kent State University, where National Guardsmen had fired into a crowd of demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine. The original photograph shows a fence post directly behind Vecchio, that was removed in the published version.

• This photograph of O.J. Simpson was manipulated from the original mug-shot that appeared, unaltered, on the cover of Newsweek. Time magazine was subsequently accused of manipulating the photograph to make Simpson appear “darker” and “menacing.”

• Hoping to illustrate its diverse enrollment, the University of Wisconsin at Madison doctored a photograph on a brochure cover by digitally inserting a black student in a crowd of white football fans. The original photograph of white fans was taken in 1993. The additional black student, senior Diallo Shabazz, was taken in 1994. University officials said that they spent the summer looking for pictures that would show the school's diversity -- but had no luck.

• The picture of Brad Pitt was taken in Anguilla, a Caribbean island, in January 2005. The picture of Jolie was taken in Virginia some time in 2004. On page 8 is a disclaimer noting the image is a "composite of two photographs." This composite was purchased from Big Pictures, a London-based photography agency, for $500,000.

Want to read more of this article? Go To http://www.photosource.com/
researcher/gen772a

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This week's featured photographer on PhotoSourceFolio:
Mike Ring ( http://folio.photosource.com/3079)
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Robert Sena
Robert Sena Photography
rsenaphotography@comcast.net
http://www.robertsenaphotography.com/

Watch for developments in the field of stock photography in PhotoResearcher's Newsletter

PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE NEWS
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You'll be the first to know.

Note: If the URL is long, it may extend to two lines. In that case - clicking on it won't work. Instead, "copy and paste" the URL.

GOING, GOING, STILL GOING. Getty Images which recently put itself up for sale, has received no bids above its current $1.6 billion market cap, according to the New York Times. http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2008/02/11/getty-images-rpt-auction-finds-no-premium-bids/

SLOWING DOWN. Jupiters Images shows weak first quarter. http://www.abouttheimage.com/jupiter_posts_weak_1q07_stock_price_sags/

WHO’s LOOKING? Clarity Sought on Electronics Searches - The Electronic Frontier Foundationand Asian Law Caucus, two civil liberties groups in San Francisco, plan tofile a lawsuit to force the government to disclose its policies on border searches, including which rules govern the seizing and copying of the contents of electronic devices. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/06/AR2008020604763_pf.html

NOW THEY TELL US . Grand Theft Photo - Think embedding a watermark or circle-C into your pictures will prevent them from being stolen? Burch stopped doing that because it wasn't even a speed bump to the thieves. All they do is convert the JPEG to TIFF, then back to JPEG -- it removes the encrypted digitial watermark! http://www.popphoto.com/popularphotographyfeatures/5001/grand-theft-photo.html

MODEL RELEASE NOT NECESSARY. Dreamstime Launches Editorial License - Dreamstime has expanded its editorial license policy to accept non-model released and non-property released images that are directly pertinent to current events, news and political stories, and social and cultural scenes. http://www.stockphotographer.info/content/view/651/92/

FAREWELL . Three years ago, Adobe built a stock photo service into Creative Suite 2. No More Adobe Stock Photo Service - March 3, 2008, is the last day you can use the service to search for an image and download comps. March 31, 2008, is the last day to purchase images. http://www.creativepro.com/story/news/26369.html

CLONES? NO WAY! Photographer finds Flickr pics sold on iStockphoto - An Icelandic photographer has for a second time encountered the ugly side of Internet photo sharing, finding photos she published at Yahoo's Flickr site being sold by somebody else through Getty’s iStockphoto Web site. http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9867114-39.html?tag=bl

NO CLONES HERE, EITHER . No Two Alike? - Having made more than 7,000 pictures of snowflakes, Dr. Kenneth Libbrecht is in a pretty good position to say each one is unique. http://www.popphoto.com/photographynewswire/5099/no-two-alike.html

COLLECTOR’S ITEM . Like Polaroid film? Better start hoarding - Polaroid is getting out of the film business. http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9867913-39.html?tag=bl

 GETTY WATCH . Getty bid deadline passes, at least one offer - It was unclear how firm any offers were or whether they were for the whole or parts of Getty. http://www.reuters.com/article/innovationNews/idUSN0742341620080208

AHEAD OF THE BELL . Getty Images Shares Drop in Premarket Trading After News reports say that sale may not happen. Mastin upgraded shares to "Outperform" from "Market Perform," saying the Seattle-based company has a strong cash flow and increasing diversity. http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080211/getty_images_ahead_of_the_bell.html?.v=1

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