Digital Fakery

Media Studies 120Ms. White

Digital Truth

It is true that The National Geographic moved two of the Egyptian pyramids closer together on a cover, to fit the vertical format. And, yes, the cover photo on A Day in the Life of America was manipulated to move the cowboy closer to the moon, again to fit the format. Does that mean photographic truth is at an end? Who says it ever existed? Photographs have always been manipulated.

Fakes?

Photography has always been awarded a special status for truthfully recording the world. But that doesn't mean all photographs, all the time. Digital imaging may pose a serious challenge to traditional photographic technology — film, cameras, paper.

Easily done…

The problem is that with digital manipulation of photographic images so simple, a slippery slope is created where minor cleaning up of an image can easily lead to major changes. It is not easy to identify a point where truth is lost and the picture enters the realm of fiction.

National Geographic

The famous pyramids cover of National Geographic in 1982. National Geographic had a horizontal photo of the pyramids in Egypt and wanted to make a vertical cover from it. They put the photo in a computer and squeezed the pyramids together - a difficult task in real life but an easy

task for the computer.

Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated recently produced a special edition for Connecticut on the UConn National Championship basketball season. In one photo, they showed a star player, Ricky Moore, going up for a lay up with another player, Kevin Freeman, in the frame. They also used the same photo on the cover of the regular edition of the magazine, cropped tighter but with Kevin Freeman removed. I guess he cluttered up the cover, so he was expendable.

A Day in the Life of California

"A Day in the Life" series of books has a long history of manipulated covers. In A Day in the Life of California, for example, the photo was shot on a gray day as a horizontal. The hand came from another frame; the surfboard was moved closer to the surfer's head and the sky was made blue to match his eyes. They had about 30,000 images to pick from and could not find one that looked like California to them, so they had to create an image- an image of what they wanted California to look like.

Political Satire & Photo Manipulation

Real or Fake: Quiz

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_image_quiz.htm

Retouching

http://homepage.mac.com/gapodaca/digital/digital.html

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Freaking News

Freaking News is the top News Photoshop Pictures site on the web. Actual news stories fuel our Photoshop picture contests with scores of wacky doctored pictures. Members get cash for participating and winning the daily contests. Over 17,000 members in Photoshop picture contests. Or, simply view thousands of funny pictures. Updated daily. Featured in CNN, Salon, and LA Times.

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