Image ManipulationReference

Ethical issues

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What is the problem?

There are times when manipulating digital photographs to change them (so that they look different), rather than manipulating them to improve their quality (so that they look better), causes ethical issues.

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Historical image manipulation3

Nikolai Yezhov was chief of the Soviet secret police in the 1930’s. In the photograph on the left he can be seen walking with Joseph Stalin. Stalin eventually began to see Yezhov as a threat and had him executed, labeling him an "enemy of the people". In the modified photograph (right) it is as though Yezhov had never existed.

Quick Scenario 1

These photographs show images of a house for sale that was modified for marketing purposes. The unmodified image on the left clearly shows power lines that have been removed in the picture on the right. Has anything else been modified? Were cars in the street removed? Is the blue sky even real?

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Quick Scenario 2 - alternative

This person really liked her photograph, except that she thought the image was too dark. She asked a studio to fix up the brightness for her. The photo will be for her own personal use.

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Quick Situation 3

Actress Lindsay Lohan has freckles all over her face in the photo on the right. They were removed before the photo was used in a magazine advertisement. Lindsay gave her permission for this to happen. This is usually expected as part of being an actor/actress.

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Quick Scenario 4a

The world-famous fashion designer ‘Donna Karan’ decided to use her runway photos for an advertising campaign. The picture on the left is the advertisement, but the picture on the right is the actual runway photo. The advertisement shows model Toni Garrn’s head on the body of Anya Kazakova.

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Quick Scenario 4b 8

Quick Scenario 5

CBS news reader Katie Couric was being promoted on their website with the photo to the left. Four months later the same photo was used, but touched up considerably, in CBS's Watch! magazine and she looks to have lost 10 kilograms. Couric did not know about the image manipulation, but laughed when she found out.

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Quick Scenario 6

A customer wanted a few people removed from this photo. The graphics studio digitally erased the five "offenders" and created a new arm for the girl on the left which wasn't visible before. The final image was cropped and the customer gets a much less crowded photo with their favourite celebrity.

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What is Ethics?• Ethics generally refers to principles that reveal the values of a

society —guidelines for members of society to treat each other fairly according to accepted ideals. Ethics can be different depending on the point of view of the individual or a group of people in that society.

• Ethics in image manipulation, usually is about the trustworthiness of an image, and the right or wrong or fairness of a manipulation that might

– upset a person viewing the image – disadvantage someone– distort the truth– cause legal problems

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Intent 1Intent refers to the reasons that images are manipulated.

Why is an image being manipulated? – is it to improve it’s quality? or – is it to change it so that it is no longer trustworthy? – is it for fun or education?– to make money?– malicious intent (deliberately bad, nasty or harmful)

Consider• What is the difference between an image manipulation that is OK and

an image manipulation that is NOT OK?

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IssuesSocial– Will people in the image get angry when they see the manipulation?– Will the manipulation damage anyone’s reputation?

Legal– Is it a police crime scene photo to be used for evidence in court? – Is it a photo to be printed in a newspaper?– Is it a copyrighted image? Permission from the image owner?

Ethical– Does the image show people doing things that they didn’t do?– Does the image manipulation deliberately intend to deceive viewers?– Would the image ‘trick’ a viewer into believing something happened?

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Situation 1

A major television show (Master Chef) found that they had fewer peoplearrive to be the audience on the show that they expected. The televisioncompany is concerned about this and so had a photograph of the audiencemanipulated, by cloning duplicates of the existing people in the photograph,to make it look as if hundreds of people arrived for the show. They thenused this manipulated photo to advertise the popularity of the show.

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Situation 1 - DiscussionWhat image manipulation has been done?Parts of the image showing the people attending the show, have been cloned to make it look like there are more people.

What was the intent behind the manipulation? To mislead people who see the image, so they think that the show was more popular than it actually was. The people in the image knew that they were being photographed. They did not know that they would be duplicated to appear in the photograph in more than one location at the same time to make it look like they were part of a large crowd.

What issues are involved? LEGAL ISSUES, ETHICAL ISSUESTo deceive people about the truth in an advertisement is wrong and legally can be declared false advertising.

Conclusion: NOT OK

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Situation 2A graphic artist has some fun with a celebrity. They deliberately manipulate an image to make the celebrity look ‘unattractive’. The image will be uploaded to the internet for anyone to see.

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Situation 2 - DiscussionWhat image manipulation has been done?Someone has changed the picture of Brad Pitt, a well-known actor, to make him look as though he gained a lot of weight.

What was the intent behind the manipulation? To deceive viewers into thinking that he has put on weight and now looks unattractive. Intent was not malicious, just for ‘artistic’ fun, to make a joke.

What issues are involved? SOCIAL ISSUESMaybe harmful to the actor’s image, but in not really serious because everyone knows the celebrity does not look like that in real life. Most viewers would know that it is a “faked” image.

Conclusion: OK

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Situation 3A person appears on the cover of a popular snow skiing magazine. The person was never actually on the cover. It is a ‘fake’.

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Situation 3 - DiscussionWhat image manipulation has been done?A person has been faked onto the cover of a real magazine.

What was the intent behind the manipulation? Tourist souvenir ‘fake’ magazine cover to deceive the viewer into thinking that the person is a real skier was on the cover of a popular ski magazine. It is however not malicious. Permissions given to use the cover by the magazine owner. There is no intention to harm anyone or breach copyright. It is for private use only.

What issues are involved? NONEThere is no real ethical issue, as the people taking the picture and the people in the photo know that this is a fake souvenir, just for artistic fun.

Conclusion: OK

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Situation 4A young woman has a favourite photo and wants to send a copy to her mother. She knows that her mother does not like the boyfriend and so the woman wants the photo manipulated to remove the boyfriend, so that her mother will be pleased with the photo.

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Situation 4 - DiscussionWhat image manipulation has been done?A person has been removed from the photograph.

What was the intent behind the manipulation? To make a viewer see only the girl and the dog. Intention to deceive. It is not malicious; however someone has changed the truth.

What issues are involved? SOCIAL ISSUESIt misleads the viewer and therefore distorts the truth. It is ethically acceptable, to remove someone from a picture (without them knowing) because it is for personal use, and not a public viewing. No one will be upset or hurt.

Conclusion: OK

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Situation 5 – part 1They were hired for their beauty, but actor Julia Roberts and model Christy Turlington weren’t beautiful enough for L’Oreal.

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See text next slide

Situation 5 – part 1Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority banned the advertising because of complaints that it was misleading.

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Situation 5 - DiscussionWhat image manipulation has been done?Someone has done excessive re-touching on the skin and shadow

What was the intent behind the manipulation? The intent was to ‘improve’ the skin of the model’s face to make it appear more flawless and thereby create a false impression of the usefulness of a cosmetic product. L’Oreal claim to have manipulated the image to “lighten the skin, reduce dark shadows, smooth the lips and darken the eyebrows”

What issues are involved? LEGAL, SOCIAL & ETHICAL ISSUESIt misleads the consumers into thinking the product is better than what it really is. Viewers might believe that the product has the ability to make the skin flawless, but it does not.

Conclusion: NOT OK

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But what about this?25

Ethical Guidelines• From these discussions, in groups of between two and four,

complete the Ethical Guidelines handout.

• Put today's date on it and the names of the other students in your group.

• This activity cannot be completed alone. You must consult and discuss your choices with other students.

• Finally, the Ethical Guidelines sheet must be submitted, together with Part 1 and Part 2 (Ethics Situations) to your teacher or tutor at the end of the class.

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