Digital Photos & Honesty

Digital Photography and Honesty

By Christopher G. Mendla
August 2005

At some point in the near future it may become impossible to know exactly how your ancestors looked. The image manipulation tools available today allow unbelievable transformations of photographs.

I was in a professional photographer's studio and overhead a discussion about wedding photos. Apparently one of the photos was almost perfect except that one bridesmaid had her eyes shut. The solution: "Just take the eyes from the other photo"

If you have a picture of yourself and your posterior is a little too ample, no problem, just use the cloning brush to move the background in a little and viola, you just lost about 5 pounds.

The same thing can apply to commercial photography. A bed and breakfast with a hideous building for a neighbor can be edited to remove the background. Was there a piece of siding missing from a recent storm? No problem, just copy and paste some of the intact siding. As an aside, We've found Google Maps to be a good resource when planning trips. If the B&B is located in an area with high resolution photographs you can get a pretty good idea of the type of neighborhood where it is located.

Manipulation can occur with major news services as well. There was a case where a photographer altered an image to make it appear that there were more people present that were actually there. He was caught and subsequently fired. Real estate agents and appraisers have a code of ethics regarding the manipulation of images that they need to follow.

So, when you come across a 'genuine' photo of Elvis, Bigfoot, an alien and Jimmy Hoffa posing for a picture you might want to question it. On the other hand, when your grandkids are looking at your picture a couple of decades from now they might be wondering.." I thought grandpop was short, overweight and bald"

Editorials Menu:

Legal Disclaimer: All information on this site is provided as-is and without warranty. Rates are subject to change without notice. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. You may link to any page in this site, but you may not frame the content. Use of this site implies agreement to these terms. For more information, please see our policies About us: CGM Systems, Inc. is located in Southampton, Pennsylvania. We provide consulting services in the Greater Philadelphia area including Bucks County and Montgomery County. Some services such as website design are provided nationally. Some of the communities that we serve include: Upper Southampton, Lower Southampton, Trevose, Feasterville, Bensalem, Newtown, Doylestown, Richboro, Holland, Warminster, Huntingdon Valley, Morrisville, Yardley, New Hope, Solebury, Middleton, Oxford Valley, Neshaminy, Ivyland, Willow Grove, Bristol, Lahaska and more!