Multimedia advice

Photo manipulations and the stories behind them

Still hyped up after Edward Tufte’s conference, I have been reading a lot of his conversation threads on his site. One thread about photoshop manipulations led me off on an hour tangent looking at subtle to out-of-this-world alterations. We all know about the famous National Geographic pyramid alteration, but what about all of the lesser-known ethical slips? Let’s take a look at some examples and hear their stories as to why the image was altered and why nobody stopped them until it was too late.

Infamous Patrick Schneider of The Charlotte Observer was fired for altering a spot news image of a firefighter. Although he defended himself by stating that he was simply trying to correct the color due to under exposure, he was also suspended prior to this incident for another unethical edit. The paper published this statement in response to his image:

“Photographer Patrick Schneider’s photo depicted a Charlotte firefighter on a ladder, silhouetted by the light of the early morning sun. In the original photo, the sky in the photo was brownish-gray. Enhanced with photo-editing software, the sky became a deep red and the sun took on a more distinct halo. The Observer’s photo policy states: No colors will be altered from the original scene photographed.”

Source: “Newsaper photog fired for altering photo — again –,” PopPhoto

To play devil’s advocate, read this blog post defending him in response to NPPA rescinding three of Schneider’s Pictures of the Year awards.

“In our estimation, Mr. Schneider used the computer in order to enhance and make a better picture, he performed this to the best of his abilities and he certainly did not misrepresent anyone.”

I think Poynter’s Kenny Irby would have a heart attack if he read this post!

In 2004, Brigham Young University was facing allegations of altering sports images in their school publications. In one image, tattoos were digitally removed from basketball player Rafael Araujo’s arm (in contrast to this accurate image by photographer Dan Lund).

Associate athletic director for communications Duff Tittle admitted that images have been altered in the past stating, “We put forth the best image for the university.”

A similar incidence also occurred with a cross country runner whose face was placed on another runner’s body so that she could appear on the cover with her teammate.

“That isn’t my body … I don’t wear those spikes,” runner Lisa Antonelli said.

Source: “BYU says tattoos were not ‘erased,’” Deseret News

For more great resources of unethical examples of image manipulation, check out these great archives:

• Photo Tampering Throughout History
• Photoshop Disasters

So why are tattoos erased, pictures combined, and colors skewed? Although some might say that photoshop is to blame, I would have to disagree. Yes, photoshop is extremely powerful in it’s editing capabilities, but isn’t Final Cut Pro and Pro Tools just as good? Is it the pressure to get the best picture … the pressure to turn around a high-quality image for the tomorrow’s front page … or just the laziness to shoot it correctly while on scene?

We talked at length about photojournalism ethics during my Poynter fellowship and came to the agreement that basically any edits besides basic crops are unethical. UNC’s photojournalism professor Pat Davison argued that using “Smart Sharpen” with a radius of more than 1% was unethical. Apparently one thing is obvious — everyone has his/her own opinion about what is ethical versus what is going too far.

What standards do your news organizations use when editing photos from the field?

Other posts that might interest you:

• Broadcast journalism ethics need to change
• Multimedia programs for post production
• Transitioning from photography to multimedia

© 15 March 2009 Innovative Interactivity (II).