Reuters admitting photo alteration
Reuters Group plc is a news service that provides reports from around the world to newspapers and broadcasters. In August 2006 they were accused of bias against Israel in its coverage of the Israel-Lebanon conflict because they used doctored photos taken by a Lebanese freelance photographer.
One of the photographs in question showed two very heavy plumes of black smoke billowing from buildings in Beirut after an Air Force attack on the Lebanese capital. American blogs immediately saw evidence of what can only be described as a really ugly photoshop job.
Why Reuters failed to notice any tampering I’m not sure but they eventually withdrew the photograph from their website, along a message admitting that the image was distorted, and an apology to editors. They also severed all ties with Adnan Hajj, the photographer responsible for the alterations.
I’m pretty sure that there wasn’t any intention of propaganda on Reuters part and perhaps the photographer was just trying to provide the best image he could in the fast paced, hyper-competitive world of freelance news photography.
There was obviously uproar over this whole situation with people demanding that we must be able to trust the images that we see in our news coverage otherwise the credibility of that coverage will suffer. But I think the way that the news is written can be open to just as much creative editing in my opinion. I guess what really suprised me the most about this image is just how bad a job the photographer made of it. What’s even more shocking is the potential that there could be a million more images out there that have gone undetected.
Image Fiddling
This blog will focus primarily on my experiences of digital photographic retouching as a profession. Over time I intend to explore the various different styles of retouching and the many different techniques used to produce professional results. But before I get started on all that stuff I want to share a little history with you.
If you’re at all interested in image editing I think it’s important to know a little about where it all started.
HISTORY
Image editing has been around for a very long time. Many years ago traditional photo editing was known as photo retouching and was performed by extremely skilled individuals. They used various darkroom techniques to allow them to alter images such as double-exposure, piecing photos or negatives together, dodging and burning and scratching polaroids. But there’s only so much that these techniques could accomplish. Significantly modifying an image involved actually painting onto the photographs or negatives with ink or paint using an airbrush. Even though tools such as the airbrush are no longer used for photo retouching you’ll still hear a lot of people use the term ‘airbrushing’ to describe digital retouching.
The 1980s saw the advent of digital retouching and consequently a lot of the old techniques became obsolete. The late 1980s saw the first appearance of Adobe Photoshop running on the Apple Macintosh and traditional photo retouching largely became a thing of the past. Photoshop is seen by many as a digital dark room and many of the traditional techniques such as dodging and burning remain.
The way that images are edited now has changed somewhat from a few years back, but the reasons for editing an image remain pretty much the same.
WHY EDIT?
The main reason for editing or altering existing imagery is to improve the image beyond what was capable when the shot was taken with a camera. This can include a number of adjustments such as simple colour or perspective correction, changing brightness and contrast, hue and saturation as well as the removal of scratches, dust or blemishes to more drastic changes such as the removal of distracting elements to draw focus to the subject, improving overall composition or merging one or more individual images into a single file.
The are many reasons why an image is edited. The changes made will usually result in an improvement. Practically every image you see in todays popular media culture has had some work done to it. Movie stars, musicians, fashion models and the world of advertising are all heavily focused on image and the better that image can be made to look means the more power it has in delivering a message.
But now also consider how it would be possible for a Holiday company to alter imagery of your possible holiday destination. Imagery is used to sell either a product, a service or an idea, but when those images are altered to a point where they are no longer representative and are no longer a truthful depiction there can be repercussions.
There’s been a lot of controversy over the years about what is acceptable and how far you should go with image editing. The moral repercussions of deceiving the general public into believing what they see is a troublesome topic and I’ll tell you about some of the more well known cases over the next few weeks.
Share Everything You Know
Good image retouching comes from keen observation, acute attention to detail and most of all… realism. Knowing someone else’s technique and approach won’t reproduce their results.
So don’t be afraid to share what you know with others. People who refuse to share ideas or techniques are usually the least experienced and unprofessional people of all. They feel compelled to protect what they know as they feel it gives them a significant competitive advantage. It doesn’t.
Knowledge alone isn’t enough.
It’s the ability to know when and why to use certain techniques that you should focus on, not the fact that you’ve acquired the knowledge.
It’s the actual process that will determine your outcome. This is where all of your energy and focus should lie. So share everything you know and learn from others, but then apply that knowledge.
Work to the best of your ability… Then you’ll gain a significant competitive advantage.
Welcome
This is my blog about retouching.
I’m not too sure what specifically I’m going to write about here or how it will develop and evolve over time, but it should be interesting. If nothing else, it will eventually serve as a useful resource for me; full of tips and tricks and detailed accounts of any new techniques that I learn along the way. I’ll include links to anything that I find interesting or relevant, I’ll probably include some examples and screen shots and stuff. Hopefully in time, other people will find it useful as well.
So let’s get started shall we?
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