Fake Photos Dan Hyde at Lewisburg Photography Club Class Exercise Write a good but useful definition of a fake photo. Share your definition with a pair and discuss. A fake photo is July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 1 July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 2 History of Fake Photos Photographic alterations have existed about as long as photography itself, i.e., since early 1830s. William Henry Fox Talbot of England invented the photographic negative/positive process in 1835. By the 1840s, photographers were creative in the print process dodging (lighten) and burning (darken) portions. By the 1850s photographers were masterfully creating composites of several negatives. See Two Ways of Life by O. G. Rejlander taken in 1857 on next slide. July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 3 Two Ways of Life Photographed by O. G. Rejlander in 1857 Rejlander photographed each model and background section separately, yielding more than thirty negatives, which he meticulously combined into a single large print. July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 4 Famous Photo of Abe Lincoln Spirit Photos William Mumler was a Spirit Photographer of the 1860s and 1870s in Boston and New York at a time when many people believed in Spirituality. One of Mumler's most famous photographs apparently shows Mary Todd Lincoln with the "ghost" of her husband, Abraham Lincoln. His "spirit photos" from 1861 appear to be unusual double exposures. May have been done by sandwiching two negatives together. The above famous photo portrait of Abraham Lincoln has his head placed upon the photo of another politician, John C. Calhoun. The trickery is attributed to Thomas Hicks who was thought to have created this composite in the early to mid-1860s For more of this juicy story see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/william_h._mumler July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 5 July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 6
The Cottingley Fairies Erasing People from History Photo taken in 1917 by Elsie Wright, age 16, that shows her cousin Frances Griffiths, age 9, with the alleged fairies. In the early 1980s they admitted that the photos were faked, using cardboard cutouts of fairies copied from a popular children's book of the time. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cottingley_fairies July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 7 Adolf Hitler had Dr. Joseph Goebbels removed from this picture for reasons that are still unknown. Not only Hitler but Stalin and others have had photos altered to erase people from history. July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 8 Faking Film Photos Before digital photography, one could alter the negative, for example, Paint on the negative Scrape off the emulsion Sandwich several negatives Or alter the print in the darkroom. But before the digital age, such alterations required mastery of complex and timeconsuming darkroom techniques. Digital Age Fake Photos Today anyone with a modicum of computer skills can call on powerful and inexpensive software to alter digital images. I taught first-year college students how to do it using Photoshop. They had fun but learned the important lessons that it is easy to fake photos and, therefore, to be critical of images on the web and in the media. And as sophisticated forgeries appear with alarming frequency, people s belief in what they see in photos is being eroded! July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 9 July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 10 Easy to Manipulate Digital Images Since a digital image is stored as 3 integers for each pixel (picture element), it is easy for a computer program to manipulate the image. My Canon 80D has 6000 by 4000 pixels or 24 mega pixels. Use Photoshop to Remove Clutter Every digital camera has a special computer to adjust the image, e.g., for white balance, saturation, sharpness, etc. and for special effects (e.g., sepia tone). Today anyone with a modicum of computer skills can call on powerful and inexpensive software, e.g., Photoshop, to alter digital images. Rampant on the web! July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 11 July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 12
Use Photoshop to Clean Old Photos Manipulation vs. Deception Most digital photos are manipulated! In camera adjustments for white balance, saturation, sharpness, and other properties. By programs such as Lightroom and Photoshop Some photos are manipulated to a point that they lie or attempt to deceive the viewer. July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 13 July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 14 In this live video broadcast, the CBS emblem was digitally inserted during the New Year s Eve broadcast to conceal the NBC emblem on display in the background. Original On cover of Watch Magazine, owned by CBS Katie Couric, CBS News anchor at the time July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 15 This technique is widely employed during the broadcast of sporting events to display advertisements on billboards. And in football to display the line of scrimmage. July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 16 Cover of TV Guide in August 1989 of talk-show host Oprah Winfrey. This picture was created by splicing Winfrey s head onto body of actress Ann-Margret, taken from a 1979 publicity shot. The composition was created without permission of Winfrey or Ann-Margret, and was detected by Ann-Margret s fashion designer, who recognized the dress. This digital composite of Olympic ice skaters Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan appeared on the cover of New York Newsday in February 1994. The picture showed the rivals practicing together, shortly after an attack on Kerrigan by an associate of Harding s husband. But the skating practice never happened. July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 17 July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 18
This digitally altered photo of O.J. Simpson (right) appeared on the June 1994 cover of Time magazine shortly after Simpson s arrest on murder charges. A copy of the same mug shot appeared, unaltered, on Newsweek (left). Time was accused of manipulating the photo to make Simpson appear darker and menacing. They were called racists. July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 19 in Photojournalism This August 2006 photograph showed thick black smoke rising above the buildings in the Lebanese capital after an Israeli air raid. Adnan Hajj, a renowned photographer, has produced many such striking war photographs. However, he was accused of doctoring the image to exaggerate the impact of the Israeli shelling. He had deliberately added more and darker smoke. Reuters fired him and removed his photos from their archives (almost 1000 photos). July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 20 for Political Gain Famous altered photo of Leon Trotsky. After he ran afoul of the Communist Party in Russia, he was eliminated from photos where he mingled with other officials. The Soviets expertly painted over the negatives. for Political Gain This digital composite of Sen. John Kerry and ultra liberal Jane Fonda sharing a stage at an antiwar rally in the 1970s hurt Kerry in his 2004 race for the President. The event never happened. The photo of Kerry was taken in 1971. That of Fonda in 1972. July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 21 July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 22 for Personal Gain In 2005 Hwang Woo Suk, a South Korean professor, published a paper in one of the most prestigious scientific journals, Science, claiming ground breaking advances in stem-cell research. However, some deceptions are good! But at least 9 of the 11 uniquely tailored lines of stem cells that Hwang claimed to have made were fakes. Much of the evidence for these 9 lines of stem cells involved doctored photos. Since then a number of scholarly journals have implemented frauddetection procedures including using special software to detect digital image forgeries. National Geographic s editors require photographers to submit raw files. July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 23 July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 24
in Portraits for Art From ad for face enhancing software. Used by Wedding Photographers. July 19, 2018 25 July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 26 for Humor A fake photo is A Fake Photo July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 27 July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 28 How to Detect a fake Photo? Look for artifacts of an altered photo. Cloning - Parts artificially copied? Fuzziness around an edge? Lines not straight Missing reflections Is the lighting consistent? Do the shadows indicate one light source, say the sun? Check the eyes. Especially the specular highlights. Practice detecting flaws July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 29 July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 30
Practice Is this photo faked? Is this photo faked? The cast of TV show American Idol posed for this shot at different times. You can see it in their eyes literally. The white specks, or specular highlights, indicate the direction of the lighting. Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul [seated] were likely photographed together, while Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest [standing] each posed separately. July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 31 July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 32 Psychological Impact of Fake Photos Remember the photo of John Kerry standing with Jane Fonda? Days before the 2004 U.S. presidential elections, voters were asked for whom they would vote. Several mentioned that they could not get out of their mind the image of John Kerry and Jane Fonda at an anti-war rally. When reminded that the image was a fake, the voters responded I know, but I can t get the image out of my head. Psychology researchers picked on this and did careful studies with doctored images. The doctored images had a very real and lasting impact even though the participants were told later that the images were fake! Scary! Of course, politicians and advertising agencies took notice of this result and exploit it today. Fake images even after retracting the image and admitting they are fake may have a very real and lasting impact. Some people still believe them to be true! Our Responsibilities As photographers with special skills, we should be alert to frauds and call them out. When an image is manipulated beyond a basic manipulation such as adjusting the white balance, exposure or contrast, it should be stated as such. For example, if you have replaced a boring grey sky in an image, you should state Sky replaced with more appropriate one. July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 33 July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 34 Our Responsibility Truth in reporting. Truth of representation in images. Seek Truth and Report It. Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information. From Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics http:// www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp References on Detecting Fakes Articles by Professor Hany Farid at Dartmouth College, a leading expert in Photo Forensics and exposing digital forgeries. 1. Digital Doctoring: can we trust photographs? http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/downloads/publications/ deception09.pdf 2. Seeing is Not Believing: Doctoring digital photos is easy. Detecting it can be hard http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/seeing-is-notbelieving/ Article in BBC Future about Hany Farid s work http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170629-the-hidden-signsthat-can-reveal-if-a-photo-is-fake July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 35 July 19, 2018 Fake Photos by Dan Hyde 36