If you are like many people, you have most likely received a photo through email that seems either too beautiful or too unlikely to be true. While there are countless instances where a photographer can snap a surprisingly brilliant or uncanny photo, chances are good that the vast majority of the photos that you receive through email chains are created using photo editing techniques.
Many crafty Photoshop users can create unlikely photos in a matter of mere minutes. The end result will wow and amaze an unsuspecting group of friends or email recipients that happen to stumble upon the photos.
The possibilities of editing photos are limitless. Literally, you can create an image of a cow flying in the sky that looks as real as can be. However, from time to time, these photo editors will get caught sharing photos that they claim to have been real, but were really photoshopped.
For example, ever seen this fake photo of John Kerry and Jane Fonda? The photo of Kerry is original, but Jane Fonda was Photoshopped into the photo to create the appearance that the two were together at an anti-war reality.
And who can forget the incident in 2006 when Reuters published a Photoshopped image of a burning tire dumb and referred to it as the scene of an Israeli bombing (see below).
As a conscientious photo observer, it is important to be aware of the possibility that the photos in the email chains that you see or that photos that you see online are Photoshopped in an effort to make a political or social point.
For example, what do you think the purpose of Photoshopping the photo below could have been?
Perhaps to make a model look healthier? You might never know that this photo had been edited unless you'd been lucky enough to find the original.
How about this photo?
It might look like a true new species of catfish, but, really, it's a Photoshopped image of a shark and a cat.
Any time you get a photo in your email or view a photo online that looks just amazing or sensational to be true, it is highly likely that someone has spent some time in Photoshop creating that image. As in many things, when it comes to photos, seeing is not always believing.
