The Effects of Technology on News Photography

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The Effects of Technology on News Photography

• October 24, 2002

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Test Time

• Can you tell which photographs are real and which
  are fake?
  
• www.fakeorfoto.com/quiz.html

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So how do they do this?

• More technology Easier manipulation
• Software is affordable, easy, and fast.
• The most popular software is Adobe Photoshop.

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Adobe Photoshop

• Photoshop is used for Web graphics, visual
  effects and print illustration.
  
• Color correction
• Flaw removal
• Advanced cropping tools
• It rips through complex tasks with impressive
  dexterity and speed. Dallas Morning News

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Michael Elins
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Manipulation for News

• Multiple instances exist where photography in a
  hard news medium has seen its content digitally
  altered.
  
• National Geographics 1982 cover of the Giza
  pyramids
  
• New York Newsdays 1994 cover of Tonya Harding
  and Nancy Kerrigan
  
• Newsweeks 1997 cover of Bobbi McCaughey

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What do these alterations do?

• Does the photographs meaning change?
• Will readers lose trust?
• Is the effect of journalistic photography lost?

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The Associated Presss Opinion

• The only manipulation that occurs is technical
• darken and lightening a print
• cleaning up dust spots
• Image is seen more clearly
• The content of a photograph will never be
  changed or manipulated in any way.

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More Ethical Issues

• Minimize bias

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What about this?
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Whats the difference?

• News photography vs. feature and entertainment
  photography
  
• Less serious context makes it easier to
  manipulate
  
• Current events vs. consumers

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Manipulation for Features

• Newsweek used a composited image of two star
  actors, Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise.

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Manipulation for Entertainment
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Example

• TV Guide used a zipper head alteration, placing
  one persons head upon anothers body, in a 1989
  issue, placing Oprah Winfreys head on actress
  Ann Margrets body.

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Example

• 1989 cover photograph of Don Johnson.

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Entertainment (contd.)

• No controversy with fashion magazines
• Remove wrinkles, blemishes, etc.
• Elongate limbs
• Magically shed pounds
• The changing face of beauty

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Magazine Covers
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What did these alterations do?

• Are manipulations passed off as reality?
• Simone

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Manipulation for Art

• Artists have always had the capability to
  rearrange reality.
  
• Painting
• Photography

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Jerry Uelsmann
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What do these alterations do?

• Is there a limit to artistic license?
• Should rules be developed and applied?
• Darkroom
• Computer

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How does this all relate?

• The danger in using digital manipulation arises
  when the line between different forms of media
  blurs.
  
• News
• Entertainment
• Fashion
• Art
• Does a photograph carry the same weight across
  mediums and time?

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• Technologys ability to change images into
  electronic information has destroyed the
  photograph as a reliable record of reality.