Many altered photos, however, can be more serious than Cruise's fictitious turn towards sanity..
Some people may remember the scandal of Lcpl Boudreaux who was under investigation by the Marines because of the picture of two Iraqi children holding a sign saying “Lcpl Boudreaux killed my dad, then knocked up my sister”. Another version surfaced on the internet saying "Lcpl saved my dad, then rescued my sister". However, despite software able to detect fake photographs, they were unable to tell which, if any, of the photographs on the internet were real. The investigation was inconclusive and dropped, but not without Boudreaux's reputation being questioned and attacked in his local paper.
Altering pictures is not something new, or unique to digital photographs. Throughout history traditional photographs have been changed for many reasons. Many people alter photos for political and historical reasons. For example, many Russian photographs after the revolution have 'erased' traitors and those gone astray from the party. More recently, John Kerry was the victim of photo alteration that placed him at an anti-war rally in order to discredit him.
Other people alter photos in order to sell more newspapers and magazines. For instance, Time magazine made O J Simpson's face darker in order for him to appear sinister.
Also, New York Newsday used a digital composite of Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding on one of their covers.
As people have painted over, cropped and edited pictures in various fashions it has and always will be important to assess the validity of photos. It comes as no surprise that digital photographs would suffer the same manipulations as traditional photographs.
As forgers become more skilled, the software available to detect tampered photographs increases. The naked eye alone can no longer spot inconsistencies in the perspective, proportions and lighting of a photo as doctoring photos become more advanced. Cameras are being developed to make it very difficult to manipulate a photo without it leaving evidence.
People like Hany Farid, a Dartmouth College computer scientist, have created sophisticated programs which can detect changes in digital photographs. The problem with Farid's, and other software used to validate photographs, is that they require a high quality image file such as a RAW file that is often compressed and not available. However, the technology is thought to be good enough to catch all but the most advanced forgers.
People are often fooled by photographs believing them to be real. However, everyone, especially historians, should be critical of images as well as any other source. The danger is not new or increased, but must be treated with the same vigilance and skepticism historians have used in the past.
Can you spot the fake? ; )
