The History of Lying With Images 72
An article at The Verge discusses a new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art which traces the history of photo manipulation, starting in the mid-1800s. Early photographers used simple techniques like painting on their negatives or simply forming a composite image from many painstakingly framed shots. That period of time even had its own approximation of modern memes: "A large number of prints from that era — featuring decapitated subjects holding, juggling, or otherwise posing with their own heads — might be seen as the lolcats of their day, owing to an alluringly macabre and widespread fascination with parlour tricks and stage magic." However, lying with pictures really took off when business and government figured out how effective it could be as a tool for propaganda. The exhibit has many examples, such as President Ulysses S. Grant's head superimposed onto a soldier's body and a different background, or another of Joseph Goebbels removed from a photo of a party. The article likens these manipulations to more recent situations like the faked pictures of Osama Bin Laden's corpse, and often-hilarious altered ads featured on Photoshop Disasters. The article ends with a quote from photographer Jerry Uelsmann: "Let us not delude ourselves by the seemingly scientific nature of the darkroom ritual. It has been and always will be a form of alchemy."
Nothing new (Score:1)
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We do have a remarkable propensity for trying to mislead one another don't we?
It's like the species, collectively, is a pathological liar.
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But lying within the species is not a benefit to the species as a whole, hence, the species is a pathological liar (in my view).
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But lying within the species is not a benefit to the species as a whole
And what makes you think that? Or that vague "benefit to the species" is any sort of relevant characteristic?
Re:Amoral Assholes. (Score:2)
Your mileage may vary.
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It's like the species, collectively, is a pathological liar.
Sadly, Mr. Data wasn't until Number One explained about bluffing in poker. It was all downhill after that.
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We do have a remarkable propensity for trying to mislead one another don't we?
It's like the species, collectively, is a pathological liar.
Survival instinct + intelligence = interesting maneuvers.
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Of course tests can be culturally biased. Imagine giving a test written in England with UK idioms to kids from Montana. They aren't going to know what those idioms mean. That's the problem.
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The tests are culturally biased but on average asian people score over 10% higher than white people, while blacks score over 10% lower.
I'm bringing this up because I'll bet over half of slashdotters can't have a rational discussion on these facts.
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Of course tests can be culturally biased. Imagine giving a test written in England with UK idioms to kids from Montana. They aren't going to know what those idioms mean. That's the problem.
But the Blacks in question aren't from another country (despite their insistence in being called "African-Americans"- exactly where is "Africa-America"??)- they are from the same country and therefore should know the same stuff.
The Late Scott Mutter's Photomontages Ruled! (Score:5, Interesting)
Scott Mutter: A More Perfect World [photographymuseum.com]. Before there was Photoshop, there was Scott Mutter's Surrational World [iwantcrayons.com]!
You want lying with images? (Score:2, Insightful)
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Scummiest? There's SEO, insurance, used car sales, telecoms, social media, curated computing...real estate might not be in the top 20.
Uelsmann (Score:3)
10th Post (Score:1)
Pics or it didn't happen.
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Pics or it didn't happen.
I wonder if we'll ever get to the point that faking is so good that it can't be detected. (I wouldn't be surprised if spy agencies can already fake them so good that no one else can detect it.)
Think of the implications for creating political scandals, or for getting "undesirables" thrown in prison.
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Pics or it didn't happen.
On the other hand, "Pics and it probably didn't happen" actually does work. :)
The timing is seems to be pretty good for ... (Score:3)
We Photoshoppers... (Score:2)
have been around for AGES.
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You made this up, right?
The begining of Photoshop lies in the late 80s. You're not saying 25 years or so, is "AGES", as you put it. Are you?
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Photoshoppers in spirit sir!
mod up anonymous parent post (Score:1)
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Sir, you are implying that I cannot photoshop with the Gimp.
I CAN most definitely photoshop with the Gimp. I can do a better job of photoshopping with the Gimp than most persons can do with Photoshop. And I can always do it at less cost.
You are most definitely wrong, Sir. Photoshop is entirely unnecessary for photoshopping.
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And I'm sure most people can easily gimp an image with Photoshop. Otherwise, sites like Photoshop Disasters wouldn't exist.
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I have great respect for national security, and I know I may have harshly ridiculed a likely candidate for Mother of the Year, but I figure it fair enough to retort theater with theater, especially since I became a terrorist for my interest in Ron Paul [slashdot.org] and very little of much of anything makes much since since.
I go way back (Score:4, Funny)
The healing brush was a razor and skill. And jeez were gradient fills slow.
Any Cottingley Fairies ? (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Sadly the Moon Landing was not included (Score:5, Funny)
How do you know they didn't send men to the moon to create fake photos of a studio? It goes that deep. That's what she said.
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How do you know they didn't send men to the moon to create fake photos of a studio? It goes that deep. That's what she said.
Yup. The hard part was getting that giant wind machine up there to make the flag flutter.
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I thought the special effects were most amazing when Commander David Scott dropped the feather and the hammer.
That fooled everyone.
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They sent up huge tanks of helium as a gas for the wind machine to save weight, that's why it's so scarce now.
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In Soviet Russia thing airbrushed out of photo is YOU!
Any women's magazine cover will show you (Score:3, Informative)
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Pretty sure it's the case with all magazines.
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Also the pictures on containers of food at the supermarket often look better than the contents, and those on menus better than the served dishes. Strange, no?
Manipulation just one part of the problem (Score:3)
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Any politician knows you don't need a camera to lie.
Yeah, but it is harder to tell with a camera because you can't see its lips moving.
Headline is lying... (Score:3)
Of course, photos can be manipulated to deceive as well; it's all a matter of intent.
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Artists and sculpturers have been manipulating images for thousands of years
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Photography is an art; and unless you are claiming to be doing photojournalism, where accuracy is important, adjusting an image to capture what you want to convey is part of the process.
Above is true but does not go far enough, it is not the whole truth. Even in photojournalism and perfectly accurate photos, images can and should be composed in the viewfinder and diddled as needed in processing to best convey what the photographer feels is important.
The only truly accurate photos are the forensic ones taken at crime scenes, those of OR-7 when he trips a shutter release during his search for a girl friend, and those from the security cameras at your favorite store. Oh, some scientific phot
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Photographers? Talk about painters.
In the tomb of a Pharaoh (I think it was Rameses II), some of the painting was about his "crushing victory" in Qadesh. Turns out the "crushing victory" consisted in avoiding being crushed himself.
As long as there is a way to transmit information, there is a way of lying. News at 11.
One good book (Score:4, Informative)
about this subject (historical propaganda retouching) is titled "The Commisar Vanishes". New copies are a bit pricey but lots of example photo pairs are online.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Commissar-Vanishes-Falsification-Photographs/dp/0805052941 [amazon.com]
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If I had mod points, I'd mod this post up
Well, /. has to get better at it :) (Score:2)
(cringe)
History changed (Score:2)
JFK - the movie (Score:2)
Moon landing hoax believers probably jumped in number after "Capricorn One".