What I meant to say was that all photos have been altered in some way, but not all of them are faked, as in phony.
Just because an image has a Photoshop signature, it doesn’t mean that the image was altered to change the nature of the objects shown.
In the case of group shots with Obama, when I see odd-shaped shadows or shadows going in the opposite direction as compared to everyone else, or the lack of shadows when there should be, taking into account that his skin is dark and doesn’t reflect light as do whites, I begin to question the fidelity of the image. And it’s not just Obama that I’m examining.
First of all, I agree with the comment that Obama is holding a basketball with the lower half of the ball resting against his inside right thigh and held in place with his right arm (lower forearm, wrist, and hand).
Accurate observation, but not a sign of any alterations.
In that basketball photo, take a look at the shadow between the right arm of #12 (first row) and the guy sitting to his right. #12 clearly has his arm in front of the other guy, yet there appears to be a shadow that begins right above the index finger of his left hand, bends inward for about 21 pixels, cutting off a long chunk of #12’s upper arm and making it about as thick as his wrist, until it curves back out at the shoulder.
The guy look like Popeye on steroids.
The only way that could possibly happen, if at all, would be if the light source was located perpendicular to him from his left side, but clearly, the light is coming from above and slightly to the right of the players.
However, something else is off, and that’s the gradation of pixels that indicate the direction of the light source. Looking again at #12’s shadow, from top to bottom, the pixels range from light grey to dark grey instead of from dark grey to light grey, as in the other shadows.
Somebody edited this image at the pixel level, and to see what I’m talking about, you have to enlarge it 2000%.
Look at the guy sitting to Obama’s left. Look at his head from above the eyes to the top of the hairline. To get such an even pixel progression as shown on his forehead and hairline, his noggin would have to be a basketball, or some other equally circular object.
Now, here’s the deal about Photoshop. Photoshop is often used to crop and resize an image, and then save it for web display (72DPI). The Associated Press, who modifed this image, made a point of extensively filling in the IPTC information (different from Exif information which carries photo data) naming the source of the document, what the photo describes, and so on.
IPTC stands for “International Press Telecommunications Council,” and was developed in the early 1990s to expedite the international exchange of news among newspapers and news agencies. It is a file structure and set of metadata attributes that can be applied to text, images and other media types. It also is used to prevent copyright infringement, although the AP cannot copyright a photo taken from another source. The IPTC in this photo contains a caption, caption writer, headline, and special instructions.
Here’s their IPTC metadata:
OFFSET: 0x00000014
length = 1044
Identifier = [Photoshop 3.0]
8BIM: [0x0404] Name(0)=[] Len=[0x03DC]
IPTC [0x1C02:000] Record Version = [0x0002]
IPTC [0x1C02:005] Object Name = [AP Obama Profile]
IPTC [0x1C02:015] Category = [A ]
IPTC [0x1C02:020] SuppCategory = [ELN08]
IPTC [0x1C02:040] Special Instructions = [1977 PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE OAHUAN, THE YEARBOOK OF PUNAHOU SCHOOL. NO SALES. AP provides access to this publicly distributed HANDOUT photo to be used only to illustrate news reporting or commentary on the facts or events depicted in this image.]
IPTC [0x1C02:055] DateCreated = [20070324]
IPTC [0x1C02:085] By-line Title = [HO]
IPTC [0x1C02:090] City = [Honolulu]
IPTC [0x1C02:095] Province-State = [HI - Hawaii]
IPTC [0x1C02:101] CountryName = [USA - United States]
IPTC [0x1C02:103] OriginalTransmissionRef = [CHI0806031346181465]
IPTC [0x1C02:110] Credit = [Associated Press]
IPTC [0x1C02:115] Source = [OAHUAN, YEARBOOK OF PUNAHOU SCHO]
IPTC [0x1C02:105] Headline = [Barak “Barry” Obama]
IPTC [0x1C02:120] Caption-Abstract = [** FILE ** In this 1977 file photo provided by the The Oahuan, yearbook of Punahou School, Barack Obama, second row center, is seen with is junior varsity basketball team in this 1977 yearbook class photo in Honolulu. Obama loved basketball and as a forward dubbed “Barry O’Bomber,” he favored a left-handed double pump shot. During his senior year, the varsity team captured the state championship. (AP Photo/Punahoe Schools, File) ** NO SALES ** ORG XMIT: WX313]
IPTC [0x1C02:122] ? size=30
IPTC [0x1C02:130] ImageType = [ ]
8BIM: [0x03ED] Name(0)=[] Len=[0x0010]
One thing I do know for sure about the Associated Press is that they are totally in the tank for Obama. They are about as much in love with Obama as MSNBC. That being the case, I would put money on this photo looking differently than the original photo taken in 1977.
I’m troubled by the shadow on Obama’s left shoulder. You can see a definite line going from the base of his neck to his left (our right), sloping down slightly. None of the other people in the image have a shadow like this. The Obama image just doesn’t look like it belongs there.
I’ve spent many, many hours restoring old photographs using Photoshop. As you say, there are many legitimate things you can do to enhance an image without changing it’s meaning or content. But this one just ain’t right.