Another Photographer fired for altering images

[R Hardman]

Saw this on CNN. Can't blame them for firing him. He did a really bad job altering his images. http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/08/07/reuters.photog.reut/index.html

[theflyingkiwi]

that's really interesting. I have been unable to view the video as I am work. However I don't blame them for the action that they are taking. They are in the business of reporting the news as it is. Not as they wont it to be.

However in saying that I wonder how offen they crop a photo to remove something that they think shouldn't be there, which can in effect change the meaning of an image?

[Jon Foster]

I just read about it on Fox News too...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,207352,00.html

Jon.

[sando]

Hajj told Reuters he was trying to remove dust marks from the photograph.

Dust that would be visible on that image? I think not.

He souldnt be fired for altering the images if it were true that he was removing dust... he should be shot for blatant dodgy use of clone-stamp! ;)

[nation]

Sounds reasonable to me. He's a PJ there to report on the facts not use PS to come up with his own fantasies.

[JayKitty]

haha he really did do a terrible job at doing that. looks like he clone stamped a few dozen times

[jpvaz]

... he really did do a terrible job at doing that...

I have to agree with you.... i'm no photoshop expert but i belive even i could have done it better... Well, he got what he deserved!!!

"If you play with fire, you will eventualy get burned!!"

[Tom W]

This particular photographer has several instances where he has "staged" incidents in relation to the Israel/Lebonon situation, including the use of the same characters in at least 3 incidents in which the same young girl was classified as dead, injured, and being loaded into an ambulance. It was pretty obvious that this particular reporter had a strong bias in this situation.

Lots of this going around in the mainstream media, unfortunately. Seems that they want to "create" the story instead of just reporting it.

[Doom1701e]

What crappy editing in that CNN pic. What was that guy using, Microsoft Paint?

[Carzee]

Its a safe thing to assume everyone is trying to sell a POV.

Thats my POV anyway.

Did you buy it?

[theflyingkiwi]

yep, 100% of it. well almost anyway. Everyone has a POV. Strange as it seems there are some out there that do try and bring out information with having a POV. the main problem is they are normaly hidden by those with their own POV. Or the content is edited with someone else POV.

Unless you consider yourself an artist and then your art is your POV.

[RTMiller]

Here is a link to the article...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13165165/

This guy has some pretty poor cloning skills. Totally unneccessary on his part.
Now it would have been a much better picture if he cloned in a couple of Israeli jets.;)

[Longwatcher]

The CNN article has more background.
It was no accident as he has also apparently added flares to an Israeli Jet in another picture.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/08/07/reuters.photog.reut/index.html

Personally I would use PS CS2's spot heal tool to remove dust spots not the clone tool. He would have to have PS 6 or earlier to not have at least the heal tool.

[PacAce]

They should have fired the editor, too. The cloning is so obvous I'm surprised the editor didn't catch it before it was ever published. :confused:

[UncleDoug]

They should have fired the editor, too. The cloning is so obvous I'm surprised the editor didn't catch it before it was ever published. :confused:

Second this motion!

"There is no graver breach of Reuters standards for our photographers than the deliberate manipulation of an image,"

That about says it.

[Hellashot]

And what was done to the image really didn't add much - a pointless edit.

[Duder]

that's laughably bad.

[espressomaker]

I thought it was hilarious that the photographer's supposed excuse was that he was removing dust spots. From a picture of smoke!! Does he think everyone else is an idiot or what?

[PuR HART]

dude that guy sux's i wonder if they are hiring for a photoshopper:)

[12345Michael54321]

With regard to the other image that Hajj manipulated, to show an Israeli fighter jet dropping 3 flares, instead of 1 - was that done to remove dust spots, too?

[mpilar]

That image was so blatantly edited that it could almost make you wonder...did Reuters completely go to sleep when he submitted it, or did they allow it intentionally?

Oh well, either way, I guess fewer people will be paying attention to photos coming out of Lebanon now...I wonder if this will have any repercussions in the rest of the pj community...

[SuzyView]

That is really sad, both the story and the retouching.

[neil_r]

We could give him the benefit of the doubt and put his poor technique down to the fact that he was cloning under fire;)

[mpilar]

LMAO!

While my PS techniques aren't the best, I guess they would probably suffer even more with the added 'stimulation' of exploding ordinance.

A valid point I think Neil. :)

[deadpass]

What I found interesting was the description of the second doctored pic, one of an f-16

"had also been doctored to increase the number of flares dropped by the plane from one to three."

Now why is it worth losing your job over adding two flares? seriously now.

[mpilar]

Yeah, that picture's on the web as well...doctored about as good as this one....ok, maybe a 'tad' better, the copy/paste was much cleaner than the copy/paste of the buildings in the smoke pic. Oh well, not bringing politics into this, but something smells a little 'fishy' here, I just can't buy that a photog working for Reuters is this bad at photoshop, although anything's possible.

Maybe it's time to put together a portfolio and send it to Reuters...if they're really this blind, I'll make a killing. :lol:

[AirBrontosaurus]

Wow. What a joke.

That guy must really want me to punch him in the face. Seriously; you're a photojournalist. Your job is to report the news... not to make it. People are dying and all you can think about is adding more smoke to further your own "career" as an unbiased source for reporting the news?

Things like this are why I can't believe half the stuff on the TV anymore. If it isn't a political bias or a gross misrepresentation of available data, it's a photog doctoring an image to change the meaning of a shot.

[primoz]

When working for photo agency your PS ability is not top priority. All PJ work including sport, which I shoot most, need extremely little PS work. Actually it's preffered to do as little as possible in pp. And if this is all you do, you don't have any need for some extreme, or at least above average, PS knowleadge. Only tools I use for this thing are crop, levels or curves and if really necessary healing brush for removing dust (not the way he "tried to remove dust" ;) ). That's pretty much it.
When you are in commercial photography things are different, but even there photographers don't do PS. They have people who do this and who actually know a lot more then any photographer would ever know about PS. Afterall... photographers photograph, and pp is someone elses job.

[enigma]

Man, did you guys really LOOK at the manipulated picture?

Apart from the obvious moral issues, it amazes how bad the PP was. I mean, if you're trying to deceive an entire world...

Mixed thoughts, not to take particularly seriously:
Maybe they guy is one of those who wants to get caught? You know, like a gambler (or substance abuser) who tries to quit but cannot... in the end he does something...anything.... to get caught, to get the attention he needs to stop a behavior that is slowly destroying his life.

What am I talking about? I'm not a shrink! I just like to play with pictures. By the way, there is blog about post processing and image manipulation appearing shortly on my website. I'll let you know when it's up.

Happy shooting!

[12345Michael54321]

Things like this are why I can't believe half the stuff on the TV anymore. If it isn't a political bias or a gross misrepresentation of available data, it's a photog doctoring an image to change the meaning of a shot.
I hear you, but it's not like it's really an "anymore" thing - bias has been a part of news reporting for...well, probably pretty much for as long as there've been formal news organizations.

If anything, the news reporting of 50 or 100 years ago was more politically biased than today's reporting - honest, go read about William Randolph Hearst, if you doubt this. Or examine the difference in reporting between the pro- and anti-**** news organizations in the US, in the years leading up to our involvement in WWII. Or look at how various "opponents of Communism" in positions of authority at various news organizations, outrageously slanted their coverage of all manner of stories during the 1950s. Reporting on the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War was similarly biased according to certain people's social and political beliefs. Reporters were told to emphasize certain points, and ignore others. Photos were run completely out of context, or in some cases manipulated in the darkroom so as to better illustrate one point of view.

The idea that news organizations should be neutral - should essentially be pipelines through which facts flow, with no bias, editing, or editorial slant - may or may not have some merit. But one thing it doesn't have is much historical reality.

[Titus213]

Hey, he was just removing dust from the image. Give the guy a break. He's a photographer, not a Photoshop guru (obviously). Political agenda? How could you even begin to think any such thing?

[CyberDyneSystems]

You may want to read the articles a little closer,. the one example in the first link does not tell the whole story.
There's no way you can attribute what he did to "removing dust"

[AirBrontosaurus]

Hey, he was just removing dust from the image. Give the guy a break. He's a photographer, not a Photoshop guru (obviously). Political agenda? How could you even begin to think any such thing?

I sincerely hope you're being sarcastic...

[kram]

I dont know how many of you read about the Reuters freelance photographer getting his images pulled down by Reuters. Was browsing yahoo and came across this comparison of the original vs 'touched-up' images....

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060808/481/287156ce9f3d4ed3a406935a6a231ea8

I think the PJ should have been fired for just the quality of the 'touchup' first :)

[Tsmith]

poor chap must've just discovered the clone stamp tool.

[Epluim]

I was looking through a bunch of these with a friend and though the exact same thing!How did he expect to get away with this??

[Tom W]

I was looking through a bunch of these with a friend and though the exact same thing!How did he expect to get away with this??

Not just him getting away with it - how did Reuters' editors expect to get away with this? It reflects poorly on the news industry when blatent bias shows through like this.

[BeccaNH]

He should have left it alone. The original was much better! Not to mention that I would have expected a professional to have better photoshop skills than THAT!

[markyb]

they dont even look the same photos. look at the buildings in the bottom left corner. not even in the same place

[Jeece]

I was looking through a bunch of these with a friend and though the exact same thing!How did he expect to get away with this??

Exactly... What puzzles me more is that the guy tought: "Hmmm, this retouched photo looks great. Doesn't look manipulated in any way. I'll submit it, nobody will tell the difference." :confused:

they dont even look the same photos. look at the buildings in the bottom left corner. not even in the same place

I think it has been cropped a bit.

[Titus213]

I sincerely hope you're being sarcastic...

I was trying to be. I can't imagine anyone being that bad with Photoshop.

[SoaringUSAEagle]

Okay...

What the heck is the point of moving buildings and adding more smoke in the sky????

That guy deserves what he got.

Some people.

[mpilar]

Okay...

What the heck is the point of moving buildings and adding more smoke in the sky????

That guy deserves what he got.

Some people.
Now that is the million dollar question...there was already plenty of smoke and copy/pasting buildings when there were plenty there seems a little odd doesn't it? Too bad, now most images coming from Lebanon are going to be dismissed because of the worst photoshopper in the world. :rolleyes:

[fi20100]

Funny... the guy defenitly needed somre more PS skills :)

-Fi20100

[AirBrontosaurus]

I was trying to be. I can't imagine anyone being that bad with Photoshop.

OK good. I thought so, but I wasn't sure ;)

[txdude35]

I was just looking at a picture taken of Beirut after an Israeli air raid that was submitted to Reuters by a Lebanese photog that was so obviously cloned it was ridiculous.
The guy cloned smoke over the city to make it look larger and darker, but the ps work was so amateurish I just can't believe anyone would submit it as an actual picture, especially to a major news agency. What's even more disconcerting was that the picture was published. Doesn't anyone look at these things before they put them up??

[cheri]

I just saw that photo and your right, it is so awful! I cannot believe that it was published either.

[belmondo]

You're right. It is so bad, I almost believe the photgrapher when he said it was 'an accident.' The only thing is, accidents like that just don't happen. He was dumb to try it, and Reuters was even dumber to run with it.

[Saralonde]

I was amazed it passed their "inspection." You could see the pattern in the smoke repeat itself. It seemed so obvious.

[Drk Orange]

It's an interesting image. The cloning of the buildings to stretch the image vertically was quite well done, but he seemed to lose interest once he got to the fiddly smoke bits. (The original and doctored versions can be seen here: http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/23/23280/1.html )

I remember an image from some big US bushfires a number of years ago that made it to the cover of one of their national news magazines that had a photo of a fireman running towards the camera with two young children in his arms, the scene behind was just a wall of flame.

Very dramatic, but it was revealed later to be a photograph taken in a suburban street with the orange bits added in later for effect.

If anybody can remember and link to the image, I'd appreciate it. (I can't find reference to it anywhere)

[HrcRacing]

Someone needs to introduce him to the soft edged brush.