Photo Manipulation and Ethics

1. Some things I learned about manipulating images is that photoshop doesn't always mean editing model bodies or magazine covers. It could also mean lighting, red eyes, tones and other necessary technical things. Back in the 1800s, photographers could use photoshop to edit family members together to be in same pic if they couldn't originally able to be together. Photoshop could also be used to fit certain things into a certain size. For example, National Geographic in 1982. Photographer Gordon Gahen took a photo of the Great Pyramids of Giza and the editors photoshopped the pyramids to fit the cover page.

2. The philosophy of newspapers like the Washington Post and the New York times is that you can photoshop whatever you think is necessary as long as you don't change the coloring or tones of the original photo. This means you could photoshop bodies as long as you don't change their color.

3. I think some acceptable things you could do to alter an image is merge images, change lighting, change red eyes, smooth or focus to draw the viewer's attention or draw attention away from a point. I think blurring stretch marks or skin to go for the "flawless" effect is crossing the line. I think a good rule for this is, if you're editing something you couldn't have fixed with a camera such as a fat roll or a blemish then that is crossing the line.   

4. I chose this photo because they photoshopped a POC into the photo to show the schools "diversity".When the school was asked about it they said they looked for a photo that showed their diversity but couldn't find one. I find this very wrong because obviously the schools problem is not having photos of diversity but rather never having diversity in general.

5. I think this photo is the least unethical because even though the photo is obviously of war and refugees which can make it a touchy subject, the photos are actions shots that were probably taken a second a part. They didn't change the meaning of the photo or anything that makes the photo morally wrong, they just changed something to make a photo better quality.