Thursday, July 21, 2011

Bad Photoshop...



There has been another round of badly Photoshopped images in the news the last few days.

This image was released from the North Korean (state run) news agency showing victims walking through a "flood".

Two things wrong with this image, the water does not wick up their pants, they remain absolutely dry right to the water line AND the blending of the people to the water is HORRIBLE.

It is theorized that they (North Korea) released the image as "news" hoping for different flood, one of international aid.

If you follow this link you can read the story (and see the image) that cost an Associated Press freelance photographer his job (and credibility). What did he do? He used Photoshop to (badly) remove his shadow from an image he took of children playing soccer.

It seems that folks get caught because they do such a bad job of using Photoshop, which makes you wonder how many "good" edits never get caught.

Don't get me wrong, I use Photoshop, but I don't pass my images off as news, nor do I claim them to be unaltered.

Making lemonade out of lemons...

Many people would agree, if you want to learn how to take pictures, one of the best books to do it with would be Bryan Peterson's book "Understanding Exposure".

Bryan is an outstanding photographer and equally as good as a photography teacher.

Below is a 3 minute video, in it Bryan uses 5 very simple things combined in one of the unlikeliest of places to make a very good photograph.

If you find this video interesting (and you will), you'll want to check out this video using strawberries, or this one with cooking oil.