The Pros And Cons Of Digital Manipulation

“In the last decades, use of image editing software such as Adobe Photoshop, has become what many consider the most egregious form of photographic manipulation by allowing editors to digitally enhance, change, or modify an image in a variety of ways for a variety of purposes,” (Photojournalism an Ethical approach). The fixing of images has made it hard to believe what is real and what is not. Digital manipulation is the act of editing images in order to create an illusion or deception. (RedBubble) Manipulating images has been around even before Photoshop. The portrait of Abraham Lincoln was not really him. It was his head, but John Calhoun’s body. How was it done? Since computers were not around, they had to do it all by hand. A portrait of a southern leaders body was used, there were not that many heroic pose so they cut Abrahams head from one picture and placed it onto the picture of the body, making it look as if Abraham Lincoln really did take the picture. Even the words on the papers that were lying on the table were changed. (Ethics In Photo Editing) In the beginning computers were not around, so to be able to manipulate pictures they had to come up with their own techniques. Many images were manipulated and very few knew. Families that wanted family portraits but did not get along were able to have a family portrait, but they did not have to be there in the same room. With a lot of work and patience it was done. Each family member would come to the session, but at different times. Pictures of each person were took, then they would use multiple images of the same picture to change the lighting or contrast. For them to all be in the same picture you would cut them out and place them onto the background in which, you took a p...

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...ckground, removing unwanted objects in the picture, removing spots on the face, so many things can be done to get a perfect picture. Its easy for a customer to express what they desire and how they wish to change the picture and in return it is convenient for the designers to use the specific tools to make that picture as the client want it to be. This helps in customer satisfaction and helps in maintaining a good and strong relation with them. (Benefits of Digital Manipulation). Many people say that when pictures are manipulated that it ruins the original picture, people take things out of their imagination and make them happen. Some people may not even manipulate pictures for attention, they do it for fun, to express their imagination. Photoshop exist for a reason, why not use it. It is amazing what can be done with just a couple pictures and an editing software.