Drew Davies sent me this picture of a new business across the street from his own. Click to see the larger version and I dare you to find all of the things wrong with this photo.

Ever since the Dove Campaign For Real Beauty I have become more and more fascinated with the lengths people actually go to when photoshopping women. This professional’s site delves into before and afters that are worth a look. Only one bikini photo, I promise.

Commentary? While I find it sad we go to these lengths, as a professional there’s part of me that wants to know how to do it.

What is it with photography and Wednesdays? A while ago I had come to the conclusion that I was on some commercial photographer email list and a large portion of those emails were sent on Wednesdays. Lately I have noticed that stock photo companies are sending out their emails on Wednesdays as well. Why?

If you were a stock photo company, and you noticed this, wouldn’t you want to send an email on any weekday other than Wednesday. I guess I can’t put too much faith in marketing departments that were all offering “Free iPods‚Äù at the same time. Everyone excluding Veer. If these “free gifts‚Äù and mail box junk marketing departments want a free lesson in marketing to designers, they should just take a look at Veer. They are doing something right. And when I say learn from Veer, I’m not saying they should imitate Veer like Jupiter. Last month I noticed that Jupiter Images’ direct mail piece had adopted Veer’s size and square format. It only fooled me for a couple seconds.

I just expect companies that market to designers to be a little smarter than Wednesday emails and imitation sales gimmicks. Maybe I shouldn’t.

To be honest, I was surprised at how hostile the comments were when I raised the question of whether or not photography in the news represents truth. If there is any question left in your mind that a photograph is a purely editorial tool, let me introduce you to a new feature offered on several new HP cameras.

The feature is called “slimming.” To quote HP, “With the slimming feature, anyone can appear more slender-instantly. The effect is subtle-subjects still look like themselves.” HP continues by saying the slimming effect “can be adjusted for a more dramatic effect. See a before and after version, then decide which to keep.”

This camera plays off of the misconception that a photograph represents reality. If a photo says you are thin, people will believe it. When a camera can make a person look fatter or thinner, we can’t trust photographs to be an accurate description of reality. At best they are an interpretation, at worst they are a blatant lie. If you think this is harmless put it in a different context. What happens when cameras can make smoke look darker, people look meaner, or terrorists look heroic. The fact is that cameras already have this ability! People will continue to believe the photos that compliment their world view, whether it is that they are thin, or a political preference. That is wrong, and we need to change this misconception of photography representing reality. I would love to pontificate more on this post, but it is a busy Monday. Fill in the gaps for me in the comments…

You probably saw the news story about the photograph recently purchased by Reuters that was discovered to have been altered. The photo shows the aftermath of an Israeli air strike on Beirut and it had been Photoshopped to make the smoke look bigger and darker. The photographer was fired, and his 900+ photographs were removed from Reuters database. Reuters has a zero tolerance policy for doctored photos, and I suppose that is the only stance they can possibly take, but I keep asking myself, what was the crime here? Why the outrage? I fake photography all day long. It’s called advertising. Why is advertising given a pass, while the news is forced to abide by some higher moral standard? All the photographer did was clone some of the smoke and increase the contrast. Big deal. With a little more skill, these changes could have been made in camera by adjusting the exposure and camera position. With a little more Photoshop skill, the photo never would have been questioned. Why was this photo so shocking, and why would an admission that photos in the news are altered be so controversial? In my opinion, the whole scandal has to do with a widespread misconception that a photograph = truth. Let me explain…

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