Denys Beauchemin writes:

>But coupling the camera with a computer, I can do so much more
>compared to what I could achieve in the darkroom 25+ years ago.  I can
>correct composition errors, get rid of objects and people in pictures,
>change the lighting effects, all sorts of things.

Denys reminds me that I ran across a very good book recently dealing with
exactly this kind of activity. The book is _Photo Fakery_, by Dino
Brugioni
(<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1574881663/opt>). Brugioni was a
senior photo interpreter at the CIA, and his book is a fascinating
history of doctoring photos from the very earliest days of photography.
Beginning with multiple exposures, compositing negatives and combining
art and photography, continuing through the high-end graphic systems once
the exclusive domain of professionals (he has a short but amusing section
on the fashion press), and finally going on to today's
anyone-can-fake-a-photo world, he shows how the techniques for altering
reality have changed, although the motives have not.

People's attitude toward doctored photographs has changed over the years.
At one time, it was simply expected; photography and art were combined.
He shows several Civil War photographs that have been doctored -- we know
they were doctored because prints from undoctored negatives were
discovered later. What _Time_ did with OJ using digital techniques in the
1990s was done with posing and superimposition 130 years earlier, and for
the same reasons.

Another parallel with modern digital techniques: photographic alterations
were often used in pornography (though the examples in the book would
scarcely get any notice today). The preferred technique for this genre in
Victorian times was the synthetic stereogram.

Brugioni spends a fair amount of time discussing photo interpretation
techniques. Some techniques are so obvious that they're easy to miss. For
example, he publishes several propaganda pictures purporting to show a
precision formation of jets flying over a huge crowd during a military
parade. A big clue that it was faked: nobody in the crowd is looking up.
Other analysis techniques are much more subtle, and some will work with
all but the most expertly-crafted digital fakes.

The book is on the expensive side for a softcover edition, but since it's
printed on high-quality coated stock in order to give the best
presentation of the hundreds of photographs, this is to be expected. It's
worth the price for anyone who's interested in history, photography or
photojournalism.

-- Bruce


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