Fun with Photoshop: Clinton/Obama photo contrast on Drudge today

Since part of my pre-law career path familiarized myself with the intricacies of Photoshop, I was somewhat surprised to see how the photo journalists who are editing their various candidate photos have continued to push a less than neutral agenda to the internet public and, through a simple edit, turned what was probably an ordinary photo of Clinton into something that looks like something out of the American Idol rejection pile. Unfortunately, I can't find the photo to show exactly what I mean, but I can recreate the same effect with the "auto contrast" feature. But since the same effect has been done with her daughter's photo, I'll show my point.

The two below are comparable pictures, one original, and one edited. Like airbrushing in a magazine, this sort of editing has the same visual effect, albeit in with broader implications. The composite picture is from a Getty image from a CNN page. I also note that while I certainly respect copyright and particularly photographic copyright (which could have been one aspect that pushed me into this business to begin with), for these purposes, the photo's use falls within the fair use rubric.



I submit that the photo on the right casts Chelsea in a much less favorable light than the (theoretically) unedited original photo on the left. By comparison, think of so-called "glamour shots" which can airbrush quality from almost anything.

My point to all of this again deals with my recurring theme of how subtle the media's take on things can be sometimes. While headlines are one thing, the fact that "pictures can speak a thousand words" is something that may be flying under the radar. With everyone able to take a digital picture nowadays, however, I can't imagine this problem going away, or even being caused by simple editing. Further, whether this is good or bad depends on whose campaign manager you are talking to. In either case, it's just something to think about when you see these pictures splash on the screen.

Tags: editing of photographs, bad campaign photos