(Editor’s note: Reuters.com asked Gary Hershorn, News Pictures Editor for North America, to discuss some of the tools photojournalists have used in the past — and what they use now — to produce pictures. On Monday, Reuters withdrew all 920 photographs by a freelance Lebanese photographer from its database after a review showed he had altered two images. You can see the images and reactions from readers here. Reuters, also the publisher of this report, tightened procedures for photographs from the conflict between Israel and the armed group Hizbollah and apologized for the case. You can read the company’s statement here. You can send a comment to Hershorn from the link below and read his interview with NPR today here)
Photojournalism tools
News photographers routinely process images using Adobe Photoshop software. But there has been a basic premise in the world of photojournalism that what was allowed in making prints in the pre-digital days of darkrooms is all that is acceptable today.
Back in the days of the darkroom, we used very basic tools to develop prints. In black and white printing, the contrast of a picture was controlled by a paper’s grade. The higher the number of the paper, the higher the contrast. In the wire agency darkooms I’ve worked in, we typically used grades 3,4 and 5. We allowed “dodge and burn” to lighten or darken areas. A dodge tool was made by taping a small piece of cardboard the size of a quarter onto a paper clip. A burn tool was a piece of cardboard the size of an 8×10 sheet of paper with a hole in the center. If a print had dust spots caused by a dirty negative, we used Spotone, a photographic paint that was dabbed onto a print with a very fine paint brush to eliminate the unsightly marks.
One other tool that was allowed when printing color pictures was changing color balance. This was done by placing filters between the light source of the enlarger and the paper that the image was being printed on.
When we moved to scanning negatives and then to shooting digital, we began using Photoshop. This program allows us to do the same things we did in the darkroom. Changes in contrast, dodging and burning and color balance are now done with software. The most controversial tool in Photoshop that we use is the cloning tool. The only accepted use of this tool is to clear dust from the image. We have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to using the cloning tool to change content, and by that we mean removing something that exists in a photo, moving or replicating it or adding to a photo.
The tools we use in Photoshop are levels, curves and saturation for changing contrasts; and, color balance to bring the image back to the way the natural eye would see the color. Here is what we tell our photographers in the Handbook of Reuters Journalism.
Photoshop is a highly sophisticated image manipulation programme. We use only a tiny part of its potential capability to format our pictures, crop and size them and balance the tone and colour. For us it is a presentational tool.
The rules are no additions or deletions, no misleading the viewer by manipulation of the tonal and colour balance to disguise elements of an image or to change the context.
Photoshop is a powerful image processing program with many more tools to help photographers produce the best quality image they can for the type of photography they do. There is not a Photoshop program for use by news photographers and another for advertising, where image-changing is tolerated. What we in the news photo community need to regulate is what tools are used for photojournalism and what are not.
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some journalists say, those blogs
- Posted by raissafor example eureferendum.blogspot.com, investigating in the Qana event, are amateur and can not do it like a professional,if so
please show them that you can do better
[...] Here are the links to the four articles: Reuters, New York Times, Washington Post and Slate. Registration my be required. [...]
- Posted by Leading Design Photography and Multimedia » On Reality - Part 3 - More on PhotojournalismThe fact is that photographers and photo editors can no more be trusted than journalists or fiction authors. It seems character and integrity are as rare now as they ever have been. And the media’s scrutiny on this issue smells of Schadenfreude.
I recall an incident sixty years ago in which famed WPA photographer Author Rothstein picked up a sun-bleached steer’s skull and moved it over a few feet to improve the composition of what became an iconic image of the day. He was villified for it by purists, but he defended himself with the notion that the image existed somewhere, and all he did was make it so by setting it up. Like, it couldda happened, man!
And just as the digital door was swinging open, National Geographic “moved the pyramids” to make them fit better on the cover. It took them years to live it down. But I don’t recall anyone getting axed over it.
I will say that many of the photojournalists I’ve known have been crazy-brave, and I’ve never been sure why. At times it looks like a commitment to delivering the truth, at other times like bald ambition. And I wouldn’t be surprised if at times it’s both.
- Posted by John SchultzIt’s hard to believe that your editors could not recognize such obvious and badly done digital manipulation. Also, as other readers have pointed out, you have not addressed your freelancers’ apparent staging of photos or their complicity in allowing photos to be staged for them.
- Posted by Lee S.The war photos being published in the media cannot used as true evidence of what is really happening. Photos are being photoshopped, manipulated and staged: http://www.aish.com/movies/JP/PhotoFraud .asp
This is a disgrace and a poor excuse for journalism.
- Posted by LeeI am Israeli. I live in Haifa. Although the Photoshops and other misrepresentations are serious, I think that other distortions in the major dedia outlets are even more serious. I notice, for instance, that when it comes to Lebanon the British outlets (verbal as well as visual) report primarily on civilians, but concerning Israel they report primarily on soldiers. This is evident bias producing a big lie. The fact is that Israel has been bombarded by rockets non-stop since July 12th, the first day of the conflict. But if you go by British media, these come from nowhere because Lebanon has only civilians. Sheesh.
- Posted by Anat[...] Photoshop is a powerful image processing program with many more tools to help photographers produce the best quality image they can for the type of photography they do. There is not a Photoshop program for use by news photographers and another for advertising, where image-changing is tolerated. What we in the news photo community need to regulate is what tools are used for photojournalism and what are not.” Source here. [...]
- Posted by Leading Design Photography and Multimedia » On Reality - Part 2 - Photo journalismReuters needs to educate their photo editors to look for obvious signs of photo manipulation. Both of those photos show repeated patterns that are evidence of the cloning tool in photoshop. I have seen children manipulate photos better. The editors missed on this one and they are partially responsible.
- Posted by Anne VinselJames Hugh posts that on Aug. 9, he retrieved a photograph by Adnan Hajj, the Beirut-based freelance photographer, on reuters.com, two days after Reuters had withdrawn all of Hajj’s photographs from its database. The photographs are no longer in the database; pulling the pictures from the online archives is a separate technical matter. We’re addressing it and appreciate your patience - Reuters.com editor
- Posted by Emily ChurchVery generic poll of friends and family today resulted in in 11 out of 16 people I asked losing all confidence in Rueters. Many of us have been doubting the truthfulnss of many news agencies stories as of late, but this just proves what we have suspected. To say you stand for free speech and the reporting of truth is simply garbage. You have an agenda and money rules your world. Many people think it’s the government that they need to mistrust when it’s really our news. What a shame.
- Posted by Michael S.Oh, just realized you are a British org - never mind, makes sense now … apologies for my post above.
- Posted by Joe PrivateYou have it so easy - not bound by any regulations, do not need to put the time stamps on your photos, can photo-shoppe the pics, next you will get them from Pixar Animation? ‘Cause they are liberals too …
You should be ashamed to call yourself journalist - just a pompous organization that should move the HQ to UN and then move it all to Paris, or Moscow, or wherever the putrid societies can find a place for a stinking organization like yours.
You are telling us that PhotoShopping is O-K? A picture worth a thousand words - maybe like in Lenin’s speaches. Sure
The worst is that you call yourself American! Really? I call you Al-Reuters - and you should not be ashamed to change your name and put a burka on your telephotos on next round of shots. It would serve you well.
Shame on you - not for the cropping that just became obvious, but for alligning with the enemy just to mark some anemic political goals (to make the stupid president look good) - you are not worth A DIME.
- Posted by Joe PrivateI don’t know what is going on at Reuters, but this is quite confusing.
The editor says that “Further, Reuters has withdrawn from its database all photographs taken by the Beirut-based freelancer after establishing that he had altered two images since the start of the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese Hizbollah group.”
However, I just searched the Reuters database at 6:00pm EDT on August 9, 2006 and found a picture by Mr. Hajj-
http://photos.reuters.com/news/newsPhoto Presentation.aspx?type=photoSearch&image ID=2006-08-05T194926Z_01_NOOTR_RTRIDSP_0 _NEWS-MIDEAST-COL.XML
Is Reuters taking this seriously, becauase it doesn’t appear to be very important to get the facts straight in either photographs or editor’s statements.
- Posted by James HughIn reply to Dennis Dunleavy:
- Posted by Bernie NunezYou are really talking about two problems:
1) As to feeling sorry for the photographer. Forget it. If you are a photojournalist you better not manipulate the image in a way that changes the meaning of the photograph. Not only are you misleading your employer, but you are casting a shadow on all other photojournalists.
2) Yes, the agencies are out there with freelancers, some of whom have very little experience. Yes, they pay little. They have found that because of competition they must deliver the product cheaper or face extinction. Not dissimilar to the autoworker who has to compete against autoworkers in Canada with a lower pay package. The freelancer has a choice of accepting the work for the pay and delivering what he has contracted for, or saying “No, thank you”. Do I wish that all photographers could be put on staff and the quality maintained in that way. Damn right. Also, I have yet to find a photo editor that doesn’t wish that he could work with the best all the time. Unfortunately there are few photo editors who set the rules.
This is a self correcting problem. The agencies that don’t set up a system for quality control will not be trusted and will go out of business. I’m sure Reuters will tighten their procedures to prevent this from happening again.
I have not seen you address the issue that now seems to have arisen about Mr. Hajj’s “clone”. I had noticed the similarity between the subjects of Mr. Hajj’s pics and those of Mr. Kobeisi. The number of dust free dolls lying atop rubble seemed epidemic. It was strange to see some credits to Hajj and another to Kobeisi for virtually the same picture.
But cloning never occurred to me.
It has occurred to others, however.
What is Reuters’ response?
- Posted by BlaiseThe problem for Reuters is that it is not just photoshop and Adnan Hajj. They were the initial spark but the fire is still burning. It’s the overall pattern of multiple discrepancies…
- Posted by Jay Zobie1. Digitally manipulating images after the photographs have been taken.
2. Photographing scenes staged by Hezbollah and presenting the images as if they were of authentic spontaneous news events.
3. Photographers themselves staging scenes or moving objects, and presenting photos of the set-ups as if they were naturally occurring.
4. Giving false or misleading captions to otherwise real photos that were taken at a different time or place.
So we must ask the following questions
1. Are The Reuters editorial staff sympathetic to the aims of Hezbollah, and is using propagandistic images exaggerating Israeli violence to increase world pressure on Israel to stop its attacks, thereby giving Hezbollah a chance to regroup, and claim moral superiority?
2. Are the stringers employed by Reuters sympathetic to Hezbollah, and successfully duped the Reuters editors into publishing propaganda?
3. Are Reuters photographers and editors intimidated by Hezbollah, and publish Hezbollah’s propaganda out of fear for their lives?
Instead of a blog, I wish Reuters would just level with us and tell us the truth.
As usual Reuters gets it wrong again. This is not about photoshop or sensationalism, its about fraud. Until Reuters, AP and others address the lack of jouranlistic ethics, the lying, spin and outright deceit in their reporting I will say the weekly world news is just as crediable. I will also see you as just a tool of propoganda for a nasty group of people who openly admit to their future plans to commit genocide. Either way, until you look objectively at your
- Posted by Joe Smithreporting and come clean you and your sponsors won’t see a dime of my money.
[...] There’s a saying in journalism- report the story, don’t become it. Reuters is the story. If youve been reading up, you know there’s been a stink about Reuters using doctored photos that exagerate the damage done by the IDF… They’ve retractred the photo, apologized and fired the photographer, but its apparently not the first care. [...]
- Posted by JewishFringe » IDF deploys G-Dzilla against H-zbollah. Holla!1. I think for any event photos, the photos should not go through any digital manipulation. PERIOD.
2. How do you ensure that the photos are not staged?
- Posted by Chitta[...] Bill’s favorite pastime is to play Bridge. Via Todd Bishop, here’s a pic of him playing last week. I think the cap is real - Photoshop anyone? Talking of bluffs and the bizarre, I was amazed to read this story of a Norwegian journalist, Bjørn Benkow, who has finally admitted to completely inventing an interview he did with Gates. Benkow originally denied the interview was dreamt up, but only after Gates and staff called the reporter’s bluff… [...]
- Posted by Gates calls reporter’s bluff - Wagalulu - Microsoft