Photo Ethics

On Friday, July 28th, Rick Thames, editor of the Charlotte Observer, announced photographer Patrick Schneider had been fired for digitally manipulating a photo. Thames wrote,

So, it is with much regret that I inform you that the color in a photograph in Thursday's editions was inappropriately altered before it was published. . . . In the original photo, the sky in the photo was brownish-gray. Enhanced with photo-editing software, the sky became a deep red and the sun took on a more distinct halo.

The Observer's photo policy states: 'No colors will be altered from the original scene photographed.' Schneider said he did not intend to mislead readers, only to restore the actual color of the sky. He said the color was lost when he underexposed the photo to offset the glare of the sun. (Link - Note: Schneider's photo is reproduced on the pdnOnline web site.)

This is not the first time Schneider has been involved in such a controversy. Daryl Lang, writing in a pdnOnline article entitled "Charlotte Observer Photographer Fired For Altering Colors," reports that in 2003 Schneider "was stripped of three state-level prizes when contest officials learned some of the photos he entered had been heavily adjusted."

Popphoto.com's article "Newspaper Photog Fired for Altering Photo -- Again" reprinted one of Schneider's "heavily adjusted" photos from 2003. In this case, the background had been darkened to make the subjects of the photo snap out more dramatically.

Shortly after Schneider's 2003 prizes were revoked, ZoneZero.com, an online photography magazine, published a thought-provoking editorial entitled "In defense of photographer Patrick Schneider." The editorial noted,

None of the three images which they dismissed from the awards . . . had the slightest possibility of being misinterpreted as to their content, by anyone. Between what the photographer had originally captured and what he delivered, the interpretations were absolutely identical as to the content, what changed was an esthetical value, and we agree with the photographer, for the benefit of the images.

In 2004 the National Press Photographers Association adopted a new Code of Ethics in an attempt to address many of the issues which face modern news photographers. Item number 6 speaks to this issue:

Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images' content and context. Do not manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects.

The core question becomes how much is too much? Even more sticky is the question of the "reality" of the image. The nature of an image is determined by a host of factors ranging from choice of lense to a multitude of camera settings--all things a professional photographer takes into account and uses. After the photo has been taken, photo editing is now as common as running a spell checker on a text.

Some cases are clear. Take, for example, these Newseum.org before and after photos of Stalin with a comrade who later "disappeared." Obviously, this is an example of photographic manipulation designed to mislead.
Other cases aren't so clear, and changes designed for aesthetic effect may well influence what a photo communicates. When O.J. Simpson was arrested following the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, Newsweek and Time both ran the same mug shot of O. J. Simpson. For Time's cover, however, the photo was darkened, generating an outcry and charges of racism. (Here is a comparison of the two covers.)

Photographers have always edited their images, although they may have worked with exposure and light in the darkroom instead of Photoshop. Indeed, a photograph, by its very nature, captures the photographer's vision. Photojournalists do have a special charge not to mislead with their photography, but it can also be argued that any single image can be inherently misleading, and it is a naive individual who thinks that a photographic image captures a "reality."

Related links:
"O.J.'s Last Run: A Tale of Two Covers"
"Photomanipulation" from Wikipedia
"Faking Images in Photojournalism"
"The Ethics of Digital Manipulation"
"Greg's Digital Portfolio" (Compelling examples of digital editing.)