Photo Ethics, Part II

Recently we posted a blog on photo ethics and Charlotte Observer photographer Patrick Schneider, who was fired for enhancing the color in one of his photographs. Central to the debate over Schneider's action was whether enhancing the aesthetics of a photograph is the same as altering its content. The National Press Photographer's Association's Code of Ethics states "Do not manipulate images . . . in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects."

On Saturday, August 5th, the news agency Reuters released a photo of a bombing in Beirut which, to anyone with a critical eye, had clearly been altered.

Bloggers across the web quickly commented on the repeating patterns in the smoke and the repeating building under the lefthand column of smoke.

Much of the discussion focused on the crudeness of the alterations. The surprise was not that the photo had been altered, but that it had been done so badly and that no one at Reuters, which is a reputable news service, had caught it.

However, once Reuters realized what had happened, it pulled the photo and replaced it with the original image.

Ynet News, an Israeli English language web site, has an article entitled "Reuters admits altering Beirut photo" which offers a good overview of the story. (It is worth noting that the title of the article is somewhat misleading. Reuters admitted that the photo had been altered and that they had suspended the photographer pending an investigation into the changes which were made.)