Thursday, June 18, 2009

The Revolution Will Be Photoshopped

I'm not an expert, but after my initial attraction to this fetching Islamic Lass who stood up so bravely for her cause I started to study the image which I set as my desktop background. There's nothing a radical likes better, than a radical chick, it's the ultimate in radical chic, right?


This picture appears over at "Rotten Gods" and is attributed to "Getty Images." Closer inspection reveals an unusually glossy sheen to the green ribbon tied around her right wrist, and the note she's carrying looks vaguely superimposed, or at least the English message on it does.

It seems a shame to fake things (if my amateur assessment is correct) that have plenty of basis in fact.


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5 comments:

Erik said...

I'm not sure that it is shopped. The pic was taken with a fairly small fstop which is wht she is in much better focus than the rest of the crowd. This would also explain the greater reflection from her ribbon. And english is a language that many people learn as a matter of course so not only could we expect to see it on a sign designed to appeal to foreign media. Also note the sign in the lower left which is written slightly different, to include an exclamation and arabic as well.

Was the photo touched up? Undoubtedly. 99% of photos are touched up before they go to print, but this was true before the advent of photoshop. If you didn't do it, the film developer likely did it for you.

Hugh McBryde said...

It could be genuine with a bit of a clean up. I'm well aware of the older photographic techniques, one of which was called "dodging" to highlight darker areas of the picture. I've done it myself.

The kicker for me in suspecting the photograph of undue "touching up" was the near hand drawn quality of the green ribbon, which if "touched up" was touched up way too much.

Unknown said...

That's Arabic? How do you know? (Persian uses the same alphabet.)

Hugh McBryde said...

I don't know, but the band around her wrist, when blown up, looks really fake.

Unknown said...

That's not what I was asking about, and my question wasn't directed at you, but Erik.