Big Trouble for Image Doctoring

Photo District News reports that Getty Images dropped a freelance photographer for digitally altering a golf photo, even though the transgressing photo was apparently transmitted by mistake.

Dallas Morning News photo editor Guy Reynolds originally alerted Getty to the fact that he had received two near-identical images of golfer Matt Bettencourt, both by photographer Marc Feldman. One showed his caddy over his shoulder (above), but in the other the caddy is replaced by trees (below).

(Read Reynolds' account here.)

Getty immediately issued a "kill" command to subscribers, and in adherance to a zero-tolerance policy on photo manipulation, terminated its relationship with Feldman.

Feldman called Reynolds to explain:

He said he was in the press tent processing the images when Bettencourt and his caddie stopped by to see some of the pictures. Feldman said the caddie, looking at the image in question, said it would be better if he wasn't in it. "So I showed them how easy I could do that. I thought I just saved it to the desktop, not to the send folder," he said. "I certainly did not mean to send both of them to Getty."

"There was absolutely no intent to pass this off as a real image. Only a moron would have sent both," he said. "And I would've done it a lot better, too."

The fact that he sent both the original and the retouched photo is pretty solid evidence that he wasn't trying to pull a fast one. ...

Feldman, 61, certainly isn't the only photographer to make a gaffe and pay the price for it.

"I understand Getty has a reputation to uphold. I certainly don't blame them for letting me go," he said. "I know the ethical standards for editorial clients. I just wish my long relationship with them didn't have to end like this....I've been doing this for 26 years," he said. "Sometimes you make a mistake and it's fatal. I made a fatal mistake."

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Another digitally doctored photo is causing a stir, but because it wasn't committed by a journalism institution, the ethical breach isn't as cut-and-dried. However, because it was committed by BP, it has cast a shadow over the beleaguered oil company's claims of communications "transparency."

The snafu was caught by America Blog, and eventually came to the attention of the Washington Post.

The offending photo, of employees gathered in BP's Houston crisis room, is prominently displayed on the company's Website. Essentially, someone did a really lousy job of copying/pasting three underwater images onto a wall display. The blogger took BP to task for the sloppiness of its subterfuge as much as it did for the deceit itself.

BP blamed the photographer, though it's unclear whether the photographer was working at the company's behest, as is usually the case with corporate images. You can follow the brouhaha, in infinite detail, here.

As the Washington Post concluded: "Apparently BP is no more adept at doctoring photos than it is at plugging deep-sea oil leaks."

What is perhaps most startling about both the golf and BP incidents is that the online commenters are split over whether doctoring photos this way is acceptable practice -- even in journalism. Some cite the "slippery slope" warning, other vehemently claim it's no big deal in the grand scheme of things.

Given the technological capabilities of programs like Photoshop, many people apparently presume photos are somehow tidied up before publication anyway. Hardcore ethicists (and professional news guidelines), however, argue that a lie is a lie, and altering reality destroys credibility.

Haiti Photos: Creating Art Out of Horror

Dirck Halstead's Digital Journalist is down but not out. After Canon withdrew financial sponsorship, it looked as though the online magazine would have to pull the plug after more than a decade of covering photojournalism, and that the December/January issue might have been its last.

The staff is still searching for corporate funding -- and accepting financial contributions from readers via its homepage Paypal button. But it has forged ahead with its February/March issue, now online with photographic coverage of the Haiti earthquake by Damon Winter of The New York Times and Shaul Schwarz of Reportage/Getty Images.

"We chose to profile their work because not only have they produced memorable images," writes Halstead, "but in a way they have created art out of horror."

Our executive editor, Ron Steinman, takes issue with those who object to seeing the many shocking images from Haiti in print and on Web sites. Also from Ron, a Q&A session with freelance American TV cameraman Tim Cothren, who was working in Haiti for the German TV channel N24.

Jim Hubbard, who has been one of the leading advocates of teaching children to take photographs of their environment – "participant photography" – writes that there is no better time than now, nor place than Haiti, to provide citizens with cameras in order for them to document the rebuilding of their shattered country.

E-Bits Editor Beverly Spicer scoured television broadcast and online media to get a comprehensive take on events in Haiti. She presents multiple links to photo galleries, video and news reports.

And there's lots more, including an update on the publication's highly regarded 2010 Platypus Workshops for DSLR Video Journalism, Multimedia and Filmmaking.

"This year, we are switching to the Canon 7D DSLR," notes Halstead. "This camera is a breakthrough for filmic video."

There is only a week left to register for the Las Vegas workshop, April 2–11, at the Flamingo Hotel. It precedes the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Expo, April 12–15, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, which videojournalists are advised to attend.

Other upcoming Platypus Workshops:

Prague, Czech Republic: July 9–18.

Rockport, Maine: July 25–August 3.

Workshop info here.

The Digital Journalist here.

How a Photojournalist Captured that Moment of 'Lie!'

For those who've wondered how a photographer managed to snap that iconic image of Rep. Joe Wilson disrupting Pres. Obama's speech, we now have the answer.

Why was his camera trained on that particular Congressman at that particular instant? Did he have psychic foreknowledge that Wilson would yell, "You lie!" at that juncture?

The British Journal of Photography blog interviewed the photojournalist, and his answer amounts to this -- for professionals, it takes years of preparation to know how and when to capture that moment of truth.

Sure, luck was involved. But a "citizen journalist" in the same circumstance, without experience or training, would have missed it completely. Or, at best, produced a less memorable image.

The pro was Getty Images photographer Chip Somodevilla, and he reveals his secrets of how he did it here. There are lessons there for all visual journalists.

Food for thought: Would the moment have been better captured from a videojournalist's frame grab? Would a video of that episode, with lens trained on Wilson (instead of Obama, as we have seen), have had more or less impact than this still image that circled the globe?