The other day an old friend asked me how to tell a real photograph from a fraudulent one, or more specifically, “how I can tell a touched up, photo shopped, photograph from the real thing?” It is a subject that we have spoken about before, but one I think revisiting, especially since there are about to be midterm election campaigns in the United States.

Actually, the word “fraud“ is a telling one. We “Photoshop” (isn’t it great how that has become a verb) for one of three reasons: to entertain, to create art, and to deceive. The evil is obviously in the act of deception. There lies the lie! Fraud may be for monetary or political motives. It always bears that self-serving component.

People tend to be gulible and people want to believe.  But with very little effort you can usually find the fly in your ointment.

First of all to the age old point – if it’s too good to be true it probably isn’t. So much for the zebra standing next to the lion at the watering hole.

Second, look for incongruities. How come Theodore Roosevelt is riding on a moose across a lake and his pants legs aren’t wet? Why does the picture suddenly go out of focus where his hands hold onto the moose? Right, it’s because it’s otherwise hard to obscure the fact that in the original photograph he was on a horse and holding onto the reigns. Also he’s a bit large for the moose in question. Well, that’s just bully. And don’t forget to look at the shadows in the picture. Are they consistent?

Third, zoom in as close as you can and look at the edges.  Yep, all the way to the point that the pixelation of the image is obvious and apparent. A great example of this was the “Money”/”Romney” fake from the 2012 elections. When you cut and paste in Photoshop or other image processing software you form sharp edges, which are tell-tale. So to avoid these people use a process known as “feathering” which kind of scrambles the transition between regions and is itself tell-tale.

Fourth, if you know how to do it, increase the contrast. These edge effects tend to pop out at you when you do that.

Finally, recognize that revealing fraudulent photographs can make you unpopular. President Obama was not born in Kenya. But there are lots of people who want to believe that he was.