Hany Farid advised on spotting fake photos. (Credit: Dartmouth,screenshot, highlight added)

In a Q & A with Columbia Journalism Review, Dartmouth computer science professor Hany Farid advised how to spot fake photos.  Farid noted that some photos are obviously faked, like when one person’s head has been inserted on top of a photo of someone else.  But, problem areas for people include “light and shadows.”

“The danger of relying on your brain to assess authenticity based on things like shadows and perspective and texture and lighting is that we’re just not actually that good at it,” Farid stated.

Farid also commented that “the most high-profile examples” of photo manipulation are “usually about composition and aesthetics, to get that ‘bang’ effect.”  As an example, he cited last year’s image of five world leaders Photoshopped to place former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in front of the other men.

iMediaEthics wrote in June also after Newsweek corrected a photo caption online to disclose that the image was a composite illustration.

See the Farid interview here.