Ethical Issues in Visual Communication

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Ethical Issues in Visual Communication

• William Kubie
• BYU-Idaho
• www.willqb.com/photoshop/

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Ethical Issues in Visual Communication

• William Kubie
• BYU-Idaho
• www.willqb.com/photoshop/

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Is it wrong?

• By the Worlds Standards
• Outcome or Effect
• Were they caught?
• Was someone fired?
• Did it cost money to fix or result in lost
  revenue?
• Magnitude or Severity
• How many changes were involved?
• How many people saw it?
• How many people were involved?

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Is it Wrong?

• By the Lords Standards
• 13. We believe in being honest, true,
• chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in
• doing good to all men...
• THE ARTICLES OF FAITH

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Is it Wrong?

• By the Lords Standards
• 2 Nephi 28 8-9
• 8. And there shall also be many which shall say
  Eat, drink, and be merry nevertheless, fear
  Godhe will justify in committing a little sin
  yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one
  because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor
  there is no harm in this and do all these
  things, for tomorrow we die and if it so be that
  we are guilty, God will beat us with a few
  stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the
  kingdom of God.
• 9. Yea, and there shall be many which shall
  teach after this manner, false and vain and
  foolish doctrines, and shall be puffed up in
  their hearts, and shall seek deep to hide their
  counsels from the Lord and their works shall be
  in the dark.

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Case Studies
Reuters photo that appeared on web sites August
5, 2006
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Photoshopped version
Photo later claimed to be the unaltered original
Original
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For Discussion

• Merits/Ethics of using a digital tool
• like Photoshop to
• Remove a childs runny nose?
• Hiding skin blemishes, fixing teeth, reducing
  glare on foreheads?
• Merge two or more original shots into one?

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Additional Examples

• L.A. Times
• BYU accused of removing tattoos

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Is It Real or Just Computer Graphics?
Still frame photograph from "The Chronicles of
Narnia The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"
CG image by Mihai Anghelescu
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Nikolai Yezhov and Stalin, before and after
retouching.
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How Visual Communications Can be Misleading

• Captions, descriptions, or narration used to
  accompany images
• Proximity of images to text or other photos
• Photo Selection or exclusion
• Cropping

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Photoshop Tips

• Omni Edge Sharpening Action Sharpens photos
  with less noise and smaller file sizes in
  compressed web images
• For clean image transitions
• Masked layers
• Effects (such as glow screen)
• Layer attributes (multiply, screen, luminosity,
  etc)
• Adjust Curves For quick color balance and
  contrast adjustments

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Concluding Thoughts

• To thine own self be true, And it must follow,
  as the night the day, Thou canst not then be
  false to any man.
• William Shakespeare (Hamlet, act 1, scene 3)
• We cannot be less than honest, we cannot be
  less than true, we cannot be less than virtuous
  if we are to keep sacred the trust given us. Once
  it was said among our people that a mans word
  was as good as his bond. Shall any of us be less
  reliable, less honest than our forebears?
• Gordon B. Hinckley,
• An Honest Man Gods Noblest Work, Ensign, May
  1976, 60

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References

• Wikipedia Photo Manipulation, Photoshopping,
  Digital image editing, Photoshop contest,
  Photoshop tennis
• LittleGreenFootballs.com, Reuters Doctoring
  Photos from Beirut?
• CNN.com, Reuters says Mideast photographer
  doctored shots
• Reuters, Reuters withdraws all photos by Lebanese
  freelance
• L.A. Times, Lebanon photos Take a closer look
• National Geographic News, Shark "Photo of the
  Year" Is E-Mail Hoax
• Deseret Morning News, BYU says tattoos were not
  erased
• Dennis Dunleavy Blog, Photojournalism
• Doctorzebra.com, Woodrow Wilsons bad teeth
• Poynter Online, L.A. Times Photographer Fired
  Over Altered Image
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Altered photo forces
  UW to reprint 100,000 brochures
• National Press Photographers Association, Altered
  photos, media guides, colleges
• Hany Farid, Digital Tampering in the Media,
  Politics and Law, Computer Graphics or
  Photographic?
• Nephew - Runny Nose by Grogg (Posted on
  Flicker.com)
• By Omnicolor (User ID), Omni Edge Sharpen Action