Photo fakery

Photographers manipulating the images they've taken is not a new thing. In fact, it's probably been going on since the invention of photography.

Most recently, however - for the last few years, anyway - I've been particularly aware of this egregious practice.

For example way back when OJ Simpson was first arrested on suspicion of murdering his wife, Newsweek and Time ran a photo that had deliberately been darkened to make him look more menacing.

All you have to do is look at gossip magazines to see how photogs have wiped away all the lines and wrinkles from the face of their subjects to make them look younger - and unhuman!

In the case of movies, I believe the breasts of the actress in Herbie Reloaded were digitally shrunk, since it was a kid's movie and they didn't want big breasts dancing around.

On the other hand, I think Angelina Jolie's breasts in the two Lara Croft movies were enhanced just by wearing padded bras... probably a cheaper way to do it...

Anyway, now politicians are getting into the act.

Politicians head on slimmer body

The politician's head has been placed on the body of a "much slimmer man" - because the politician was too busy to pose for photo shoots himself. Yes, this sounds totally believable. Dean Hrbacek is the politician involved.

Of course, quite innocent trickery has been used in the past, where an old politician continues to use a headshot of his younger self so voters don't know how old he really is.

And those ridiculous magazines like Star and National Enquirer....

There is an inherent problem in this of journalistic integrity. It goes beyond politicians, to magazines, newspapers, etc. It's quite easy to manipulate photos these days to make anyone appear to be doing anything (for example the commerical of Fred Astaire dancing with a vacuum cleaner, etc.) and I think there should be clearly labeled warnings on the bottoms of such computers and such photos - this stuff digitally altered.