Photoshop gone wrong: Famous examples of doctored images

An Egyptian newspaper is the latest offender in a long history of embarrassing scandals involving altered photographs.

BEFORE

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is seen on the far left as President Obama leads a group of Middle East leaders to the White House's East Room for a round of peace talks.

Alex Wong-Getty Images

AFTER

Egypt's largest newspaper, the state-run Al-Ahram, doctored the photo to show Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak leading the way. The newspaper defended its decision to alter the photo, saying it was meant to show Mubarak's key role in the talks.

Al-ahram

BEFORE

This original photo of BP's oil-spill control room in Houston shows two blank screens on the right of its wall of video feeds. Blogger John Aravosis noticed that a version of this image displayed on the BP Web site had been doctored. "I guess if you're doing fake crisis response, you might as well fake a photo of the crisis response center," Aravosis said.

Marc Morrison-� 2010 BP/Marc Morrison

AFTER

The blank screens were filled with images taken from other parts of the photo in a flawed editing job. One of the 10 images sticks down into the head of a person sitting in front of the wall, while another piece of the image is separated from the other side of the head by jagged white space. The right side of the same image also hangs down below the area on which the video feeds were projected.

BP P.L.C.

BEFORE

During a 2008 missile test in Iran, a launch photo was doctored to make the display of military might seem more impressive. The Associated Press and Reuters distributed this original version of the image, which shows three missiles being launched.

AFTER

A fourth missile was added in the doctored version, which appeared on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Web site and was distributed by Agence France-Presse. The trumped-up image appeared on the front pages of a number of newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune.

BEFORE

Brian Walski, a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times working in Iraq, was fired in 2003 for combining two photos of a British soldier directing Iraqi civilians under hostile fire in Basra. Walksi merged two photos taken moments apart to "improve" the photo's composition.

Brian Walski-Brian Walski

BEFORE

A second photo shows the same scene from a slightly different angle.

Brian Walski-Brian Walski

AFTER

In the doctored photo, elements from both photos are combined into one dramatic shot. Unfortunately for Walski, some of the people in the scene appear twice in the final image.

Brian Walski-Brian Walski

BEFORE

In 2006, Reuters withdrew an image of smoke rising from the suburbs of Beirut after an Israeli air strike after it was revealed that the smoke had been manipulated to show darker, thicker smoke. In this original version, the smoke coming from the building is a light gray color.

Adnan Hajj-Reuters

AFTER

The smoke in the doctored version is much darker and more smoke has been added to the skyline.

Adnan Hajj-Reuters

BEFORE

University of Wisconsin football fans are seen cheering during a 1993 game in Madison. In an effort to show diversity, school officials inserted the face of a black student into the photo of the crowd.

BEFORE

This photo of Diallo Shabazz is was taken during a Wisconsin orientation activity, not a football game.

AFTER

The face of Diallo Shabazz was inserted into the image for the cover of the school admissions brochure.

BEFORE

O.J. Simpson's 1994 mugshot after he was arrested in connection with the murder of his ex-wife was famously altered on the cover of Time magazine.

Los Angeles Police Department-AP

AFTER

The cover of Time's June 12, 1994, edition was doctored to make Simpson appear dark and sinister.

Nick Ut-AP

Gallery Credits:
Text Editor Graham Moomaw

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