Friday, December 19, 2008

Photo ethics.


Some days it's a struggle. How ethical is it to touch up a photo? The issue is an urgent one in the news business because a Reuters staff photographer was fired a year or so ago, for making an explosion in Lebanon look worse than it was by enhancing the smoke and flames using Adobe Photoshop. This week I shot a local news photo -- nothing special really -- but afterwards the guy mentioned that he was embarrassed about a nasty cold sore on his lip. So I fixed it. And yeah, I wondered if it was the right thing to do. It's not a national story, but it's the principal of the thing.
When I worked in broadcasting, we would edit audio tapes when a person stuttered too much so as to save them from feeling embarrassed. I think that applies in this case.

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