The Museum of Hoaxes
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Techniques of
Photo Fakery
1: Inserting details. This includes placing an element from one photo into another to create a composite image, reproducing a detail of the photo by cloning it, superimposing an image onto another, or drawing-in details.

2: Deleting details. This is usually done by extending background elements over the unwanted detail. Or one can crop out the unwanted detail.

3: Manipulating elements within the photo. For instance, adjusting the color, resizing details, or rotating or moving details.

4: falsifying the caption.

5: Staging the scene. This is considered fakery particularly in photojournalism. Varieties of staging a scene include using models and cutouts and inserting a prop into the scene.

6: Trick angles. The most common example of this is the use of forced perspective.
Site Map
Photo Archive Categories
The Hoax Photo Archive
A gallery of photo fakery throughout history.

Years Archived:
1840-1900 | 1900-1919 | 1920-1939 | 1940-1959 | 1960-1979 | 1980-1999 | 2000-2004 | 2005-Present
Composite Images
Helicopter Shark (Circulating online since Aug 2001)
Despite what this photo shows, a Great White shark has never attacked a helicopter in San Francisco Bay. ...»
Tourist Guy (Circulating online since September 2001.)
Created by a Hungarian man as a bit of dark humor to share with his friends, this photo became one of the most widely viewed images online in the weeks after 9/11. ...»
British Soldier in Basra (Created March 29, 2003.)
This digital composite slipped past the editors of the LA Times and ran on the paper's front page. ...»
Manitoba Home Security (Found online in 2003)
A digital composite makes it appear that polar bears are relaxing outside someone's house. ...»
Hanoi John (Circulating online since Feb 2004)
Not only had Fonda not shared the stage with Kerry, she hadn’t even attended the rally shown here. ...»
Giant Human Skeleton (Circulating online since early 2004)
Despite what this photo appears to show, archaeologists did not unearth a giant human skeleton in Saudi Arabia. ...»
Home Computer of the Future (First posted online September 11, 2004)
Popular Science magazine did not publish this image in 1954, predicting that it was what a home computer would look like fifty years in the future. ...»
Tsunami Seen From a High-Rise (Appeared online in early January 2005)
This photo supposedly showed a scene from the devastating Asian tsunami of December 2004, but the city in the picture is Antofagasta, Chile. ...»
Martha’s Last Laugh (March 2005)
Newsweek indicated nowhere on the cover that this shot was actually a composite image of Martha Stewart's head pasted onto a model's body. ...»
Unable to gather for a photo shoot, the Spanish royal family instead digitally assembled for its Christmas holiday photo. ...»
“Qinghai-Tibet railway opens green passage for wildlife” (Published in 2006. Debunked in 2008.)
This award-winning Chinese photo appeared to show the peaceful co-existence of antelope with a new high-speed train. Unfortunately the photo was a digital composite. ...»
Suicidal Teens Welcome (Found on the internet, early 2007)
The armed forces does not really actively recruit suicidal teenagers. ...»
The French Dinner (July 2007)
This fake picture caused a scandal in Malaysia because it appeared to link the country's deputy prime minister to the murder of a young woman. ...»
Vote for Dean Hrbacek (January 2008)
In this flyer distributed by Hrbacek's campaign, the candidate's head was pasted onto the body of a significantly slimmer man. ...»
Barack Obama Smoking (Circulating online since early 2008)
Obama admits to being a smoker (trying to quit), but this picture of him smoking was faked. ...»
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All text Copyright © 2011 by Alex Boese, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.