The top photo, showing a flash of lightning that reveals a waterspout approaching an oil rig, has circulated online since early 2008. It is usually accompanied by the caption, "When the lightning flashes, this is not what you want to see." The image is not real. It is a composite of two photographs.

Amateur photographer Fred Smith photographed the waterspout and lightning on June 15, 1991 from his backyard overlooking Lake Okeechobee, Florida. He was taking pictures of a lightning storm when he got lucky and snapped a shot (bottom) of a waterspout illuminated by a flash of lightning. The photo subsequently appeared on a calendar, and in 2001 it became available for purchase online. Soon after it began circulating via email -- usually with incorrect captions that described it as a photograph of whatever tornado had most recently been in the news.

In early 2008 an unknown hoaxer pasted an oil rig into the picture and added the "not what you want to see" caption. This version has been circulating ever since.

A caption frequently accompanies this image claiming it's "not photoshopped or edited" and that it accurately shows a person whose hand has "no THUMB at all!" However, the picture appears to have been edited. The person's thumb has been digitally erased and replaced by the two fingers on the right. This is revealed by the awkward joint between the second and third fingers (from the right).

The medical term for having extra fingers is Polydactyly. It is a real condition. However, polydactyls usually have the extra digit next to their little finger. It is very rare for a polydactyl to not have a thumb.

In July 2007 United Artists released a set of pictures showing the resemblance between Tom Cruise (right) and Claus von Stauffenberg (middle), a German officer who had led an attempt to assassinate Hitler. Cruise was portraying von Stauffenberg in the forthcoming movie Valkyrie. But in June 2008 Slate magazine accused United Artists of having "tweaked" the image of von Stauffenberg in order to heighten his resemblance to Cruise.

Slate noted that a copy of the von Stauffenberg image it had acquired from the AP photo archive (left) looked noticeably different from the version supplied by United Artists. The "experts at Slate" (its own term) therefore concluded that United Artists had altered the photo.

In its defense, United Artists revealed that the source of its version of the photo was Getty Images. It was simply a case of different archives having versions of the same image of differing quality. Slate admitted it had failed to check the Getty archive and issued a retraction.

This image of golfers Phil Mickelson (left) and Tiger Woods (right) was taken by Stuart Franklin for Getty Images during the 2006 PGA Championship at Medinah Country Club. However, it was only when it ran in the Washington Post Express two years later (appearing in the June 12, 2008 issue) that it attracted attention. Readers noticed that Mickelson appeared to be simultaneously in front of and behind Woods. Critics suggested this effect was caused by careless digital alteration.

The photo editor of the Washington Post Express insisted he had merely acquired the photo from Getty Images and had not altered it in any way. Getty did not comment. It is possible the strange effect was created by the use of a telephoto lens. Therefore, this photo is listed as undetermined.

On the morning of Wednesday July 2, 2008 the Fox & Friends show on the conservative Fox News channel aired photos of New York Times staffers Jacques Steinberg and Steven Reddicliffe. The photos had been altered to make the men look less attractive. Their teeth were yellowed, ears enlarged, dark circles placed beneath their eyes, etc. The intent was evidently satirical. Bill O'Reilly of Fox News later admitted Fox News was making fun of the men. However, viewers were not informed of the alterations. The New York Times said the doctored photos were "beneath comment."

The top row shows the photos aired by Fox. The bottom row shows the original photos. (Steinberg on the left, Reddicliffe on the right.)

On July 3, 2008 Kem McNair was photographing surfers at New Smyrna beach in Florida when a six-foot spinner shark suddenly leapt out of the water. McNair managed to get three images of the event. The photos began circulating online, where they immediately attracted attention, and skepticism. However, witnesses confirmed McNair's version of what happened. Shark experts also noted that it was quite common for spinner sharks to leap out of the water, though it was rare to capture them leaping on camera.

On July 9, 2008 Iran announced it had successfully test-fired missiles with a range of 1,200 miles. An image of the test-firing (top), showing the launch of four missiles at an undisclosed location in the Iranian desert, was made available by Sepah News, the media arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRG). The image was used by many media outlets, including The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, BBC News, and NYTimes.com.

However, a photo of the test-firing showing only three missiles launching (bottom), emerged the same day. It first appeared on the Iranian news website Jamejam. Closer examination revealed that the first photo had been doctored. One of the missiles (second from the right) had been digitally created by cutting-and-pasting together elements of the other missiles. This was apparently done by the IRG in an attempt to conceal the failure of one of the missiles to launch.

Security experts later speculated that the missiles themselves may not even have been new technology. They may, in reality, have been 10-year-old missiles with only a 900-mile range.

Cosmetics maker L'Oreal placed an ad (top) in the September 2008 issues of Elle, Allure and Essence featuring singer Beyonce. The ad quickly generated controversy when critics complained that Beyonce's skin color appeared to have been lightened in the photo. The entertainment website TMZ compared the ad to another photo (bottom) that showed Beyonce with much darker skin color.

L'Oreal denied lightening Beyonce's skin color, issuing a statement that, "It is categorically untrue that L'Oreal Paris altered Ms. Knowles' features or skin tone in the campaign for Feria hair color." Advertising experts also noted that Beyonce's paler skin color may have been the result of "creative touchups" or of the lighting used during the photoshoot.

Nevertheless, whether the adjustment was deliberate or not, it is evident that the singer's skin color in the ad was paler than her normal shade.

The image (above, left) showing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin posing in an American flag bikini while holding a gun started to circulate online soon after she was chosen as John McCain's Vice-Presidential candidate.

The image was created by an unknown hoaxer who removed Palin's head from a photo (above, middle) showing Palin marching in the Chugiak July 4 Parade. The hoaxer then pasted Palin's head onto the body of a bikini-wearing model (above, right). Both of the source images had originally been posted on Flickr.com.

Although the image was quickly debunked, an entertainment reporter for CNN's American Morning appeared to believe it was authentic, telling Howard Kurtz, host of Reliable Sources, that the McCain campaign needed to beware of people thinking that Palin "looks good in a bikini clutching an AK-47, but is she equipped to run the country?"

A second fake image (right, top) that also circulated online showed Governor Palin posing in a miniskirt. It seemed plausible that at some point in her life she may have been photographed wearing such a skirt. But it turned out that her head had been pasted onto the body of another (unknown) woman.

The original image of Palin (right, bottom), from which her head had been taken, had been posted to Flickr in February 2007. It showed her wearing an evening gown.

The U.S. Army at Fort Stewart in Georgia released two photos of recently deceased soldiers, Sgt. Wesley Durbin (top) and Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson (bottom). The two sergeants had been killed in the same incident, shot by another soldier at a base in Iraq.

Bob Owen, chief photographer of the San Antonio Express-News, noticed that the photos were almost identical. All details were the same except for the soldiers' face, name, and rank. It appeared that Dawson's head had been pasted onto Durbin's body.

The Associated Press subsequently issued a retraction order on the photos, noting for each photo that "The content of this image has been digitally altered and does not accurately reflect the scene."

The army later apologized for the incident, explaining that, since Dawson's unit did not have an official photo of him, one had been created for a memorial service. The photo had apparently been released to the media by accident.