Techniques of Fakery
There are six basic techniques of faking a photo, none of which are mutually exclusive.

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, one can adjust the color, resize details, or rotate or move details.

4: falsifying the caption. (In a sense, every fake photo has been falsely captioned.)

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

6: Taking a photo at a trick angle. The most common example of this is the use of forced perspective.


Themes


Time Periods
hoax photo database

Category: Celebrities
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A Whiter Beyonce
Fake (altered color)
August 2008



M.C. Escher Golf
Undetermined
Taken Aug 18, 2006. Published June 2008



Cruise vs. von Stauffenberg
Real
Controversy from June 2008



Charlton Heston’s Home Gun Collection
Real pictures, false caption
Circulating online since Apr 2008



“I can promise, this will never get done”
Staged using lookalike
Created in 2005. Circulating online since 2008.



Martha’s Last Laugh
Fake (composite)
March 2005



The Real Julia
Fake (composite)
July 2003



Kate Winslet’s Legs
Fake (digital plastic surgery)
February 2003



Tootsie Redressed
Fake (composite)
Mar 1997 issue of Los Angeles magazine



O.J.‘s Darkened Mug Shot
Fake (altered color)
June 27, 1994



Oprah’s Head Transplant
Fake (composite)
August 26, 1989



Dickens in America
Fake (doctored)
December 1867


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