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: Composite Images
--Return to front page of thumbnail gallery--

Raised Runway
April Fool's Day joke
Undated. Possibly from the 1920s.



The Melon Party
Fake (composite)
1911



William ‘Dad’ Martin’s Freak Postcards
Composite images
1909-1910



Lincoln’s Portrait
Fake (composite)
Late 1860s



Petticoat Politics
Fake (composite)
May 1865


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