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: Staged Scene
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Paper Tiger
Fake (staged with paper cut-out)
October 3, 2007



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



Islamic Hostage Action-Figure Hoax
Fake (staged with a doll)
February 1, 2005



The Misleading Steak Premiere
Misleading presentation of a product
Late 2002



The Lackawanna Shooter
Allegedly staged
Published Sep 20, 2002



The Case of the Moving Pyramids
Fake (digitally altered)
February 1982



Yeah Eckerd
Staged
1981



Francis Hetling’s Victorian Waifs
Fake (staged & artificially aged)
1974



The Bluff Creek Bigfoot
Probably staged
October 20, 1967



The Peppered Moth
Staged using dead moths
1955



Venusian Scoutcraft
Staged with a model
December 13, 1952



The Kiss at City Hall
Staged
April 1, 1950



Red Army Flag Over Reichstag
Fake (staged & doctored)
May 2, 1945



The Master Race
False caption
May 8, 1943



The Perambulating Skull
Staged
May 1936


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