Altered Yearbook Photos

When students at McKinney High School recently received copies of their yearbook, they noticed that many of their photos had been altered. From dallasnews.com:

The problem photos are obvious. One girl's arm is missing. Another girl is missing her clothing – and was left with a blurred chest. Multiple students have the same body and clothes. Some shirt colors were changed, while patterns and wording on other shirts were wiped out. At least 34 students had someone else's body. Officials from Lifetouch National School Studios Inc., the Minnesota-based photography company, said someone at the company made the alterations in an attempt to comply with the school's photo guidelines...
Sophomore Brielle Anderson said she's pretty sure her head is on a boy's body. "I paid $80 for a cropped picture of my head on someone else's body," she said. She noted that she's also missing a few inches of hair. Chelsey Rephan, a sophomore, said one girl in the yearbook had her clothing digitally rubbed out.

I'm pretty sure the school's photo guidelines didn't specify digitally disrobing students. Sounds more like there's a rogue employee at Lifetouch Studios. (via J-Walk)

Photos Pranks

Posted on Thu May 22, 2008


Comments

Reminds me of my experience with our school photographer during my senior year in high school. I had worn braces throughout high school and wanted an honest representation of how I looked for the yearbook. While I had been assured that the photo would be unaltered, my braces were, in fact, removed by airbrushing in all of the shots. It still ticks me off some 35 years later.
Posted by RichmondTom  on  Thu May 22, 2008  at  09:20 AM
"... someone at the company made the alterations in an attempt to comply with the school's photo guidelines..."

So, the school has a rule you can't have your head on your own body???
Posted by Big Gary  on  Thu May 22, 2008  at  02:08 PM
The guidelines, as I heard it, were things like making the students' faces approximately the same size and having the eyes at about the same height, just for aesthetics when you look at the row of pictures.

I noticed in the example photo here, the yearbook photo seems to have been taken from the student's ID photo. That's a pretty poor quality photo to start with if you're assembling a yearbook professionally!

So what I imagine is some angry employee complaining to their boss about the poor quality of the stock photos they were given: "Some of them don't even have enough body in their photo to make the eyes in the row all at the same height! What am I supposed to do?"

To which the irritated boss replies as they head out the door to go home for the day "Then make more body! You can Photoshop, right? Isn't that what I'm paying you for? I don't care what you do, just get it done!"

The boss then slams the door as they leave, and the employee mumbles "You don't care what I do, huh? Just get it done?" as they open a browser window to grab some porn pics.

At least, that's how I imagine it.
Posted by Crazy Ivan  on  Thu May 22, 2008  at  02:36 PM
crazy ivan

The photo on the right is the actual photo the girl took, obviously its on her ID, this is used for comparison. the photo on the left is how she appeared in the yearbook, they gave her a boys body and covere up her cleavage...
Posted by Crazygut  on  Thu May 22, 2008  at  03:19 PM
For my kids' schools, your portrait picture is used for your ID.
Posted by Joe  on  Fri May 23, 2008  at  02:21 PM
exactly, a photo company is hired to take photos, these appeared on the IDs, also these were the ones students received in packages. The year book company doctored these photos for the year book, I dont think the same company took the photos and made the year books
Posted by crazygut  on  Fri May 23, 2008  at  04:38 PM
I was going to comment but decided to not say anything. I'd have to go and look at my 40 year-old high school yearbooks to see if the photos lined up as suggested but since I have nothing to say, why bother?
Posted by Christopher Cole  on  Mon May 26, 2008  at  03:13 PM
Well, God forbid a girl should have cleavage and a pretty dress on! Wipe out that abomination and replace it with a boys plain white tee immediately!
Posted by Nona  on  Tue May 27, 2008  at  05:45 AM
I imagine is some angry employee complaining to their boss about the poor quality of the stock photos they were given: "Some of them don't even have enough body in their photo to make the eyes in the row all at the same height
Posted by explore talent  on  Thu Dec 31, 2009  at  02:38 AM
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