Doctored Photos
September 18th, 2009 by ComputerBob
My Uncle Dom gave me a camera and taught me how to develop black and white photographic film and make photo enlargements when I was only 12.
So, starting when I was a preteen, and continuing up until age 19 when I could no longer afford it, I was really into black and white film photography. I took thousands of photographs back then, and was a photographer for my school newspaper and yearbook. In fact, I used to buy 35mm Kodak Tri-X Pan and Plus-X Pan film in 100-foot rolls and then load my own film canisters by hand in the crowded, sweltering darkness of my bedroom closet, working frantically to finish before anyone could accidentally or jokingly open the door.
Once I had internalized the basic techniques for creating photos, I started experimenting with “doctoring” photos. My best doctoring effort was probably a photo in which I added a full-sized tree in the center of some railroad tracks.
My photo manipulations were always for fun — I never doctored a photo to misrepresent or lie about any event.
But others have.
And, unfortunately, today’s digital photography makes it a whole lot easier to doctor photographs and misrepresent events than it used to be, making it hard to know who to trust any more.