Ethical Issues in Visual Communication

William Kubie

BYU-Idahowww.willqb.com/photoshop/

Ethical Issues in Visual Communication

William Kubie

BYU-Idahowww.willqb.com/photoshop/

Is it wrong?

By the World’s Standards: • Outcome or Effect

– Were they caught?– Was someone fired?– Did it cost money to fix or result in lost revenue?

• Magnitude or Severity– How many changes were involved?– How many people saw it?– How many people were involved?

Is it Wrong?

By the Lord’s Standards:

13. We believe in being honest, true,

chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in

doing good to all men...

— THE ARTICLES OF FAITH

Is it Wrong?

By the Lord’s Standards:

2 Nephi 28: 8-9

8. And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God—he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God.

9. Yea, and there shall be many which shall teach after this manner, false and vain and foolish doctrines, and shall be puffed up in their hearts, and shall seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord; and their works shall be in the dark.

Reuters photo that appeared on web sites August 5, 2006

Case Studies:

Photo later claimed to be the unaltered original

Photoshopped version

Original

For DiscussionMerits/Ethics of using a digital toollike Photoshop to:• Remove a child’s runny nose?

• Hiding skin blemishes, fixing teeth, reducing glare on “foreheads”?

• Merge two or more original shots into one?

Additional Examples

• L.A. Times

• BYU accused of removing tattoos

CG image by Mihai Anghelescu

Is It “Real” or Just Computer Graphics?

Still frame photograph from "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"

Nikolai Yezhov and Stalin, before and after retouching.

How Visual Communications Can be Misleading

• Captions, descriptions, or narration used to accompany images

• Proximity of images to text or other photos

• Photo Selection or exclusion

• Cropping

Photoshop Tips• Omni Edge Sharpening Action –

Sharpens photos with less noise and smaller file sizes in compressed web images

For clean image transitions• Masked layers• Effects (such as glow & screen)• Layer attributes (multiply, screen,

luminosity, etc)• “Adjust Curves” – For quick color

balance and contrast adjustments

Concluding Thoughts“To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst

not then be false to any man.” — William Shakespeare (Hamlet, act 1, scene 3)

“We cannot be less than honest, we cannot be less than true, we cannot be less than virtuous if we are to keep sacred the trust given us. Once it was said among our people that a man’s word was as good as his bond. Shall any of us be less reliable, less honest than our forebears?”

— Gordon B. Hinckley,

“An Honest Man — God’s Noblest Work,” Ensign, May 1976, 60

References• Wikipedia: “Photo Manipulation”, “Photoshopping”, “Digital image editing”, “

Photoshop contest”, “Photoshop tennis”• LittleGreenFootballs.com, Reuters Doctoring Photos from Beirut?• CNN.com, Reuters says Mideast photographer doctored shots• Reuters, Reuters withdraws all photos by Lebanese freelance• L.A. Times, Lebanon photos: Take a closer look• National Geographic News, Shark "Photo of the Year" Is E-Mail Hoax• Deseret Morning News, BYU says tattoos were not ‘erased’• Dennis Dunleavy: Blog, Photojournalism • Doctorzebra.com, Woodrow Wilson’s bad teeth• Poynter Online, L.A. Times Photographer Fired Over Altered Image• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,

Altered photo forces UW to reprint 100,000 brochures• National Press Photographers Association,

Altered photos, media guides, colleges• Hany Farid, “Digital Tampering in the Media, Politics and Law”, “Computer

Graphics or Photographic?” • Nephew - Runny Nose by Grogg (Posted on Flicker.com)• By Omnicolor (User ID), Omni Edge Sharpen Action