Piture that Lies




Manipulated Piture



Original Picture





     At a first glance you might just see a normal picture of a baby with a rabbit sitting outside. This was exactly what I intended to do. I had this idea of creating an Easter picture that lie because it is almost Easter day. I started by having a rabbit which I got from the internet (flickr.com) but seem too lonely so I decided to include a human. As I was looking for a human the idea of having a baby holding or touching the rabbit came to mind. Finding a baby in that position of holding something was difficult. But when I had it I used the opacity tool to be able to see the rabbit picture in top of the baby picture, while positioning the rabbit in the hands of the baby. Using the eraser tool I erased the parts of the rabbit picture that were on the way of letting the baby connect directly to the rabbit. It was a little difficult trying to go around the rabbit and erase everything else. Once I was done the baby seem to be holding the rabbit from the neck. I really liked it but the background of the picture didn’t match and it seemed obvious that the rabbit didn’t belong there, so I decided to look for a background that would fit with the picture. Since it is an Easter theme I decided to add spring flowers. I used the same tool of erasing the parts to show the baby and the rabbit and the flowers in the back. I also used the cloning tool to clone some parts that I erased accidently or to lines around the figures to make it less noticeable that these where picture put together. I continued by changing  the photograph to make it more real,  by using the brightness/ contrast in  some of the layers to make them brighter but  not that bright  because I wanted to  cast a small shadow from the right direction. Then, I used the hue/saturation to change just the lightness of the picture a bit.

      I felt that this manipulation was not harmful to anyone because I didn’t change the pictures a lot to create new features (on the boy) or to change the whole perception of the photograph (deform the rabbit). I actually change the meaning just because I added the three pictures together to form one. Since the little boy is smiling and as he “holds” the rabbit in his hands this seems as a picture taken in a happy moment, which is usually what we capture pictures of, people may not suspect it’s a fake picture. It is the background of flowers that might be questionable if it’s real of fake but not so much because it seems to be a natural environment.

     Creating this picture that lies proved the arguments claimed in the article I read called “"The truth of a single instant" Focusing on the issue of photo manipulation” by Susan Balcom Walton. My photo might represent a single instant of a little boy outside in a spring day but it’s not true. This just shows how easily a picture can be modified and changes its meaning. I just change and put together some photos using Photoshop without having any restrictions on what I can do and what not. That is why I think guidelines should be established to prevent more harmful photo alternating.