Dastardly Darkroom Deeds Trivia Quiz

Answer: O.J. Simpson

The picture was the mugshot of O.J. Simpson after his arrest for the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. The artist at "Time" magazine darkened the photo to give it a more ominous look, which drew criticism that Simpson was being declared guilty before he had even been tried. The editor of "Time" defended the alteration as artistic - he claimed it was merely intended to emphasize the fall from grace, as did the title of "An American Tragedy". Ralph found it very sinister.

During his trial, Simpson's defense team alleged that a photo showing Simpson wearing a pair of designer shoes had also been manipulated. Evidence from the murder scene indicated that the murderer had worn the particular shoes shown in the photograph, but Simpson denied owning them.

PDAZ confesses that she has altered a photo purporting to show her on vacation with George Clooney...

Answer: A plane

With the advancement of graphic design technology, such 'photoshopped' images are easy to find on the internet. After the tragedy involving 9/11, a picture of a man standing on the observation deck of the south tower circulated in which a plane was shopped into the background, moments from impact. Although it's unrealistic that such an image could be recovered, the photo was proven fake. The south tower, for example, wasn't the first to be hit. In addition, the wrong model of plane was shopped into the picture. To make matters worse, the observation decks weren't open to the public on that fateful day. This, amongst other issues, clearly pointed out the flaws in the dastardly image. Ralph, of course, picked up on all of these.

Kyleisalive pulled this photo from the album.

Answer: U.S. poster companies, so as to not encourage smoking

It turned out that the U.S. poster companies had no authority to alter the image, which is owned by Apple Records. McCartney was not consulted about this action either. Many fans (including Ralph) were also unhappy about the change, as this picture had become one of the most iconic images of one of the most universally popular bands of all time. All of this fuss over a photo which took just 10 minutes to arrange!

Politically correct photo changers claimed another victim in the summer of 2010, airbrushing the cigar from an image of Winston Churchill which stood at "The Britain at War Experience" in London.

This question was "snapped" up by Doublemm, who surprised his team mates by showing he actually knows who The Beatles are ;).

Answer: He wasn't at the event

Mr. Purnell arrived at the Hospital far too late for the group photographs to be taken so a photograph taken of him on his own was later merged with the original group shot and issued to the press. Mr. Purnell denied that he knew that the Photoshop faking would be done; it later transpired that an email about releasing it to the press had been sent by the Hospital Trust to his department but not directly to him.

It's possible that the faked image might have passed without comment but, two weeks earlier, Mr. Purnell had delivered a strong speech castigating various broadcasters for fixing phone-in competitions - the photograph gave his political opponents and the media an ideal opportunity to moralise about double standards.

Flopsymopsy thought it wasn't a very good fake; she has done better than that putting Ralph on FT avatars!

Answer: A metal fence post that seemed to be protruding from Mary Ann's head was airbrushed out

Filo was a photojournalism student at Kent State when he took the picture. This picture won the Pulitzer Prize in 1971. It is the altered image which is most often reproduced today.

Ralph and maninmidohio love looking at historical photos - especially those that have not been doctored.

Answer: To show her thinner and taller

'A newly statuesque Kate Winslet towers on a pair of surprisingly slimline pins on the cover of next month's "GQ" magazine. The result of a pre-festive season crash diet? No, more like a little digital manipulation on the part of the magazine's art department.' (Source: "Hello" magazine, January 10th 2003)

Ironically, the interview with Winslet within "GQ" magazine contained the words: "So why is it that women think in order to be adored they have to be thin? I just don't understand that way of thinking."
In their defence, the editor of "GQ", Dylan Jones, maintained that all such photos are doctored: "These days you only get two kinds of pictures of celebrities - paparazzi pictures or pictures like these which have been highly styled, buffed, trimmed and altered to make the subject look as good as is humanly possible. We do that for everyone, whether they are a size six or a size 12. It hasn't a lot to do with body size. Practically every photo you see in a magazine will have been digitally altered in this way" (Source: BBC News January 9th 2003).

Glendathecat is happy with Kate as she is but Ralph was rather taken with the llama option.

Answer: tall-tale postcards

Around the turn of the century 'tall-tale' postcards featuring seemingly-gigantic crops and animals became very popular. You know, the ones where a man stands beside an ear of corn twice his height, and other such 'oddities'. 'Dad' Martin was a pioneer in the art of photo faking, famed for his attention to detail and his ability to capture a sense of motion in his trick images - one (titled 'I Finally Got Him') shows a man apparently riding a large fish, perched just behind its head. Most of the trick photos produced for postcards were much more static, and clearly posed. They are still seen today in tourist shops around the world.

Looney_tunes must admit to having purchased (and sent) some of these trick postcards as a youngster. Ralph is unashamedly fascinated by them!

Answer: The Pyramids of Giza

The picture, as it was taken, was a horizontal or landscape shot displaying two of the three pyramids. "National Geographic" made use of a new technology, Scitex, which allowed for photographs to be digitised and then altered. To fit the vertical or portrait cover of the magazine, the pyramids were moved closer together.

When the cover was criticised, the organisation at first defended the manipulation, saying that the image could have been taken as it appeared had the photographer been in a slightly different position. This response was met with further outrage and "National Geographic" later withdrew their defense and promised not to use the Scitex technology to make such alterations again.

EmmaF2008 and Ralph think it is better to leave one of the Seven Wonders alone.

Answer: Bill Wyman

Bill Wyman was the bass player for the Rolling Stones from 1962 until his departure in December of 1992. Although he had played on most of the tracks included in the compilation, and was in the original photo taken in 1978, it was decided that he should not appear on the album cover as he was no longer part of the group. In the original photograph, Bill could be seen standing in the background, visible between Mick's and Keith's shoulders, with Charlie drumming to the left.

Looney_tunes was more of a Beatles fan as a youngster, but agrees with Ralph that Bill Wyman got a rough deal here.

Answer: Great white shark

The photo was widely distributed by email, usually stating that "National Geographic" had chosen the shot as its 'photo of the year'. The image was a composite of a two photos. The first, a shot of an Air Force HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter on maneuvers in San Francisco, was taken by Lance Cheung. The second, of a great white shark breaching in False Bay, South Africa, was taken by Charles Maxwell. In order to achieve the shot of the shark jumping out of the water, Maxwell used a fake seal decoy, dragging it behind the boat he was travelling on.

Despite knowing the picture is a hoax, both Ralph and EmmaF2008 quite like it!