7 Tips to Spot a Fake Image and Not Let Photoshoppers Fool You

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While the vast majority of Photoshop fakes that flood the internet is harmless, photographs are sometimes manipulated to alter the meaning or produce “fake news.” According to a recent survey, four out of ten people can’t tell whether a picture is fake, and half of those who can say what’s wrong with it. Here are a few pointers to help you spot a scam.

1. Pay attention to reflections.

© potatowithbiscuits/ imgur

Users with a minimal understanding of Photoshop often overlook one of the most difficult aspects of the programme: manipulating the shadow. If you’re still not sure if the shadow is there, draw a line from one point on an object to the corresponding point on its shadow for several objects in the picture. The light source should be the focus of all lines.

2. Beware of low quality images.

© unknown/ imgur© davelessio

The edges of manipulated parts of an image are often blurred, as seen on the muscles of famous bodybuilder Art Atwood. To make the fuzzy sections of the picture less noticeable, photoshoppers often reduce the image’s quality. However, the quality will not be universally reduced, and the photoshopped sections will be of lower quality than the rest of the picture.

3. Look for trends that are similar.

© eastnews

Photoshop users sometimes copy a portion of an image and paste it somewhere else. Our brains are wired to look for patterns, so cloning errors are easily detected. When a photograph of an Iranian missile test was published, it was found that the second missile from the right is essentially a duplicate of the missile to its left, as well as the smoke from the missile to its right. This missile was, in reality, photoshopped onto the original picture, which only had three missiles.

4. Examine the perspective, shadows, and proportions of the scene.

It takes a lot of skill to match colours, brightness, and contrast between different parts when an object from one image is inserted into another image.

5. Use a reverse image search.

Reverse image search in Google Images or TinEye is one of the simplest ways to spot a fake image. Images of sharks swimming down the street, according to Hany Farid, a digital forensics specialist, often appear online after natural disasters. You may use reverse image search to find out where the image first appeared or whether it has already been debunked.

6. Evaluate the naturalness of tones and colours.

© The World/ twitter© Edward/ wikimedia commons

Unnatural colours are another reason to question a photograph’s authenticity. The purple vegetation surrounding what was supposedly a blue river on Scotland’s Isle of Skye captivated the internet. This purple colour was, in reality, photo-shopped. The river is actually in New Zealand, and the scenery is still stunning, but the colour is a natural green.

7. Get image metadata.

© pexel

Some websites allow you to delve deeper into the image and examine its metadata, such as the location and method of capture. This important data is saved under the EXIF heading. It will also tell you if Photoshop was used to open and save the file. If you open the image in any image editing software, you can get the EXIF info.

However, this information is removed from photos shared on Facebook and Twitter.

Can you use Photoshop and are you good at finding photos that have been doctored? Leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments section.

Preview photo credit unknown/ imgurdavelessio