Oct 29, 2008 3:31 pm US/Eastern
Photo Editing Can Rewrite Family History
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
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Theresa Newman had a professional combine two photos to create this portrait of her and her father.
WBZ
With computer programs like Photoshop it is easy to add or delete something or someone from a photo. But that raises the question - do you really want to be re-writing your family history?
When Theresa Newman's father passed away she was devastated, and even more so when she realized that she didn't have a single photo of the two of them together. So, Theresa took a photo of her dad and one of his friends to a photo-retoucher. She asked for her own picture to be put in place of her father's friend.
A few days later she had her father-daughter picture, and an unexpected reaction.
"I totally lost it because it looks exactly like we actually sat together for the picture," Theresa said.
Photo editing is big business. Professionals are paid anywhere from $20 to $150 per hour to perfect their portraits. At-home software makes retouching even cheaper and more common.
"The most extreme kinds of things are when you actually have the impulse to remove people who were at events," said photography professor Chris Johnson, "so that at least as far as the photo is concerned, they are no longer there."
Johnson remembers one wedding that a cousin of the bride couldn't attend. "So we left a space for him in the photograph of his cousins. I scanned him and dropped him in… That photograph, of course in that case, becomes the record of who was there."
The photo was so realistic that Chris was told many family members think they remember seeing the missing cousin at the wedding.
And that is exactly what worries family psychologist Alan Entin. He says this kind of casual editing may seem harmless, but it's not.
"When you start to alter family photographs, you're really altering family history and the future," Entin said.
Entin considers every photograph an important record of who we are and where we've been. He believes they shouldn't be tampered with.
"If we alter them the photographs become meaningless because they're not reality."
But for Theresa Newman, technology offered her one last precious memory of her father.
"Even though I wasn't there it looks like I was and it means the world to me," she said.
If you want to experiment with photo-retouching, consumer level software is available for under $100.
Resource: Search Photo Editing Software on CNet
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