Fun with Photoshop

By now, many of our readers have seen the photograph produced by the French news service Reuters, of the bombing of a Hezbollah target in Lebanon by Israeli forces. Let's break it down for you, okay?

This is the photograph by Reuters.



This is the photograph altered by Reuters.



This is how the photograph was altered by Reuters.



They used a tool in the image processing software Adobe Photoshop, which is known as a "clone stamp tool." This makes a rubber-stamp-like copy of a particular area, and allows you to duplicate it elsewhere in the image. It is often used, for example, to remove time/date stamp in the corner of a photo, by covering it with surrounding imagery, effectively camouflaging. The editor, however, gives himself away, not only by a lack of artistic acumen, but by accidentally copying the edge of a nearby building -- as you can see just to the right of the two small red boxes in the third image -- thus repeating a shadow of it in the altered version. Oldest mistake in the world. (Watch The Dissident Frogman show you in detail how the deed was done. Thanks, Michelle.)

Any questions?

[UPDATE: Allahpundit provides more fun and games, and detailed analysis from people who actually know a thing or two, at hotair.com.]