04/23/24
October 03, 2003
Sports Illustrated, which has been famous for great photography, has been making it a practice to PhotoShop interior photos, according to Photo District News. "I used to think that SI stood higher from the rest of the magazines that airbrush, clone and do whatever else to the photos to get perfection each and every time," says a member of SportsShooter.
I'd take it further than that: It's like covering a sports story in which Sammy Sosa hit a three-run homer to win the game in the 8th, then having an editor change it to a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth because that's more exciting.
posted by rcade at 01:41 PM on October 03, 2003
I find it highly amusing that the guy from SI's Photo Dept. was mouthing off against his fellow staffer.
posted by billsaysthis at 02:26 PM on October 03, 2003
Hey man, it's tough competing in this media soaked world - you gotta have pizzazz and sex appeal! Put some bigger tits on that shortstop - lets move some units! Hey, you like you job? Wanna keep it? Show me some ass! Let's go people!
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 03:02 PM on October 03, 2003
This story reminded me of the hue and cry against Time magazine several years ago for doctoring a cover photo of O.J. Simpson. Sorry...best link I could find. Ironically, SI and Time are both part of the AOL Time Warner empire.
posted by smithers at 03:38 PM on October 03, 2003
I'd take it further than that: It's like covering a sports story in which Sammy Sosa hit a three-run homer to win the game in the 8th, then having an editor change it to a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth because that's more exciting. That's a bit much, rcade. That's factually changing the whole premise of the story, not changing the artistic feel of it. A better analogy would be to say that instead of a line drive home run that barely cleared the wall and forced Sammy to run hard until it did, it was described as a mammoth shot that Sammy stood at home plate and admired as it sailed marvelously into the night. I would have had no problem if they cropped an image for size or framing, but to clone out a person in the picture is a bit much. In the end, a magazine called "Sports Illustrated" should be ashamed that they tampered with the photo like that and didn't acknowledge it in some way.
posted by grum@work at 07:54 PM on October 03, 2003
It might be a bit much, grum, but I view the removal of a leg from a sports photo is a factual change. It diminishes photojournalism immensely to accept PhotoShopping -- we can no longer look at a great shot and marvel at the ability to freeze a moment in time. Funny aside: When I was a student journalist at the University of Texas at Arlington, one of our photographers took a picture of a student diver in silhoette. When she developed the shots, the guy's pants pontoon was so large and well-defined that's all anyone would notice about the picture. She dodged it out to deemphasize it, but went too far. The guy ended up with a picture in the paper showing his freakishly concave groin.
posted by rcade at 09:25 AM on October 04, 2003
First off - "pants pontoon?" That's the funniest thing I've heard all week. Second, as a newspaper guy, other than cleaning up images to make their content more clear, I don't do anything to the actual content of the photo. You want a more interesting or compositionally clear photo, you should have taken one. I can't come back and make up more interesting quotes because my town council story is boring.
posted by wfrazerjr at 04:12 PM on October 04, 2003
Interesing story, rcade. Thanks. "I equate what was done to this picture to altering a quote by a writer," Walsh says. "To me it’s no different." Which happens all the time nowadays. So often that we hardly even notice it any longer. That doesn't make it right though. I couldn't agree more with this quote: "The power of a photograph comes from the reality," Long says. "That’s what makes the photo work. So you didn’t get the perfect picture, but it’s a real photograph. Leave it in. You’ve been privileged to be a witness of history and as such you don’t have a right to change it."