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| Sunday, 13 February 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Temptation to tamper : Seeing is no longer believing Manipulating digital images has never been easier or faster. But there's a fine line between'improving' a photo and altering it. by Susan Llewelyn Leach
Today, with the advent of inexpensive software, the manipulation of digital images is easier, faster, and harder to detect. As a result, the ethics of manipulation - the line between 'improving' an image and altering it - are more vital in preserving public trust. In photojournalism the rules are clear. To alter the content of a photograph 'in any way that deceives the public' is wrong, says the digital manipulation code of ethics of the National Press Photographers Association. Ideally, a photograph is the untouched, unmanipulated transcript of what was there. Except, says Larry Gross, everybody knows there are elements of selection built in. The co-editor of 'Image Ethics in the Digital Age' lists cropping and the angle of the photograph as two other common means to alter editorial content. For example, in April 2003, not long after the start of the war in Iraq, an iconic image of Saddam Hussein's statue being toppled in front of a crowd of cheering Iraqis was flashed around the news media and came to symbolise the justness of the war. Shortly after, a series of photographs started to circulate on the Web showing the same shot and several others but with a wider angle. "You could see there was no crowd," says Gross, a professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communication. "What looked in the first reports like this joyous crowd of Iraqis was in fact a very small number in a roped-off area." That fit with reports that this was a staged event with an artificially collected group, he says. What revealed the reality was the uncropped image. In photography, "there is a real conflict between an ideology of unvarnished truth and the reality of a lot of varnishing," Gross notes. And the evidentiary quality associated with the medium is more threatened than ever by the digital revolution, he adds. Manipulation is not restricted to massaging pixels. that still happens in photojournalism. A classic case two years ago ended with the firing of the photographer. Brian Walski, who was covering the war in Iraq for the Los Angeles Times, combined two photos taken moments apart to create a more striking image. He was caught when someone noticed a duplication in the picture. Breaking that unspoken contract of trust with the public can be costly. It degrades the value of the publication, says Stephen Grote of the Art Institute of Atlanta. And as the Los Angeles Times director of photography, Colin Crawford, said at the time, "If our readers can't count on honesty from us, I don't know what we have left." The public's image-naivet, is disappearing, however, as awareness grows of the ease with which a picture can be 'Photoshopped' (now a verb from Adobe Photoshop editing software). Add to that the higher level of suspicion of institutions in general, says Gross, and it becomes more imperative to say, "We don't do that," and to have a zero-tolerance policy. As the story of the photo of the statue illustrates, blogs and other forms of internet communications have made it harder to get away with manipulation, because it's harder to contain information, Gross says. One way of showing up public confidence is to make the penalties greater - what Gross calls "show trials." The rapid firing of Walski, despite his 25 years of experience, is a case in point. Yet the temptation to tamper remains. And nowadays, it is tampering the human eye which can now rarely detect. That becomes critical in the courtroom, where digital photographs are used as evidence, and in military surveillance, where satellites offer a view of the battlefield or tank battalions or mass burial sites. In that vein, Hany Farid is trying to put some certainty back into photography. The computer science professor at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., is developing computer algorithms that can detect when an image has been altered. "We try to put ourselves in the seat of the forger," he says, and look at the types of manipulations a forger would do to make a convincing composite image. For instance, when you slice two people together, one of them often needs to be resised or rotated slightly, by a process known as resampling. "That type of manipulation introduces very specific forms of statistical correlations in the image, which are not naturally present, and we can detect those," he says. His group has written six algorithms to detect those statistical changes and is working on a half dozen more. The algorithms don't work, however, if the forger uses a manipulation outside those six or if the image is compressed to a size where the statistical patterns that were introduced get destroyed. There's no silver bullet here, Dr. Farid admits. "It's a bit of an arms race," he says, likening it to the virus and antivirus wars waging over the Internet. "It's tamper and tamper protection, and we can already predict who's going to win." "We simply make it harder," he says. The average person with the average amount of skill is less likely to pull it off. Yet trying to determine the integrity of a photo may be missing the point, says Gerald Richards, a retired chief of the FBI's Special Photographic Unit. "Since the advent of photography, we have never been able to say a photograph is genuine," he says. "The only thing you can say with certainty is that it is not genuine." "What makes it reliable," he says, "is the photographer who comes in and raises his hand and says, 'Yes, I took this picture and it is a true and accurate representation.' " For police departments and the FBI, the digital medium has forced a more sophisticated protocol for handling photographs, he says. Richards, who now runs his own forensic services company, was an expert witness in O.J. Simpson's civil suit, testifying for the prosecution about the photograph of O.J. allegedly wearing those infamous Bruno Magli shoes. He rebutted the 11 points of contention that it was a fake, he says, simply on the basis that "I could find nothing wrong with it." In court, defining 'manipulation' is difficult and depends on degree, he says. "Are we changing one little spot or are we changing the body of a person?" The bottom line is that there is no true objectivity. Renowned photographer Edward Steichen recognised that, even before the advent of pixels. "Every photograph is a fake from start to finish," he said, "a purely impersonal, unmanipulated photograph being practically impossible." Gross echoes that sentiment. "The mistake is to think that there is a pure stance." Airbrushing individuals out of your life is not new. Joseph Stalin routinely erased personae non gratae from official photographs. As his dictatorship progressed, early communist comrades gradually disappeared to the point where Stalin's entourage started to look quite sparse at times. Courtesy : Christian Science Monitor ############ Celebrating 23 years of telecasting The Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation will be celebrating its 23rd anniversary with a series of programs on February 14, 15 and 16. The commemorative event titled 'Ekamuthuwa Perata Yamu' (let us unite and march forward), will be inaugurated by SLRC Chairman M. M. Zuhair and Deputy Director General Nishantha Ranatunge. A highlight of the ceremony will be the unveiling of a special mural depicting the theme 'Ekamuthuwa Perata Yamu'. Other events include the opening of the new dormitory, an all night 'pirith' chanting at the corporation premises followed by a 'Heel Danaya'. Employees who have completed 20 years of service will be awarded gold mementoes on February 16. This will be followed by a felicitation ceremony honouring producers who have won national and international accolade for their work. The awards will be presented by Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera. The day will also see the opening of bank accounts for the children of employees. Rupavahini will telecast an hour-long documentary tracing the 23-year history of Rupavahini at 7.00 p.m. on February 16. As a commemorative event it will also begin telecasting the popular 'Discovery' programme beginning February 15. ############ War Letters A play revolving around three women, Leela, Kamala and Malee, representing three generationswill go on the boards at Namal Malini Punchi Theatre ob February 18 and 19 at 7.30 p.m. It is set in a rural village in the south. The play seeks to give the audience some insight into the world of these women. The simple dialogue displays how each of them deal with the departure of a son, husband and father to the battlefield and the reality of the fact that they might never see him again. The script cleverly captures the frustrations, hopelessness, helplessness and loneliness that each of them feels. Tickets are available at the theatre during office hours. ############ Your chance to be part of 'Rag!'
CentreStage Productions (CSP) is gearing up for their most ambitious theatrical project yet - a mega-production called the Rag - The Musical, scheduled for October 2005. The original play, written and composed by Jehan Aloysius, has already enjoyed rave reviews and even a standing ovation for the workshop preview last September. The music is performed by Avanti Perera, while Deshan Cooray directs the choral arrangements. Rag deals with the topical theme of university ragging and violence. Moreover, the play has proven to be uncannily prophetic foretelling events that took place several years after the play was written. CSP is now casting for enthusiastic young actors, singers and dancers to take on the principle roles of the musical. They are on the look out for around twenty boys and ten girls, preferably aged 17 - 30 with strong solo quality voices and the ability to dance and act. In addition, five children aged 12 - 16 with strong singing voices are required as well as male/female dancers aged 17 - 30, who are versatile enough to handle both Eastern and Western choreography. CSP states that no prior theatrical experience is required - "just talent, passion and commitment". Says director, Jehan Aloysius, "The musical requires all the actors onstage to be able to sing competently. Chosen cast members will be given free training at weekend daytime workshops during the pre-work period of up to four months and then moved into regular rehearsals for the main show." Anyone interested in being part of this exciting production are requested to be present at the open hall at the Namel Malini Punchi Theatre, Cotta Road, Borella, on February 19 at 5 p.m. Participants will be expected to audition with a song of their choice and a short rehearsed dramatic extract (5 minutes maximum). A CD player will be available if participants wish to bring their own backing tracks. Shortlisted participants will be invited for pre-work at a later date. CentreStage Productions, founded by actor/playwright/director Jehan Aloysius, has produced quality theatre productions, which have been sold out even before opening night. In fact, last year alone, the theatre troupe performed two runs of their popular comedy Bengal Bungalow as well as their critically acclaimed play, The Ritual, which was performed in Jaffna and also as the only English production at the National Drama Festival. The troupe also introduced a novel dramatic tradition to Sri Lanka in the form of the Annual CentreStage Festival, which is intended as a platform to showcase original works and new artistes. |
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