Article by Zaven Alexandri of AnexTech
With Adobe Photoshop becoming ever more popular and easy to use, most public pictures you find on the internet and other media have been retouched in some way. Being hired to retouch a picture can often provide at least an ethical dilemma which often can lead to a legal problem.
The first thing to consider before photo shopping a picture is if you have permission to use it. Due to the ease of downloading information and images on the internet today, many people assume that all images online are public domain. This is not true and stealing and changing some one’s photograph without permission can lead to legal consequences.
The second consideration you should make before deciding how much to retouch a photograph is what it is going to be used for. If you are editing something that is going to be used to tell a news story, you need to be very careful that you do not over simplify its message. It is not the editor’s job to make heroes look more heroic or villains more evil, changing how people will digest the accompanying information. Stick to simply sharpening the image. Even something as simple as cropping out a small part can drastically change the image’s message.
Finally, when retouching images of people, make sure you ask plenty of specific questions to the client about what they want. Do not assume you know what they want removed off their person. Something you might consider a flaw, might have some mental value to the client.