Photoshop Disaster, NO, cropping disaster, YES!
Steve Russell, Staff Photographer
Photoshop Disaster? NO
Bad crop? NO
Brutal crop? YES!
Looking through some of the comments made on this blog I noticed a recent addition to Richard Lauten's October 22nd post on Ethics, Computers and Photojournalism .
Reader Ken used this post to ask about a Toronto Star picture that ended up on a popular photoshop blog, photoshopdisasters. Toronto Star picture on photoshopdisasters
Ken writes, "I guess I have to wonder why such a mundane shot seems to have been manipulated by The Star or if there is another explanation"
A ragout of the Toronto Star's appearence on photoshopdisasters blog, clearly shows a suspect hand on Hazel's back.
No photoshoppery here, the picture was just the victim of a really bad crop.
I'm not sure who along the way did the original crop and as photoshopdisasters reports that original picture, seen above, was cropped again to exclude the mystery hand.
The picture in question was taken in 2001 by then photographer and now Photo Editor Ken Faught.
The original picture actually has Hazel's other son and daughter sitting on her left side with his long arm around her and ends up resting on his bother's back. The four are sitting on a very small couch.
Someone along the way cropped out the other siblings on Hazel's left but that crop left the hand in.
Adding to the confusion is that Hazel's other son's jacket kind of blends into the couch in the shadow of the McCallions. If you look real hard, squint, you can see it. The picture was taken with a Nikon D1, which has no where near the range that current Nikons would have.
The orginal picture shows all the McCallions on a very small couch with Mayor Hazel sitting on son Peter's lap. Her other son Paul is practically sitting beside Peter. The view of Paul's jacket against the couch is a little clearer.
Hope this clears up the Star's Trip into a suspected Photoshop Disaster!
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