Photoshopping

As the ethics of editing photographs came up in a discussion of the recent lottery winner from Maine, I want to put my two cents in on this ethical matter.

Peer blogger, Connor Moore, has it right in saying that it is the duty of photographers to understand what messages are taken from their photographs. Rightfully so, some circumstances would permit slight editing to ensure that the best possible message is portrayed.

In the situation discussed in a recent National Press Photographers Association article, much controversy has been raised over editing out a pair of legs from a photograph before running it in the newspaper. This detail was uncovered merely because several local papers ran the same photograph, and I think the situation has been blown extremely out of proportion.

Something as minute as editing out a pair of legs in the background of a shot cannot possibly constitute as an ethical sin of journalism. Sure, photographers tread in rough water when it comes to drawing the line in when and when not to edit photographs; however, it is acceptable to make minor alterations to improve the aesthetic quality of a photograph as long as the main subject is portrayed in a truthful light. The photographers duty is to publish the best photographs possible for the story. With or without that pair of legs, the shot of the baseball team still communicates the same message, and I would call that fine and well in my ethical standard manual.