How To Spot an Edited Picture

We’ve examined power photo retouching before, but how can you tell when a photo’s been altered? Frequent photo editors often acquire a knack for spotting fake photographs, but what about the rest of us? Scientific American offers several tips on how to spot faked photographs. Among them: look at how the light hits the various people and objects in the photograph—everything in the photo should have matching highlights and shadows indicating they were all photographed at the same time under the same light source. More in-depth scrutiny can reveal other “tells”—eyes often being the giveaway.

If the direction and shape of the eyes isn’t consistent with the position of the head and body, it can indicate a forgery, as well as the highlights on the eyes themselves changing from person to person. Are you a Photoshop bloodhound? Share your tips and tricks for spotting fakes in the comments. Photo by NoiseCollusion.