Toledo Blade photographer fired for using Clone tool

wxwax

The Blade says Allan Detrich altered 79 photographs this year alone.

Story here.

The Blade says that Detrich erased people, tree limbs and utility poles from some photos.

Here's his website.

You'd think after the LA Times photographer was fired a couple of years ago, that folks in the business would get the message. Pity this guy didn't.

The Toledo Blade says he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1998. Imagine the scandal if he'd won journalism's most prestigious award, with an altered photograph?

GREAPER

Ohhh the scandal


I thought folks might like to read about some current events here in Toledo.

Check out THIS

Then check out THIS


Discuss......

David_S85

More on it here.

saurora

wxwax wrote:

Imagine the scandal if he'd won journalism's most prestigious award, with an altered photograph?

Maybe it's already happened and hasn't been uncovered yet? I'm sure it will happen sooner or later. Seems this forum is full of scandal today.....even our own Challenge has a scandal. There will always be people with no ethics. Photography can be a quick way to make a buck if you have no morals. I just read a well-known wedding photographer's blog the other day and he talked about 2 separate occasions where someone had downloaded his entire website, every photo, graphics and every written word, then hung up their own business shingle and proceeded to do business as a wedding photographer using his images. They just changed contact info!!!!!!!!!!!!! People are ballsy. Lotta low-life out there. Nothing short of criminals in my eyes....they should have to pay for their actions.

David_S85

"Scandal" is too strong of a word for what happened in our contest. More of a discovery, that's all.

Andy

Waxy pWns greaper!
Atlanta pwns Toledo!

saurora

David_S85 wrote:

"Scandal" is too strong of a word for what happened in our contest. More of a discovery, that's all.

I agree David and I didn't mean that it was a huge deal, and fortuntely it was addressed. I was just thinking how unethical our society seems to be and how so many choose to shrug it off. But maybe I'm getting off-subject here as altering images is not quite the same thing. .... but in certain circumstances, it could be used for profit, gain or fame (pulitzer prizes, etc.). It's like a person who lies a lot and then pretty soon they begin to believe their own stories. One alters an image slightly and it's no big deal. But where do you draw the line? When does it become a "lie"? We've discussed this before.....will it become old-hat pretty soon and no one will care that it even happens? Ok..........I'm off my soap-box......going to my corner. I have a huge trust issue with people!!!

wxwax

GREAPER wrote:

Check out THIS
Then check out THIS

Great find. Those two legs cost him the Pulitzer, and he's never gotten over it.

David_S85

saurora wrote:

I agree David and I didn't mean that it was a huge deal, and fortuntely it was addressed. I was just thinking how unethical our society seems to be and how so many choose to shrug it off. But maybe I'm getting off-subject here as altering images is not quite the same thing. .... but in certain circumstances, it could be used for profit, gain or fame (pulitzer prizes, etc.). It's like a person who lies a lot and then pretty soon they begin to believe their own stories. One alters an image slightly and it's no big deal. But where do you draw the line? When does it become a "lie"? We've discussed this before.....will it become old-hat pretty soon and no one will care that it even happens? Ok..........I'm off my soap-box......going to my corner. I have a huge trust issue with people!!!

No problemo, Saurora. Yes, the ethics of almost everything these days are coming under scrutiny. Seems like anybody can and will alter images, or worse, for personal gain, without batting an eyelash. What's more, some societies (here and there) don't seem to care worth beans and ask no questions.

So is this where I confess I cloned out the large ground transformer jutting out from the lawn in the background for the book cover I shot a year ago?

Shhhhhh! The author doesn't know!

:hide

saurora

....I won't tell if you don't!!!

GREAPER

Andy wrote:

Waxy pWns greaper!
Atlanta pwns Toledo!

Beat me by 1 minute. I knew I shouldn't havestopped at the fridge....

GREAPER

It really hits home here. My first job was delivering the blade.

One thing I can tell you. My friends know I am a photographer so we discussed it at work. They all seemed aware of the ethicall problem involved. The discussion was worthwhile.

LiquidAir

The line between cosmetic edits and content edits is a fuzzy one. Clearly PJs need to live on the conservative end of that spectrum. Ironically, the photo edit he got caught for was no where near his most egregious one. Being that I am not a PJ, I'll stoop to the occasional cosmetic edit cloning out incidentals like posts or, well, er, maybe legs, is within the realm of the sorts of edits I'll do. However, editing a ball into a basketball shot? I'd feel the slime dripping off my keyboard if I even considered such a thing without the express intent of making it abundantly clear to all potential viewers that it was a maniuplated photo.

wxwax

Here's the guy's blog. Kinda sad, and only one honest post regarding the photo manipulation.

GREAPER

I don't think it was honest. He claimed it was a mistake. A one time thing that happened because of sending the wrong file. An error any of us could do. After that post he does not talk about it any more, but it turns out that he doctored at least 79 that he submitted just this year.

They stopped checking at that point. It could have been hundreds.

It was no mistake. He was trying to reach the top of his feild by cheating. He got caught once, and lied about it. Now it is implied that he did it as a regular part of his workflow

wxwax

GREAPER wrote:

I don't think it was honest. He claimed it was a mistake. A one time thing that happened because of sending the wrong file. An error any of us could do. After that post he does not talk about it any more, but it turns out that he doctored at least 79 that he submitted just this year.

They stopped checking at that point. It could have been hundreds.

It was no mistake. He was trying to reach the top of his feild by cheating. He got caught once, and lied about it. Now it is implied that he did it as a regular part of his workflow

Yeah. I'm thinking the April 6th blog is where he reveals himself more honestly. But you're right, the blog isn't exactly a confessional.

LiquidAir

Look here for some other examples of his doctored photos.