Don't believe everything you see...

I'm no Photoshop guru by any means, but I do enjoy a little manipulation once & awhile. One of the big ethical issues that photogs get swept up in is the amount of retouching that can be done and still call a picture "original." (I suppose any touched up shot is no longer the original.)

A few years ago, Dove started a Campaign for Real Beauty to address manufactured beauty in media. Their commercial showing a model going through a transformation process is pretty good... Everything you see isn't real.

For instance, a few months ago we celebrated Thanksgiving at the Reed's house. I took the following shot of everyone at the table:Since I'm always behind the camera and never in the picture, I decided to "show up" for the party, hence the following shot:

With a little snip of the Cutting Tool and some smoothing with the Eraser, you get the following happy group (notice I left the napkin on my lap that was on the chair in the first shot):
Is it artistic license? Is it unethical to insert yourself into a Thanksgiving dinner you attended (versus Michael from The Office putting himself into his girlfriend's family skiing photo)? I don't think so... but it gives you pause over the stuff you see as factual events...

And that, my friends, is your lesson in paranoia today!