Toledo Blade photog quits after altering picture

Maybe it's me, and I don't have a photographer's artistic eye, but did the legs in the corner of the photo really affect the quality?

People who looked at that photo were looking at the players and the banners. I don't think the legs really made that much of a difference.

 

It's not just you. He lost his job for something no one would have noticed.

 

You have to read the accompanying story. The players are kneeling in front of the banners for a reason.

In Detrich's March 30 photo – which showed the Bluffton University baseball team praying before their first game after five of their teammates were killed in a bus accident – a pair of legs had been cloned out of the image. It attracted attention because photographers at other papers had shot the same scene from a similar angle. The controversy was first reported Thursday by the NPPA's News Photographer magazine.

Those banners bear their teammates' names. They are arguably the most important thing in the photo.

 

Yeah. But, not the legs behind one of them.

 

Clearly, the photographer disagreed.

 

Clearly, I still have my job and he doesn't.

(The photographer didn't disagree. That's if we're to believe him. In the original correction, the photographer said he transmitted the wrong photograph and altered it for his own personal use. He knew he was wrong. So, I'm not sure of the debate here.)

 

There isn't one - at least between you and me. Some folks just weren't clear on why the banners were important enough for the shooter to want to do something about those feet in the first place.

Even if the photographer only Photoshopped the image for "his files" (which I find impossible to believe) it still speaks to his thinking that it's a better picture without them. Which it is.

The only reason for him to have altered the image for "his files" is if he thought it had some resale value as a stock image - which is ghoulish in another way entirely, but may speak to the kind of person we're talking about here. And may be what resulted in his resignation as much as the doctoring.

 

As I said, I never noticed the legs. And I looked at every banner. I was drawn to the circle of players.

That said, I can see where the photog thought the legs detracted from the overall quality of the photo.

A couple weeks ago, I thought my best photo from an assignment was "ruined" because one of several kids was spitting in the photo. Not a single person who looked at the photo (which I didn't run) saw the kid spitting. I did, and I didn't file it because I thought others in the public would notice. Everyone else said "great shot" or "cool shot." I answered with "too bad that kid is spitting." No one else saw him.

 

...So, get your clone tool out and get that spit out of that photograph!!!

 

No altering of photos.

Not a difficult concept for most, I believe. At least when I'm not here.

 

the real story is why didn't all the photogs chase the son of a bitch down standing behind the banner afterward and collectively beat the hell out of him? wouldn't have helped save the shot but they'd have felt better.

 

Because "him" was a her.