Being able to edit and manipulate digital photos has really become an ordinary thing in our generation due to the easy access to editing programs such as Photoshop. But like everything, editing and photo shopping pictures has gradually shifted from just fixing minor awkward nuances of a picture to drastically changing what the picture was meant to portray.

                For the most part, being able to edit or altar a photo can be a very useful in many different situations. I’m sure all of us have had the most perfect picture ever only for it to be ruined by everyone having red eyes, or just one person having their eyes closed. Being able to make everyone’s eyes a normal color again by editing may seem like just a simple thing, but it is really practical that instead of having to retake the picture, it is just an easy fix on the computer. Another good and ethical use for digital photo editing is to be able to enhance and make old black and white photos look new again. For instance, my grandpa had some old photos of his grandparents and his parents that he had found, but they were in such terrible shape they were almost unrecognizable. After me and my sister scanned them and edited them, they were probably much better quality than when they were first made.

                While there are many good times and situations to edit photos, there are also some times that it is used to manipulate people by changing the whole meaning of a photo. For example, in this photo below, a college student posted a picture where she had photo shopped a tornado into a picture behind her apartment in order for people to believe there was a tornado nearby.

 

This picture pretty much sums up why editing photos gets such a bad reputation and when editing photos is not appropriate. Just by seeing this woman post this on her Facebook page could cause panic throughout her neighborhood for no reason at all. This picture gained such a reaction, it was shared 250 times and even showed on the local news before it was found out to be fake. After many different people saw this photo and found out it was edited, I’m sure it ruined their ability to automatically see a photo and believe it’s real.

                Tampering with and drastically changing a picture gives photo editing a bad reputation, but its benefits and usefulness for fixing minor things is why it’s considered a piece of productivity software.