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August 1st, 2025 (Permalink)
Photos Don't Lie, but Photographers Do
- Hany Farid, "How to Spot Fake AI Photos", TED, 7/18/2025
Though fake photography and videography are becoming increasingly sophisticated, there are still many photos and videos in the media that use techniques that have been around since the beginnings of photography, such as selective editing2, false captioning3, or cropping4. The following article describes a couple of recent cases. Warning: the photos are unpleasant to look at, which is part of their effectiveness as propaganda.
- Miriam Metzinger, "When Images Mislead: The Facts Behind 2 Viral Gaza Cases", The Media Line, 7/30/2025
The following short video won't teach you much about how to spot fake photographs generated by so-called artificial intelligence, so it's misleadingly named. However, you might be able to use the geometric techniques briefly demonstrated. Instead, it shows why spotting phony photos and videos is becoming a task for professionals. The presenter is the author of a book―not for amateurs―on analyzing and exposing faked photography1, which contains more detail on the techniques for analyzing perspective and lighting. By the way, I quite agree with the presenter's comments on anti-social media near the end of the video.
Notes:
- ↑ Hany Farid, Fake Photos (2019). Highly technical book with a lot of mathematics, so appropriate for professionals or those with the mathematical background looking to become professionals.
- ↑ See: How to Lie with Photographs, Part 1, 12/9/2023.
- ↑ See: How to Lie with Photographs, Part 2, 5/11/2024.
- ↑ See: How to Tell Half-Truths with Photographs, 2/12/2025.
Disclaimer: I don't necessarily agree with everything in the video and article, but I think they are worth watching or reading in their entirety.