The hubbub over the photos of Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson started when fans pointed out that in other pictures of the comedian, his jawline and nose looked different — less perfect, so to speak (via Page Six). While the debate continues over the veracity of these claims, The List turned to Alec Whitmore, a Seattle-based photographer and graphic designer, to understand what to look for to determine if a picture has been altered.
“When we try to detect altered images, there are always telltale signs,” Whitmore told The List. What are they? “Weird color spots, mismatching lighting, awkwardly grafted faces on mismatched bodies and irregular ratios,” he told us. But it’s not that simple, because as Whitmore went on to explain, “There are also plenty of hacks to cover up those signs.”
Most of the time, it’s an eagle-eyed follower who spots a detail like a warped body part or background, giving away that a picture was manipulated (via Life & Style). Those mess ups aren’t intentional obviously, because as Whitmore explained, “Your end goal when you’re compositing an image is to make it visually cohesive, and an easy way to do that is by adding a layer of film grain or noise over an image — kind of like a layer of veneer or paint.”
This step ensures fans are less likely to “find discrepancies.”
