Techniques of Fakery
There are six basic techniques of faking a photo, none of which are mutually exclusive.

1: Inserting details. This includes placing an element from one photo into another to create a composite image, reproducing a detail of the photo by cloning it, superimposing an image onto another, or drawing-in details.

2: Deleting details. This is usually done by extending background elements over the unwanted detail. Or one can crop out the unwanted detail.

3: Manipulating elements within the photo. For instance, one can adjust the color, resize details, or rotate or move details.

4: falsifying the caption. (In a sense, every fake photo has been falsely captioned.)

5: Staging the scene. This is considered fakery particularly when it occurs in photojournalism. Varieties of staging a scene include using models and cutouts and inserting a prop into the scene.

6: Taking a photo at a trick angle. The most common example of this is the use of forced perspective.


Themes


Time Periods
hoax photo database

Thumbnail Gallery: Present-1840
The Hoax Photo Database catalogs examples of photo fakery throughout the history of photography. Included in the database are photos that are "real," but which have been suspected of being fake, as well as images whose veracity remains undetermined. The images are listed here in reverse-chronological order (you can also view them in chronological order, 1840 to the present). They are categorized by theme, technique of fakery, and time period. Other Viewing Options: Full Text Mode: Present-1840 or 1840-Present


The Surgeon’s Photo
Staged with a model
April 1934



Lung-Powered Flying Machine
April Fool's joke
April 1, 1934



Baby Adolf
Fake (altered in darkroom)
Late 1933



Wisconsin’s Capitol Collapses
April Fool's Day joke
April 1, 1933



Death in the Air
Staged with models
Published in 1933; debunked in 1984.



Mother Cat Stops Traffic
Staged Scene
July 29, 1925



Bloody Sunday, 1905
Staged reenactment
1925



Ada Emma Deane’s Armistice Day Series
Fake (superimposed "spirit" faces)
November 1924



High-Pressure Hijinks
Undetermined
ca. 1923



Stotham, Massachusetts: The Town That Didn’t Exist
Real pictures, falsely captioned
April 1920



Trotsky Vanishes
Fake (deleted person)
Taken in 1919; altered ca. 1967



The Cottingley Fairies
Staged using paper cutouts
1917-1920



Ocean Execution
False caption
December 1913



Roosevelt Rides A Moose

1912



Cat Drinks From a Bottle

1911


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