Everybody Hates Chris: Photoshopping Lesson

Brilliant! Brilliant! My correspondent who goes under the tag "Everybody Hates Chris" has been making an extraordinary accusation against a bunch of disillusioned Lib Dem members ... and I find myself defending them. EHC claims that they, or someone, has doctored the photo I used here, repeated above. And as if that wasn't enough, also by definition the one used here, repeated below.

All kinds of spurious suspicions spill from our imaginative troll's mind. That guy must have incredibly strong thumbs. This one has impossible arm lengths. That shy woman near the middle is so pertinent that she has been added for some reason to the pictures. The placards are not merely touched up, they too have been flown in. The type is too clear. The card is too white. And the hands are visible - a sure sign of mischief. But - phew - the picture was taken around midday as described.

The proof he has of all this starts with a gut feeling and ends with having a word with a handy "reprographics expert". Given the seriousness of the charges I'd have expected blow ups of the scene showing misaligned pixels, digital cut marks, different resolutions on different bits of the composite and so on. You'll certainly find these signs on my own fun montages. But oh no. It's gut feeling, imaginery mate and then comes the coup de grace.

Being this shot of some Tories outside a Post Office in Audenshaw, Tameside. Presumably that one is not doctored in any way? And that proves the Rochdale one is doctored? Is that it? Hilarious!



For my own part I cannot imagine even Lib Dems in Rochdale going to the trouble of doctoring not one but two pictures when instead they could simply take a picture of themselves carrying real placards. It's not like they're trying to pretend they were pictured at a particular anti-war demo, were simultaneously present at an NHS opening, or were demonstrating against uncontrolled immigration with Ann Widdecombe.

They were simply peeved at the appalling undemocratic practices of Rochdale Lib Dems. They had a camera and some placards and they walked up to the MP's office on a Saturday morning and took a photograph. Which was then used by Rochdale Online, The Rochdale Observer, and elsewhere with no suspicion whatsoever.



Sleuthing the "proof positive" of picture doctoring to Tameside Conservatives I found several side stories on view there. The not very comprehensive list of the Region's Tory MEPs (A), a scare mongering poster picture on road charging (B), and immediately juxtaposed a side bar tease on an hilarious demand for either proof of scare mongering or an apology from the government (C).

IDENTITY OF EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS: Who is this time waster? Are they pictured perhaps in the Tameside protest picture? Like Hitchcock appearing in his own Mysteries?