Is it real? Or is it Photoshopped?

[MattSh]

Fueled by Twitter and Facebook, the enormous growth in citizen journalism — especially photojournalism — has generated intense debate and often skepticism over the authenticity of photographs that purport to document the truth. It has become so easy to digitally manipulate images and post them online that sometimes viewers cannot believe what they are seeing, possibly with good reason.

Now, a computer science professor at Dartmouth College who has developed an authoritative reputation in the field of visual forensics has invented a free, do-it-yourself online image verification service that could quickly confirm, or debunk, the authenticity of what you are seeing on the screen.

The expert, Dr. Hany Farid, is the chief technology officer of Fourandsix Technologies Inc., which introduced the new service, Izitru, on Tuesday. It enables anyone who posts images online to prove that they are authentic by subjecting them to forensic tests to produce a “trust rating” for all viewers to see. The company also has developed applications of Izitru (pronounced: “is it true”) that can be integrated into other websites and services, Dr. Farid said.




http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/photos-trusted-but-verified/

[liberal N proud]

1. How many people have held the sun or the moon in their hands?

And there are always pics like this:

[alfredo]

2. I did it once, and it hurt like hell.

[NV Whino]

3. I wonder what it does with standard post processing

Darkening, lightening, sharpening, contrast adjustment.

The tests can help determine whether an image is a camera original or if it has been altered in some way from the initial time of recording. One of the most important parts of the analysis is the re-saving part, Dr. Farid said in an e-mail, so where the system can’t say specifically what happened to the image after capture, it can detect that something happened.

I think I just answered my question.

[ManiacJoe]

4. There was a similar site from a few years ago.

http://www.errorlevelanalysis.com/

Izitru's desire to "host" my photos leaves me a little suspicious.