THE TERM ‘FAKE NEWS’ might have
been popularized only very recently,
but incidences of ‘fake news’ certainly
aren’t a new thing. That brings us neatly
to Hippolyte Bayard, another pioneer of
photography in the 1 9th century. Bayard
believed he was the father of photography,
not Niépce, Daguerre, or Talbot.
Frustrated by a perceived lack of credit for
his work at the forefront of photography,
Bayard created what could now be seen
as the first example of clickbait—that’s
right, way before YouTube was even a
thing, people were seeking attention
through false claims.
Bayard could be considered the first
‘influencer’, also creating one of the
earliest ‘selfies’. Driven by the recognition
the others had received, Bayard faked a
photograph of his own suicide. In a grainy
photo from 184 0, Bayard photographed
himself, partially clothed, lying against a
wall after supposedly having drowned.
While faking a suicide image is a big
no-no, Bayard’s photo shows that image
manipulation has been in existence right
from the very start of photography. It
also showed early on that a photograph
could be deceitful and wasn’t always
a trustworthy source of information.
Despite all the incredible places, people,
and events that have been shot since, it’s
amazing to think that they were faking it
even as far back as the 184 0s. So, having
determined it isn’t a new phenomenon,
let’s skip forward to the start of digital
photo editing and the boom in
photo manipulation.THE EMERGENCE
OF PHOTO
MANIPULATION
Bayard’s self-portrait as a drowned man
is an early example of image manipulation.The digital camera was a significant
development in the history of photography,
but has been overtaken by the smartphone.THE DIGITAL AGE
The fundamental technology of retouching
didn’t change too much until 1957 when
Russell Kirsch created one of the first
digital images by converting a picture
of his three-month-old son into a digital
file. It was created by scanning an analog
picture, and though it technically wasn’t
a true digital image it was a step forward
for digital photography. After this, many
researchers and inventors experimented
with digital photograph technology. They
were focused on building machines that
could take photos in a digital format.
In 1968 , Peter Noble created a sensor
that would convert light into digital
data. Named the Active Pixel Sensor, it
registered light across it and changed
this information into digital data. It could
create a digital image without analog
images being scanned and was, therefore,
one of the first digital cameras.
A researcher in the Kodak labs called
Steve Sasson built upon this idea to create
a digital camera that could capture and
save electronic images. Sasson planned
to make the first handheld digital camera,
however, this didn’t exactly go according
to plan. Ending up being the size of a
toaster, it wasn’t what he had imagined.
The images it took were 0.8 megapixel
black and white digital photographs and
they were saved onto a cassette. Though
it was a step backward in quality, analog
was still far superior, this was a crucial
creation for modern photography.
This device worked, but it would
take a further 16 years for
digital cameras to be finally
commercially available.
One of the earliest was the
Logitech Fotoman in 199 1.
This was a vertically operated
plastic camera, it had no
rearview screen and had a
viewfinder at the top left of
the camera. It took black and
white images at a 376 x240 pixel
resolution with 1MB of internal
storage, or around 32 pictures.To view photographs, you had to plug
your camera into a computer, where you
could view and edit your images using
Logitech’s digital camera software. This
was groundbreaking stuff and caused a
growth in digital cameras in the 199 0s.
Along with viewing your pictures on a
computer and being able to digitally store
them, of course, it gives you the option
to tweak them with the camera’s native
software. However, at the start of the
199 0s, this wasn’t the only software that
you could use to edit your pics.THE BIRTH OF PHOTOSHOP
The late 198 0s saw the creation of the
best selling and most popular photo
editing program to date, Photoshop. This
significant application was created by
the Knoll brothers, John and Thomas.
John worked for Lucasfilm’s Industrial
Light and Magic special-effects company
and while there he discovered the Pixar
Image Computer. This piece of equipment
was able to create a digital image from
film that could be manipulated and then
reinserted back into the film. It was a
computer specifically for image editing.
The problem was the astronomical cost
of the machine and the fact that it could
only be operated by a specially trained
technician, which wasn’t either convenient
or practical. John loved this idea though
and, coincidentally, when talking to his
brother about this, discovered that he
had been working on a similar piece of
software for the Macintosh Plus at the
University of Michigan.
The brothers collaborated and
continued to work on their idea until they
had developed a sophisticated piece of
software they could present to the powers
that be. They needed an image to use for a
demonstration, so John scanned a 4 -inch
by 6 -inch print of a photo of his girlfriend
he had taken in Bora Bora that came to be
known as ‘Jennifer in Paradise’.image manipulation