Delete a background? Easy. Smooth out a face? Seamless. Digital photo manipulation is now mainstream

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy It's been a common refrain when seeking proof that someone's story or some event actually took place: “Pics, or it didn't happen.” But in a world where the spread of technology makes photo manipulation as easy as a tap on your phone, the idea that a visual image is an absolute truth is as outdated as the daguerreotype. The rise of visual manipulation that casts doubt on whether something is real or not “frays the fabric of the culture tremendously in the moment but also for the future.” Fred Ritchin, dean emeritus of the school at the International Center of Photography and a former picture editor at The New York Times Magazine, agreed. But they haven't really come to terms with how widespread digital manipulation is in other areas like social media, done by a wide variety of everyday people, said Lexie Kite, who with her sister Lindsay has done research into body image and media and wrote “More Than A Body: Your Body Is an Instrument, Not an Ornament.” “It is important for all of us to anchor ourselves in the truth that digital manipulation is our reality,” she said. People can take steps to deal with the creeping effects of photo manipulation, said Hany Farid, a professor at UC Berkeley whose research examines digital forensics and image analysis.