Roanoke Times out to get Angela Lansbury?
If desperate-for-a-conspiracy folks can see malice in a USA Today photo of Condi Rice, I wonder what they’ll make of this photo that ran in The Roanoke Times of Angela Lansbury:
(If you’re wondering, I propped up the paper, shot the image with my camera, and cropped it — no Photoshopping of any sort beyond that.)
Reality: Newspapers, especially big ones like USA Today, batch-process hundreds of wire photos a day, using standard Photoshop settings that they find work well for 99 percent of shots.
Occasionally one slips through that doesn’t respond well to the treatment. (In USA Today’s case, that treatment included the rather typical Unsharp Mask filter.)
I get a kick out of people professing an expertise (”I have 10 years experience in video editing”) that they think somehow extends to a newspaper’s production process.
Unless they think that Angela Lansbury is also being demonized for some reason.
Tim S says:
The Times Landsbury shot isn’t the same effect as the Rice photo. The whites of her eyes just look bigger, not whiter.
I suspect Ms. Angela is a “blinker” in still shots, a common problem, especially for contact wearers (she’s 110, of course she needs vision correction).
To short-circuit the blink reflex an old portrait photographer’s trick is to have the subject squeeze their eyes shut tightly for a few seconds. When they are opened them, they aren’t as likely to blink when they hear the shutter start to click. The result is the eyes are open a little wider than normal for that second or two.
If you want to see a person whose eyes are always “bugged” check out the shots of Jennifer Wilbanks, the “Runaway Bride” from a few months ago. http://static.flickr.com/9/17177914_16b059267c_o.jpg
No Photoshop used there…