Pictures that Lie...Or Travel to the 70's

So...I wasn't alive in the 70's. In case you did not know. But why not change a picture of my family at Christmas to a picture of us with colored hair at the disco? That sounds fun. I chose this picture because it is my favorite family picture, and I wanted to see if I could make it look weird. It was taken on a digital camera by my grandma. So to manipulate the picture: for the hair color I used the color replacement tool (I don't know if Ms. Belisle showed us how to use this, but I found it on the toolbar) to recolor the hair while leaving the same texture, so it looks slightly more natural than just painting over it with a brush. I think my mom's hair turned out especially well. I also rotated the picture using the image flip horizontal tool. It was just for fun. I recolored our shirts, as well as blurring off the images that were on my sister's shirts. Then, I decided we needed a disco background or else we'd just look like people with colored hair. I put it on a layer behind the picture. The last change, probably the most important, is that I added Neil Patrick Harris, the phenomenal actor from one of my favorite shows (How I Met Your Mother), to our family photo, as well as putting some disco dancers behind us (each person is on a separate layer). For Neil Patrick Harris, I used the magic extractor tool to put him in the picture, and for the disco dancers, I used the evil magnetic lasso tool. Oh and I gave my dad an afro with a paintbrush. This manipulation was not harmful, unless one of my family members gets offended by their hair color, or Neil Patrick Harris doesn't want to be associated with the Parsons family. But changing hair color or adding hair to someone's head can be harmful because it could technically make them look better than their natural selves...mine really is harmless though. I worked hard on this picture, even though it did not turn out quite as beautifully as I had hoped. Don't be too hard on me. :-) You can see the original picture at the bottom of the page of my blog. :-)
Now to talk about that shocking article Ms. Belisle had us read. The quote I found most shocking was that: "Doctored images are troubling because they can mislead scientists and even derail a search for the causes and cures of a disease." This is a good point. I cannot believe that someone as trusted as Ms. Roovers would make up evidence like that. It doesn't benefit our society at all! It only makes her look better...for a brief time. So pointless and out of line. It gives our society false hope. My opinion is that all of these publishing companies should check the validity of their photos before printing them.