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Fake news photos can go viral quickly. A hoax picture of former President Barack Obama holding a “Michelle Obama 2020 t-shirt” was shared 163,000 times on Facebook.
Making fake news photos or fake history photos is easier than you probably even think. For instance, you can easily “age” contemporary photos to look historical in Adobe PhotoShop.
Even beginners can make a modern photo [1] look “historical” with simple PhotoShop tools. Particularly, Shutterstock contributor Karl Rosencrants describes a simple process for aging photographs.
Thus, anybody can make fake news photos that look like something out of an old-time newspaper. All you need is a little imagination and an editing program like Adobe PhotoShop.
How To Make Fake News Photos That Look Historical
Here is a simple process for creating fake news photos that look like something out of the history books.
First, you will need Adobe PhotoShop. Second, you will need a photo with historical elements.
An image of a person in historical clothes in surroundings that cannot be dated will work best. Additionally, the photo could be color or black and white.
Third, find a wrinkled or textured background. Online photo resources like Shutterstock [2], Pixabay [3], and Pexels [4] are full of such pictures. To find these pictures, search the photo resources for “textured background.”
Fourth, insert the textured background into the modern photo. This will age the photograph because it puts in holes and rips. Adding a textured background makes the photo look old and worn.
How To Make Fake News Photos Look Old
Fifth, use the Colorize box to insert a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. For example, Rosencrants recommends a setting of Hue: 25 and Saturation: 25 to create the look of an old-time news photograph. Simply press Crtl+Alt+Shift+E or Comd+Opt+Shift+E to blend the visible layers into a new layer.
Sixth, to give your fake news photos that historical look, go to Filter>Noise>Add Noise. Then set the Distribution to Gaussian and check Monochromatic.
Seventh, use the Burn or Dodge tools to lighten and darken specific areas. In particular, add darkening to torn edges to make them look slightly burnt.
How To Make Your Fake News Photos More Popular Online
Eighth, use filters to make your photos more popular online. In fact, researchers at Georgia Tech and Yahoo labs believe filtered [5] photos are 21% more likely to be liked. In addition, filtered photos are 45% more likely to receive comments.
Specifically, experts consider colors like orange, red, and yellow to be high-arousal colors. People are more apt to look at such colors because they convey warmth.
Consequently, adding a little red will get more people to look at your fake news photos. There are even warm filters on PhotoShop that will make your photos look more attractive.
Other tricks include increasing or decreasing the exposure and increasing contrast, as high-contrast photos are more visually engaging.
If you need help creating fake news photos, you can utilize tools such as Shutterstock Editor [6]. For example, Shutterstock Editor comes with 10 easy to use filters.
In the final analysis, you should no longer believe any photo you see online. Thanks to tools like Adobe PhotoShop, any photograph can be faked in today’s world.
Fake News Photos Go Viral
Fake news photos are powerful and dangerous because they can go viral quickly. For instance, a hoax [7] picture of former President Barack Obama (D-Illinois) holding a “Michelle Obama 2020 t-shirt” was shared 163,000 times on Facebook.
The picture is real but the t-shirt is a fake added by hoaxers. Notably, the real t-shirt says “Hate Won’t Win.” Moreover, President Obama had tweeted the original image in 2015. So, hoaxers fooled tens of thousands of people by inserting a fake image into a real picture.
It looks like we cannot trust any photo online, no matter who appears in it. Indeed, you should be all the more skeptical of pictures with famous people in them. Adding one familiar element to a fake is a classic means of fooling people.
In a world where anybody can create fake news photos, pictures can easily deceive us.
You may also enjoy reading an additional Off The Grid News article: History Reader Beware: The Past Is Full Of “Fake News” [8]
Do you have any other thoughts on fake news photos? Let us know in the comments below.