A Trick of the Camera

The double-truck photo that wrapped around the sports section of Wednesday’s St. Petersburg Times included a couple of colorful Bucs placards produced by the Times’ archrival, the Tampa Tribune. Missing from the placards, as they appear in the photo, is the name of the Tribune and its Media General partners, News Channel 8 and TBO.com.

You can see the double-truck on the Times’ website. And here’s a look at the photo used in the double-truck:
 
St. Petersburg Times photo by Fraser Hale

The blurred branding touched off a string of allegations and rumors on listservs and e-mail exchanges around the country. So just what did the St. Petersburg Times have to do to get rid of its rival’s branding?

Absolutely nothing.

The Poynter Institute, which publishes Poynter Online, also owns the St. Petersburg Times. So you have every reason to read what follows with a skeptical eye. But we invite your own scrutiny of the images involved.

What the human eye sees is not always what the camera captures. Sometimes the camera is tricked.

In this case, the question was whether the photo by staff photographer Fraser Hale had been altered to smudge the logos of the Tribune and its partners.

The allegations prompted the photo staff of The Times to conduct its own investigation.

“We have checked the image’s integrity from the photographer, to the designer, the imaging technician to plate making,” said Sue Morrow, assistant managing editor for visuals at The Times. She concluded that charges that the image had been altered are “absolutely false.” She added: “We stand by the picture.”

Boyzell Hosey, the Times’ new senior photo editor in its Tampa office, said: “I edited the card, along with Sherman Zent. We pulled the original file and it has not been tampered with. Maybe the fans did that.” He concluded: “It is a ridiculous allegation, especially with our ethical standards.”

Perhaps most tellingly, the Tribune logo is also impossible to make out in a parade photo by Tribune staff photographer Jim Reed. Here it is:

Tampa Tribune photo by Jim Reed.

So what happened?

In the end, it appears most likely that the new Nikon D1 digital camera is the culprit. Both the Tribune and Times use these cameras. Despite the sophisticated technology of the $3,500 D1, the camera does not differentiate clearly between deep reds (the background color of the placard) and dark greys (the text of the Tribune logos). The result is a blurred image.

The term trompe l’oeil, French for ‘trick the eye,’ describes optical illusions seen in both realistic paintings and computer illustrations.

This time, it appears that we have a trick of the camera.