LAT says ‘suspicious’ Reuters photos weren’t manipulated

Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times deputy director of photography Steve Stroud took a close look at two Reuters photos after readers wondered if they had been manipulated. In a Cuban ballet photo that’s questioned, “there’s no indication of photo manipulation, rather an overzealous enlargement to achieve a dramatic crop,” says Stroud. (A suspicious reader said “these ballerinas have a complete ‘luxation of the hip joint,’ or the agency who provided these pictures have a fantastic expert in Photoshop in their service.”) Another reader wonders if a photo from Baghdad was a composite image — ‘or maybe the guy [in question] is a ‘little person’?” Stroud says: “Examining the photo at the pixel level of magnification turns up no evidence that the content of the picture was tampered with.” || Are LAT readers more suspicious because of a 2003 photo-altering incident?