Using 100% Black to spot fake digital art

[steve.ledger]

That sounds interesting - can your demonstrate this with examples please.

[MarkMyWords]

Well, filtering or even 'painting over' photos is not 'wrong' in itself. The finished image is what really matters of course, but claiming that you did it all from scratch is a bit sad.

As far as pros are concerned it must only A; do the job, B; not infringe copyright and if possible C; be original (though this is much more optional than many assume).

I used to wonder why people spent such a great deal of time and effort creating 'photo-realistic' images in vector programs, but it was pointed out to me that it is both a good way to learn useful skills and there is a very large market for retouching photos. A really good 'photo-realistic' vector drawing is often much better than an actual photo.

Where we may be impressed by the skill of creating a photo-realistic image, that is somewhat offset when there is reason to suspect it is a filtered photo.

My own particular pet-hate is when someone traces another persons image - photo, drawing or painting and claims it as their own...ARRGH!

[salaam]

A good example is the contribution by Thor entitled; 'Cup of coffee?'
In the Xara Gallery (next door), Thor recently posted 2 pictures of a coffee machine. One is a photo while the other is his reproduction.
Image location:
http://www.talkgraphics.com/attachme...1&d=1194523190
If you convert this double image into a negative, you will see a much bigger difference between the 2 versions than the original colour versions.

'Cup of coffee?' Thread location:
http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=30042

If you study Gray's 'Yellow Trainer' along side a negative copy of the image, you will not see any extra detail in the negative copy. Even though this raster plane image contains more detail than the coffee machine photo.
'Yellow Trainer' thread location:
http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=30012

I even tried tracing a photo and then converted this vector into a bitmap again. The trace was not as good as the original but the negative still had the hallmarks of a photograph. I also reduced the colours of a photo bitmap. Neither process seemed to hide the fact that the image was initially a photo.

Looking at different images in this way has not led me to believe that there are any fakes in Talkgraphics.