Sometimes the internet is full of so much information that it can be hard to know what is real and what isn’t.

This is particularly true in delicate times like the present days.

When it comes to news stories, sometimes they are just not true. However, sometimes photos can be used manipulated to make it look as though a story is real, even when it isn’t. Today we are going to look at some tips you can use to spot fake photos online in seconds.

A picture that is currently widely shared and that made me write this post is the following one

As photojournalist, I have quite few brave colleagues at the moment in Ukraine documenting the war, when I saw this image so many things did not feel right. so the result is that

it was not taken in these recent days. This picture was part of a photoshoot for the Ukrainian army celebrating 27 years.

It is probably a real picture but staged and edited.

The photographer Dmitry Muravsky was dismissed by the Ukraine Defence Minister in 2016 over staged photographs.

It is being shared as a current photo on Twitter and other Social Media outlets.

This is another image went viral in these hype times.

The picture is nearly 2 years old
The gun is a toy (see label)
Image was staged

How to spot fake photos online

You can spot fake photos online in seconds if you know what to look for. The majority of the time, fake photos are used for a comedic effect. However, sometimes people will use fake photos to prove a point that is not true and make it appear as though it is true.

The first thing you should always do when you come across a photo that looks suspicious is doing a reverse Google image search. This allows you to see where the image has been used before and will often show you if it is real or fake. If you manage check for the Metatada.

Google : https://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en
Yandex : https://yandex.com/images/

While it is easy for people to create fake images today, there are also ways you can spot them. Here are some tips you can use to spot fake photos on the internet:

1. The first thing you are going to want to do is to look at the image itself. Images that have a resolution that looks too high, or too low can be a sign of a fake photo.

2. The next thing you are going to want to look at is the background. If it looks too ‘perfect’, this could be a sign that something is wrong with the photo.

3. Now we are going to look at the foreground of the image. Look for things that might not look right or objects that might have been copied and pasted into the image in order to make it seem more interesting.

4. Now we are going to look at any text in the image, do they look like they were added by a human or was there some sort of text generator used? If it looks like the text was added in an unprofessional way, then this is most likely a sign that the image has been faked.

5. If you see an image that has things such as lens flare or other special effects in them, see if they seem too perfect or not real enough to be true, sometimes these effects can be manipulated online using software, so if it doesn’t look quite right, then it’s probably fake!

6. Look for shadows and reflections, do the match? Is there continuity??

Finally think from a photojournalistic and news point of view. If is to perfect and it looks staged it is probably staged.