With the US elections just around the corner, we’ve been inundated with political flyers and mailers.

Relax, this is not getting political.

It does make me wonder about the ethics of using photoshop in political campaigns.

It’s disturbing to see a photographer’s rights being trampled.

Why do politicians think it’s okay to use their candidates likeness in any shape of form?

That is a major copyright infringement.

I’m actually surprised there hasn’t been a lawsuit against the use of pictures in this manner.

Do they think the public will believe some candidate running for office just because they are seen in a picture with president Obama is endorsed by him for whatever office he is running for?

Most of the time the grunt doing the campaign mailer is churning out the same mailer over and over again.

The only thing they change is the name of the candidate and the photograph of the candidate next to either Romney or Obama.

Which explains why the photoshop job is so horrendous.

Anyone looking at the picture can see they didn’t even select pictures that had matching lighting conditions.

So how is that going to be convincing?

If you’re going to use a photograph, at least make an effort to make it look real.

If you can’t, then use a line drawing for Pete’s sake.

I’m holding on to all these flyers I’ve been getting.

The day after the elections, I’m going to see who won and then look at the photography.

Hopefully, it will prove my theory that a good picture still matters.

It may surprise you how much it matters especially when all the candidates are slinging mud.

I’m going to have to sanitize my mailbox.

Peter Phun Photography

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