Did you know that many images you come across on the Internet, and often share, might be fake? Photos will amaze you in this activity. Some photos look real but aren’t, while others look unrealistic and are real. You will learn to sniff out altered images and create a cheat sheet that can help others learn how to spot them.

READ

What to believe?

• Detecting Fake Photos with Digital Forensics
• Publications aim to make debunking as popular as fake images
• How to Detect a Photoshopped Image
• Truth in Social Media Starting at the Source

DISCOVER

Fake or amazing?

• Photo tampering history
• Images You Won’t Believe Aren’t Photoshopped from Cracked.com: 15 here and 19 more
• Fake Sandy Pictures in Social Media
• 11 More Fake Viral Images
• Photoshopping: Altering Images and Our Minds

CREATE

Tools

• Internet access to
  • izitrue.com
  • TinyEye.com
  • Exifdata.com

Tutorials

• Presentation on Fact-Checking Photos in the Digital Age
• A Simple TinEye Tutorial
• How to Search-by-Image

IMPORTANT NOTE: As you explore websites in this activity, be extremely careful NOT to click on advertisement.

Step-by-step

1. Check the computer to determine which software you’ll use to create your handout.
2. Start a text document.
3. Design the document in tables to align text with relevant graphics and notes.
4. Create the content.
5. Explain the concepts writing complete sentences.
6. Include content-relevant graphics such as screenshots of web resources.
7. Be discriminating when using boxes and arrows; use thin, gray lines.
8. Use color judiciously.
9. Use narrow margins; ½” margins work with most printers and copiers
10. Create activate hyperlinks if applicable.
11. Print to PDF and share your handout.

Need an advanced approach?

• If you have previous image-editing experience try GIMP to annotate your photos, it’s free and quite powerful.
• Explore JPEGsnoop (windows only)

ACHIEVE

• Don't forget to talk to your librarian about all the reading, discovering and creating you're doing this summer to earn your Achieve Badge!

Rahm’s Readers is made possible by The James & Madeleine McMullan Foundation, Cubs Care, Comcast, Dr. Scholl Foundation, CPL Foundation Junior Board, Helen M. Harrison Foundation, Macys, Peoples Gas, Robert R. McCormick Foundation, ComEd, R.R. Donnelley, The Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust, Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Foundation, Verizon and RPM Advertising through the Chicago Public Library Foundation.