The 15 Biggest Photoshop Scandals of All Time

Image via Complex Original

15. Oprah Winfrey's Head on Anne Margaret's Body

Year: 1989

Before we actually had Photoshop, pictures had to be manipulated the old-fashioned way. And the classic, first example of this in the media world was Oprah Winfrey on the cover of a 1989 TV Guide. Without getting permission from either woman, the magazine grafted the head of Oprah onto the body of '60s star Anne Margaret. Uproarius? Not entirely. But strange? Certainly.

image via

14. National Geographic Admits Contest-Winning Photo is Altered, 2010

Year: 2010

National Geographic has been holding its “Your Shot” competition for a number of years, allowing amateur photographers the chance to be published in the magazine. But when William Lascelles submitted the above image of a dog with jets streaking the sky, it wasn’t immediately apparent that it had been faked, something the photographer only admitted later.

image via

13. Demi Moore Misses A Chunk of Her Leg

Year: 2009

Two things about this 2009 W Magazine cover shoot featuring Demi Moore struck viewers as odd. The first was the significant portion of her hip missing from the left leg—where had the actress' leg gone? But the bigger question was as to whether or not the photographers had Photoshopped her head on a model's body.

image via

12. Kate Winslet Gets Stretched Out

Year: 2009

Kate Winslet was outraged when British GQ slimmed her down for this cover shot. Beyond Kate being proud of her real, natural body, the big issue was you could see the unaltered Winslet in the mirror behind her. Due diligence was not had.

image via

11. Katie Couric Slims Down

Year: 2006

When Katie Couric went to take over the CBS Evening News in 2006, the photo on the left was used by the network as a promotions shot. Yet, the photo on the right was the one that appeared in the company's promotions magazine around the time she took over. "I liked the first picture better because there's more of me to love," she joked to the New York Daily News.

image via

10. Vogue China Cuts Off a Leg

Year: 2012

This is fairly self-explanatory. Vogue China simply removed a leg from this editorial shot. Why? That's not a question to ask in the case of Photoshop mess-ups.

image via

9. Hillary Clinton Removed from Orthodox Jewish Papers

Year: 2011

In May 2011, international terrorist Osama Bin Laden was finally hunted down by the U.S. Navy operative forces group called Seal Team 6. A now-infamous photograph of President Barack Obama with top aides in the White House situation room on the eve of Bin Laden's killing quickly made the rounds to news outlets. But two Orthodox Jewish publications, Di Tzitung and De Voch, digitally removed both Hillary Clinton and Audrey Tomason from the photograph, causing uproar among news communities.

image via

8. Hosni Mubarak Leads The Pack

Year: 2010

Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram somewhat inexplicably doctored a photo of this group of world leaders including Barack Obama, Mahmoud Abbas, King Abdullah II, and Benjamin Netanyahu. The publication simply moved Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to the front of the pack.

image via

7. Kim Kardashian on Complex

Year: 2009

In March 2009, a mistakenly unretouched version of this Kim Kardashian photo appeared on the Complex Magazine website. When it was replaced with the retouched version later, there was an uproar caused by just everyone—that is, except from Kim herself. "So what? I have a little cellulite," she wrote on her website. "What curvy girl doesn't? How many people do you think are Photoshopped? It happens all the time!" In fact, she took the confusion in incredible stride. "I'm proud of my body and my curves, and this picture coming out is probably helpful for everyone to see that just because I am on the cover of a magazine doesn't mean I'm perfect."

image via

6. Katy Perry on Rolling Stone

Year: 2010

In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine was taken to task for vamping up the cover shot of singer Katy Perry's issue. Their photo department increased her bust, smoothed her skin, and made her look thinner. One critic on Tumblr just wanted to know what was wrong with keeping her au natural. "Why does her skin have to be silky smooth? Her boobs pushed up? They even took off her sock in the 'enhanced' one. Her stomach. Her fingers. Her moles are removed from her neck. Lines removed from her underarm. Is it so bad not to be perfect?"

image via

5. Dove Real Beauty Is Quite Unreal

Year: 2005

The 2005 ad campaign for a series of Dove firming lotions featured non-professional models of various women of different ethnicities and different sizes in order to "change the way society views beauty," and "provoke discussion and debate," about public perceptions of beauty, according to a company executive. But the campaign was sullied when a prominent photo retoucher told The New Yorker of the challenges of doctoring the women to keep their skin to "show the mileage but not looking unattractive." Though there was much denial that the photos had been airbrushed, the public outcry had done the damage to the ads.

image via

4. Ralph Lauren Shaves 50 Pounds

Year: 2010

How much explanation does this need? The models pictured in both these photos are the same person. Yet, the 2010 ad featured on the left seems to have found a way to shave what appears to be about 50 pounds off this already thin woman.

image via

3. Russian Orthodox Church Eliminates Watch

Year: 2012

One of the biggest criticisms of the Russian Orthodox Church is the huge disparity between the church's officials and the institution's constituents. That goes as far as issues of wealth. So when the press arm of the church doctored a photo of the church's patriarch Kirill to eliminate a $30,000 Swiss Breguet watch he was wearing, the discovery by Russian bloggers meant more cries of hypocrisy. If only they had noticed the refection of the watch in the table.

image via

2. Bush Campaign Ads Duplicate Crowds

Year: 2004

During the 2004 presidential election, the campaign of George W. Bush ran an ad titled "Whatever It Takes." It was shown swiftly by the John Kerry campaign that the crowds in the images had been synthesized. No one was too happy about the discovery. "Now we know why this ad is named 'Whatever it Takes,'" a Kerry rep wrote. "This administration has always had a problem telling the truth from Iraq to jobs to health care. The Bush campaign's advertising has been consistently dishonest in what they say. But today, it's been exposed for being dishonest about what we see."

image via

1. TIME Magazine Darkens OJ Simpson's Skin

Year: 1994

The trial of O.J. Simpson in 1994 resulted in many familiar cultural images, but Simpson's mug shot achieved a different kind of recognition after TIME Magazine ran the image on the cover, deciding to tweak it to make it darker and more sinister. TIME's Managing Editor James Gaines said this of the decision to alter the photo: "The harshness of the mug shot—the merciless bright light, the stubble on Simpson's face, the cold specificity of the picture—had been subtly smoothed and shaped into an icon of tragedy. The expression on his face was not merely blank now; it was bottomless." Many cried foul of the decision, calling the modifications to the photo racist. Newsweek ran the same, un-doctored photo on their cover the same week.

image via