{"id":96231,"date":"2018-01-03T09:57:12","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T09:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=96231"},"modified":"2025-07-01T23:42:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T06:42:09","slug":"how-to-recognize-fake-photo-nr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/how-to-recognize-fake-photo-nr\/","title":{"rendered":"How to recognize a fake photo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Have you ever wondered if a photo is fake? The answer is definitely yes, since hoaxes and fakes nowadays are spreading faster than ever with the internet. Something happens, the snapshot in question is posted and\u2026 voila! It turns out that <\/span><b>the photo isn\u2019t authentic<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: either it\u2019s been altered or it\u2019s clearly an old shot being passed off as a current one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That said, we\u2019re going to teach you one thing: <\/span><b>how to recognize if a photo is fake or not. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Are you up to it? Here are three key tips for taking on the challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/4-tricks-fix-bad-photos-photoshop-nr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">4 Tricks to fix your bad photos<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><b>Google Images, our saviour<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Believe it or not, Google Images is the best tool we\u2019ve got to recognize if a photo is fake or not. How? Well, by using their tools to know the photo\u2019s publication date.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For example, imagine there\u2019s a forest fire and the (regrettably) classic photo comes out of a burnt landscape. Who says that photo wasn\u2019t from a previous fire? To find out, we only have to download the photo and upload it to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/images.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Google Images<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. When the search engine returns results, we can click on <\/span><b>\u201cTools\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><b>\u201cDate.\u201d <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Done. If the search results all belong to the period when the fire occured, the photo is an original. Now, if there are results from a year ago, when the fire happened a few days ago, you already know it\u2019s a fake&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-96256\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/01\/google-images.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"676\" height=\"332\" srcset=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/01\/google-images.jpg 676w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/01\/google-images-300x147.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><b>Metadata<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">All photos come with <\/span><b>metadata<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Always, we repeat. As soon as we take a picture with our digital or cell phone camera, information is associated with the snapshot for later analysis: the type of camera, technical info, date, time and a long list of other features. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">To access an image\u2019s metadata, you only have to right click on it and go to \u201cProperties\u201d and then <\/span><b>\u201cDetails.\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The problem? Well, social networks like Facebook, \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instagram<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and Twitter delete all metadata when the snapshot reaches their servers. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Luckily, that\u2019s not always the case for all services, for example WhatsApp or mainstream media. For them, metadata is still available to look up. Knowing this can help you <\/span><b>recognize if a photo is fake or not.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-96257\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/01\/Metadata-example-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"298\" height=\"310\" srcset=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/01\/Metadata-example-1.png 298w, https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2018\/01\/Metadata-example-1-288x300.png 288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 298px) 100vw, 298px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><b>Increase the resolution<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our last tip may seem trivial, since the human eye comes into play (instead of technology), but it\u2019s necessary: look closely at the pixels of a photo by increasing its resolution. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you open a snapshot using <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/adobe-photoshop.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Photoshop<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <a href=\"https:\/\/ms-paint.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paint<\/a> and see that some pixels aren\u2019t the same as the rest, you may be looking at a modified photo. After all, if anything says \u201cfake,\u201d it\u2019s a heavily modified pixel density.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We hope this little guide has helped you and you can browse a little easier, knowing you won\u2019t get tricked by fake photos.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"sc-card-program\">\r\n  <div class=\"sc-card-program__body\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row clearfix\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-logo\">\r\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-program__img\" alt=\"4 tricks to fix your bad photos using Photoshop\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-img.sftcdn.net\/sft\/articles\/auto-mapping-folder\/sites\/3\/2017\/09\/photography-192.jpg\" width=\"100px\" height=\"100px\">\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-title\">\r\n        <span class=\"sc-card-program__title\">4 tricks to fix your bad photos using Photoshop<\/span>\r\n        <a class=\"sc-card-program__button sc-card-program-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/4-tricks-fix-bad-photos-photoshop-nr\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/a>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-rating\">\r\n        <svg class=\"rating-score__content\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.1\" x=\"0\" y=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 50 50\" enable-background=\"new 0 0 50 50\" xml:space=\"preserve\"><path class=\"rating-score__background rating-score--good\" fill=\"none\" stroke-width=\"6\" stroke-miterlimit=\"10\" d=\"M40 40c8.3-8.3 8.3-21.7 0-30s-21.7-8.3-30 0 -8.3 21.7 0 30\"><\/path><path class=\"rating-score__value rating-score__value--0\" fill=\"none\" stroke-width=\"6\" stroke-dashoffset=\"0\" stroke-miterlimit=\"10\" d=\"M40 40c8.3-8.3 8.3-21.7 0-30s-21.7-8.3-30 0 -8.3 21.7 0 30\"><\/path><text class=\"rating-score__number\" content=\"\" text-anchor=\"middle\" transform=\"matrix(1 0 0 1 25 31.0837)\" data-auto=\"app-user-score\"><\/text><\/svg>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row\">\r\n      <span class=\"sc-card-program__description\"><\/span>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-program__bigpic\" src=\"\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\">\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <a class=\"sc-card-program__link track-link sc-card-program-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/4-tricks-fix-bad-photos-photoshop-nr\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever wondered if a photo is fake? The answer is definitely yes, since hoaxes and fakes nowadays are spreading faster than ever with the internet. Something happens, the snapshot in question is posted and\u2026 voila! It turns out that the photo isn\u2019t authentic: either it\u2019s been altered or it\u2019s clearly an old shot &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/how-to-recognize-fake-photo-nr\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;How to recognize a fake photo&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9091,"featured_media":96258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[2441],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-96231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9091"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328378,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96231\/revisions\/328378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96231"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=96231"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=96231"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=96231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}