Reuters Says Bush Photo Not 'Malicious,' Reports Wide Interest

[Seansky]

From BuzzFlash link...

[digno dave]

1. Drudge says it's "enhanced", which it is. I thought so when i saw it

the first time. The "levels" are bumped up along with the contrast. The paper looks too white and the pencil writing too dark. That said, it's still his writing and speaks volumes.

[progressivebydesign]

2. Drudge is on crack. It's real.. see link to Buzzflash story below

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001137788

[aquart]

3. Yes, it's real.

But they used Photoshop to make the note more readable. Heightened contrast?

[Wickerman]

4. Somewhere Rueters said it was enhanced

standard practice to do some enhancing to best display the subject of an image.

[cynatnite]

6. Here's what they did:

Wilking shot about 200 images and sent two memory cards to the press room at the U.N., where Hershorn was working. Hershorn looked at the images on a computer and initially decided not to send any of them.

But a few hours later, he started to wonder about a note that Bush was seen writing in three of the pictures. Out of curiosity, he zoomed in to see if he could read it.

Once he saw what it said, Hershorn decided the note was interesting and worth publishing. The white parts of the picture were overexposed, so a Reuters processor used Photoshop to burn down the note. This is a standard practice for news photos, Hershorn says, and the picture was not manipulated in any other way.

http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/newswire/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001137642

[Atman]

9. That's not the same as faked or even re-touched

I assume the treatment was done digitally, in Photoshop. Pretty much all photo "processing" for web publication is done that way. In conventional dark room developing, even, this is done all the time. Dodging and burning...highlighting important areas, darkening the non-important. Newspaper photos get this treatment all the time. It is an old technique. It doesn't change ANYTHING about what is going on in the picture, it only makes it a "better" photograph, artistically. Anyone who tries to equate "enhanced" with "retouched" doesn't know much about photography. (Not saying you don't understand...just people in general).

[txindy]

5. ROFL!! Irish Headline: "To Pee or Not to Pee, That is the Question."

(snip)

The fact is, according to Reuters -- and this has not been widely reported -- President Bush did indeed take a bathroom break after passing the note to Rice.

This apparently raised some eyebrows around the room, because American representatives (among others) have a reputation for suddenly bolting, though normally for a far different reason than this latest one. Fair or not, the European press has already had a field day with the photo, often centering on the notion that Bush had to ask Rice for permission.

The Times of London, for example, ran no less than three separate articles about it on its Web site, one at the top of its front page. (It's a Murdoch paper.) One headline reads: "Excuse me Condi, can I go to the bathroom?" Another story, believe it or not, opens: "The need to relieve oneself diplomatically has on occasion determined the fate of nations." The third discusses the sordid history of the particulatar lavatory in question, and contains this passage: "Medical experts said that the 59-year-old President was wise not to wait any longer."

The headline at the BBC news site suggested that Bush had been "caught short" at the U.N. summit. The Irish Examiner headline? "To Pee or Not to Pee, That is the Question." Der Spiegel in Germany translated a bathroom break" as "eine Toiletten-Pause."

(snip)

So, Junior really did take a bathroom break after passing the note to Condi, hmm?

[expatriate]

7. oh Gawd, I will never again be able to think of

a bathroom break as anything other than "eine Toiletten-Pause."

[starroute]

8. Austria fell to the German anschluss in the 30's

Because one member of their parliament took a bathroom break at the wrong moment.

(I once did a high school term paper on Austria in the 20's and 30's. That's absolutely the only detail I remember from it.)