Visual Editors

No, Not in Miami where you don’t lose your job for faking news photos for political purposes.
The Charlotte Observer has sacked a staff photographer for altering a spot news image that was published yesterday. The paper told readers in today’s edition.

Photographer Patrick Schneider photo depicted a Charlotte firefighter on a ladder, silhouetted by the light of the early morning sun.

In the original photo, the sky in the photo was brownish-gray. Enhanced with photo-editing software, the sky became a deep red and the sun took on a more distinct halo.

The Observer’s photo policy states: “No colors will be altered from the original scene photographed.”

Schneider said he did not intend to mislead readers, only to restore the actual color of the sky. He said the color was lost when he underexposed the photo to offset the glare of the sun.

The paper’s photo policy is reprinted on Poynter.

Schneider was suspended from The Observer in an eariler episode where news images of firefighters he had made won a journalism contest. After the manipulations were revealed, the photo awards were rescinded. Scheider allowed his case to be used as a case study to educate other profressional photographers in ethics seminars. He also at the time pledged, “I will no longer tone my background down that far.”