Friday, July 23, 2010

BP has ordered staff to stop manipulating photographs of its Gulf of Mexico oil spill response, (BP)

Really?
Was it so wrong to do something that showed the company as deceptive, incompetent, manipulative and just plain sloppy?
Sounds like truth-in-advertising.
From the Telegraph:
BP admits it 'Photoshopped' official images as oil spill 'cut and paste' row escalates

The oil giant was forced to issue new guidelines to staff to “refrain from doing (sic) cutting-and-pasting” after several official company images were found to have been doctored.
BP admitted on Thursday that it “Photoshopped” some of its official images that were posted on its website and vowed to stop the embarrassing practice.

For the second time in two days, the company was identified to have doctored images posted on its official website that were supposed to show how it was responding to the oil crisis in America.
In the latest image, a photo taken inside a company helicopter appeared to show it flying off the coast near the damaged Deepwater Horizon rig.
But it was later shown to be faked after internet bloggers identified several problems with the poorly produced image that contradicted the appearance that it was flying.
Among the problems identified included part of a control tower appearing in the top of the top left of the picture, different shades of colours, its pilot holding a pre-flight checklist and its control gauges showing the helicopter’s door and ramp open and its parking brake engaged.
The image was posted on the official BP website but later removed.
An American blog, however, has published a screen grab of the image taken from the official webite.

The image has since been posted to the company's official Flickr account under the heading "BP altered images, which also includes a further two faked pictures.
The image, entitled “View of the MC 252 site from the cockpit of a PHI S-92 helicopter 26 June 2010”, was first identified by Gizmodo, a technology news website, which posted the images on Thursday after a tip-off from a reader.

Another image has also been exposed as faked, which BP admitted appeared to be “cut and pasted”.
BP admitted the image of a meeting in its Houston office, showing a technical team in front of a large projection screen, had been “edited” using colouring tools. This was to ensure the detail on the projection screen could be seen to readers.

The disclosures have created further embarrassment for the oil giant and is the latest blunder to hit the company.

It comes less than a day after the oil giant was criticised for doctoring an image of image of its Gulf Coast oil spill command centre, which indicated that staff were busier than they actually were.
It later acknowledged that it posted on its website an altered photo that exaggerated the level of activity at the centre in Houston....MORE 
Previously:
"BP alters photos for web site" (BP) 
Cringe: The BP Photoshop Story Just Gets Worse (BP)