Blast from the past: Photo Editing in 1946

A fun article from Charles Apple this week with excerpts from a 1946 instruction manual on how to edit photos for newspaper publications. The pages were originally published this week on PetaPixel from the 1946 book “Shortcuts to Photo Retouching For Commercial Use.” by retoucher Raymond Wardell.

Apple explains that although it is interesting to look back on what Photoshopping was back in the day, it can only make modern editors cringe with the thought of breaking all ethical rules. One of the most famous example of a documentary news photo that was edited unethically is from the Kent State shooting where an editor cropped a pole out of the background to make the photo look better.