How Can You Verify If a Photo Has Been Photographed?

When evaluating a photograph for authenticity, especially checking if it has been Photoshopped, one method involves examining the subject’s skin. If the skin appears unnatural or too perfect, it's possible the photo has been altered. However, proving that a photo was photographed at a specific point in time can be trickier.

Digital Era: Checking for Exif Data

In the digital age, most digital cameras capture metadata in every photo taken. This metadata can include the date and time, and even geographic coordinates. Identifying this data can help determine when a photograph was taken. If the photo was taken with a digital camera made since around 1999, you can look for Exif data similar to the example shown below:

Date/Time Original : 2021:01:27 13:26:55 Create Date : 2021:01:27 13:26:55

Note that this metadata requires the camera's time to be correctly set. Various software tools can display and modify Exif data. Here’s an example from ExifTool by Phil Harvey. Another relevant resource is the Comparison of Digital Image Metadata Editors on Wikipedia.

A visualization of output from a Microsoft program shows a different approach, displaying the modification timestamp of the image file, which is less reliable:

-rw-rw-r-- 1 grog lemis 10993770 27 Jan 23:26 orig/51271769.ORF

Using the info button to view the metadata can also be helpful. However, if the photo has been moved to another drive, the timestamp may change.

Analog Photography: Detecting Time of Photography

In the analog era, most photographs were printed quickly by labs or drugstores. This process included automated time and date stamping on the prints. For example, if a photographer shot a roll of film and finished it months or years later, all prints would have the same date on the back. Specific information like this is nearly impossible to find, leading to educated guesses based on contextual clues.

Technological Advances in Analog Photography

Occasionally, cameras could imprint time and date directly on the negative, as seen in the example below with a digital camera. This feature required maintaining fresh batteries and correctly setting the data. In one instance, the time was incorrect, as verified by a wall clock:

Date Time incorrect in camera: not 03:10 but 13:10

Before automated processes, prints were often not dated at all, requiring viewers to rely on environmental clues like clothing styles, prominent landmarks, and vehicle models to estimate the era. For instance, a photograph featuring a World War II Jeep would suggest the image was taken between 1942 and 1945, given the car's non-existence before 1941.

Modern Digital Challenges

Modern digital photography has mostly resolved identification issues, but services like Facebook are notorious for stripping metadata from uploaded photos, presenting challenges for authenticity verification.

To sum up, while digital cameras provide robust metadata, analog photography often lacks precise timestamps, making the identification of precisely when a photo was taken more difficult. Contextual clues play a significant role in this process, especially in the pre-digital era.