How to crop a photo (the techy way)

The above video demonstrates a technique for seam carving (first paper in the list) developed by Dr. Shai Avidan and Dr. Ariel Shamir at the Interdisciplinary Center in Israel. This photo manipulation technique is an automated way to resize photos at different proportions of the original format without distorting the image.

While the technique is stunning to look at (and I’m sure it will be put to great use in the graphic design world), seam carving is going to be one of those soon-to-be Photoshop techniques that will cause photo editors at media outlets heartache and distress.

Photo manipulation is one of those big taboos in the media, and rightfully so. A news photo should reflect the reality of the surroundings that the shot was taken in as much as possible. While it’s debatable on where that line is, I think most news photographers would agree snipping out bits and pieces of a photo in order to change the proportions of a shot isn’t acceptable at all.

Hattip: TechoCrunch