History Main / WeWillNotUsePhotoshopInTheFuture

In fiction, photographic and video evidence of any kind is automatically accepted as genuine and unimpeachable. If someone has either one, and it shows you doing something bad, then you're screwed. The possibility that it could be digitally faked is never even considered unless the provenance of the evidence is central to the plot -- and when it ''is'' proven, it is a great shock and surprise to all who were fooled by it.

In reality, it's very difficult to fake these things digitally or otherwise. Not a year goes by without some [[https://youtu.be/up5jmbSjWkw fake UFO video]] appearing and subsequently being torn to pieces by [[https://youtu.be/lLRbTtd8IKM over analyzers]]. Any competent effects artist or Photoshop user will tell the difference quite easily. This could potentially change in the future, however, as the technology becomes more sophisticated.

* In the early years of photography, several infamous hoaxes were carried out using such crude techniques as ink-doctored images, double exposures, forced perspective or two-dimensional props. To modern eyes, most such images look blatantly fake, but the very idea that a photo ''could'' be altered or staged was strange to audiences of the day.
* Sometimes, all that new-fangled CGI technology can still trip people up. One [[JustForFun/{{egregious}} egregious]] case was where the ITV news program ''Exposure'' aired some footage of the IRA shooting down a British helicopter; except, the footage was actually from someone playing the video game ''[[Videogame/{{ARMA}} ARMA II]]''.
* Falsified memories and data are TruthInTelevision. Just look at all the viral videos on Website/YouTube out there. Shows like ''Attack Of The Show'' and ''Series/MythBusters'' often go to lengths to point out if what happens in a video is real or staged with computer graphics. Technology has advanced to the point where it's not totally obvious what is fake and what is real -- especially if the video is "filmed by an amateur."

-->'''Tachikoma''': Photographic "proof" appearing online at a convenient time like this? No one would take it seriously!

* Amazingly averted in ''Film/BackToTheFuture''. While trying to prove to Doc (in 1955) that he's from the future, Marty shows him a picture of his family, which shows his sister in a Class of '84 sweater. Doc dismisses it as a fake because Marty's older brother's hair is missing. Of course, that's just the first hint that something ''even worse'' is going on...

* Averted in ''LightNovel/StarshipOperators''. Advertisements featuring computer-generated but photorealistic models of Amaterasu's crew members are aired on the Galaxy Network, and the ending features [[spoiler:a fake newscast, with the reporter's voice fabricated.]]

* In the episode "In the Pale Moonlight" of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' Sisko and Garak hire a forger to create a fake recording showing the Dominion plotting against the Romulans. The Senator meant to be fooled immediately searches for and finds imperfections in the recording, revealing it to be a fraud-[[MemeticMutation "It's a faaaake!"]].

** The protagonist notes that teenage FashionModel Junko Enoshima looks different than she does on her cover photos, which she explains is because they are all Photoshopped. [[spoiler:The ''real'' reason is that "Junko" is actually her fraternal twin sister Mukuro Ikusaba]].

* In the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series, quite a lot of evidence comes from photographs and video recordings which were conveniently taken by passerbys/witnesses/the police/whoever. Even if the person who provided the evidence has reason to be against the defendant though, the authenticity of such evidence is never called into question. Even when Franziska provides a photograph that supposedly shows Maya Fey shapeshifting into her dead sister (which is real, but no one seems to notice), everyone takes it completely seriously and as a plausible explanation [[spoiler:for Maya's murder charge - that she committed the crime while possessed by a vengeful ghost.]] This becomes even more ridiculous in ''VisualNovel/{{Apollo Justice|Ace Attorney}}'' and ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies Dual Destinies]]'', when one of the things contributing to the Dark Age of the Law is evidence forgery and yet no one considers tampering with photos or videos to be a possibility. The possibility of altering a timestamp on a security photo is brought up in one case, but is quickly ruled out.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}} Episode I'' and its anime adaptation had the heroes needing to acquire "tamper-immune" footage clearing their names of a certain crime, because it just so happens that the organization that they're getting in the way of tampered with a black box (which should technically be impossible) and footage of the ship they're on "committing" the crime. [[spoiler:They just changed the ship from the ship the ''Durandal'' fired at in self-defense to the ''Woglinde'', the ship the ''Durandal'' was investigating, and not only happened to be junked earlier in the game, but two of the [=PCs=] were even there when it was sunk.]] Fortunately such footage existed in the mind of their super-powerful RobotGirl, unfortunately, they had to go through what was practically a MindScrew to obtain it.

--->'''Tachikoma''': Photographic "proof" appearing online at a convenient time like this? No one would take it seriously!

* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'', when Durandal uses footage of the Battle of Berlin in his [[TheReveal reveal]] of Logos, the Archangel and Freedom Gundam's presence has been excised -- which the Archangel crew and Freedom's pilot note to themselves.

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'': The A-LAWS edit footage of a relatively peaceful military coup to make it look like the coup leaders are slaughtering their hostages. In fact it was the A-LAWS combat automatons that were doing that, and the coup soldiers were shooting at them to ''protect'' the hostages. Celestial Being notes that only the VEDA supercomputer had the ability to so quickly and seamlessly edit the footage.

* Creator/BioWare {{lampshade|Hanging}}d this trope in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic''. Present an incriminating recording to Jolee, and he [[DeadpanSnarker snarks]] that he saw a holovid once with a Mandalorian dancing with a rancor -- that doesn't mean it really happened. [[spoiler:The tape's legit and Jolee's pal is guilty as hell.]]

* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}} Episode I''. The ''Durandal'' battles and defeats a U-TIC cruiser, only for U-TIC to alter footage from the battle to make it look like the ''Durandal'' had attacked the ''Woglinde'', which has been destroyed by the Gnosis at the beginning of the game. Shion, who had survived the attack on the ''Woglinde'', then has to retrieve an unalterable record of the attack from KOS-MOS' memory to clear the Kumasi Foundation's name.

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'':
** The protagonist notes that teenage FashionModel Junko Enoshima looks different than she does on her cover photos, which she explains is because they are all Photoshopped. [[spoiler:The ''real'' reason is that "Junko" is actually her fraternal twin sister Mukuro Ikusaba]].
** Later in the game, the protagonist finds pictures of dead students together in the school without the iron plates on the windows, which he initially believes are faked even though Monokuma insists they aren't. [[spoiler:They're real, taken during their time at Hope's Peak Academy that they forgot due to the mastermind giving them LaserGuidedAmnesia.]]
* In the ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series, quite a lot of evidence comes from photographs and video recordings which were conveniently taken by passerbys/witnesses/the police/whoever. Even if the person who provided the evidence has reason to be against the defendant though, the authenticity of such evidence is never called into question. Even when Franziska provides a photograph that supposedly shows Maya Fey shapeshifting into her dead sister (which is real, but no one seems to notice), everyone takes it completely seriously and as a plausible explanation [[spoiler:for Maya's murder charge - that she committed the crime while possessed by a vengeful ghost.]] This becomes even more ridiculous in ''VisualNovel/{{Apollo Justice|Ace Attorney}}'' and ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies Dual Destinies]]'', when one of the things contributing to the Dark Age of the Law is evidence forgery and yet no one considers tampering with photos or videos to be a possibility. The possibility of altering a timestamp on a security photo is brought up in one case, but is quickly ruled out.
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[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''Series/Evil2019'': Part of a bit of XanatosSpeedChess in "[[Recap/EvilS1E33Stars 3 Stars]]". Kristen, acting as expert witness for a juvenile defendant, secretly records her prosecution counterpart admitting he wants the kid tried as an adult because [[HadToComeToPrisonToBeACrook he wants to see what evil the kid will commit after prison]]. Townsend jammed the incriminating part of recording [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane somehow}], so Ben makes a deep-fake of the recording which Kristen successfully passes off to the court as genuine.

* ''Series/Evil2019'': Part of a bit of XanatosSpeedChess in "[[Recap/EvilS1E33Stars 33 Stars]]". Kristen, acting as expert witness for a juvenile defendant, secretly records her prosecution counterpart admitting he wants the kid tried as an adult because [[HadToComeToPrisonToBeACrook he wants to see what evil the kid will commit after prison]]. Townsend jammed the incriminating part of recording [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane somehow}], so Ben makes a deep-fake of the recording which Kristen successfully passes off to the court as genuine.

* In the somewhere between quirky and bizarre (and set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture) miniseries ''Series/WildPalms'', photos and video are routinely faked; and when a character is asked by reporters, "Isn't it true that a picture is worth a thousand words?", with regards to a key piece of trial evidence, that character responds with a sneer: "You gotta be kidding me."

* An episode of ''{{Series/Bonanza}}'' had a killer use old fashioned photo manipulation techniques using multiple exposures to fake a picture to give himself an alibi because "photographs never lie."

** The Tachikomas mention that nothing can be taken for face value, since it's so easy to falsify any form of data -- even ''memories''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': Played with in "Insta-Gran". The Loud kids do use photoshop to make a fake photo of Seymour and Myrtle apparently kissing. However, Pop-Pop never considers that the photo might be fake, and immediately confronts Seymour about it, even telling him that “pictures don’t lie”.

* In ''Manga/CannonGodExaxxion'' both the invading Riofaldians and Hosuke Kano's [[LaResistance resistance]] both blatantly manipulate footage to embarrass their enemies; they both accuse the other side of altering the footage they release to the public; and they ''both'' try to pass actual footage of "embarrassing" incidents off as enemy propaganda when possible.

* The prelude to Marvel's "ComicBook/SecretWar" featured ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} agents interrogating Killer Shrike about a robbery they have him on tape committing. This is accepted as infallible evidence despite the fact that the Franchise/MarvelUniverse is filled to the brim with shapeshifters, mind-altering psychics, and technological masterminds; if the Fixer can edit Godzilla into Bogart's role in ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'', he can frame Killer Shrike with his eyes closed.