BP "Photoshopped" Gulf Response Pictures

BP officials have admitted that members of its staff manipulated official images posted on its Gulf of Mexico Response Web site, and promised to stop the practice. The most recent photo, apparently taken from inside a helicopter cockpit, was altered to make it look as though the helicopter was flying. Savvy photo observers, though, saw part of a building that looked like a control tower in the upper left window of the cockpit, and gauges showed the door was open and a parking brake was engaged. Anomalies in the photo were identified by a reader of Gizmodo.com, a technology news Web site. Other photos were found to have been doctored as well. A photo taken at BP's Houston office showed a team of employees meeting in front of a large projection screen. The screen was blank in the original photo, but the photo was edited to add an image on the screen. BP officials explained that the photo had been edited to "ensure the detail on the projection screen could be seen" by readers. In another photo, employees are shown sitting in front of a bank of video screens containing views of underwater operations around the blown-out well. In the original photo, three of the screens were blank, but in the faked photo the three screens were filled in with images.