“A picture is worth a thousand words, or so they say. Yet this expression only holds true if the photo in question provides evidence of a genuine person, place or object. If the image has been tampered with by using Photoshop or another image editing application, there’s a strong chance that the picture isn’t worth much more than the paper it is printed on.
While photographic evidence is one of the most effective means of eliminating doubt when preparing a court case, it’s also never been more challenging to establish that a photo hasn’t been tampered with. At trial, a photograph usually must be authenticated by someone who is familiar with what the image depicts and who can testify that the image accurately represents whatever it illustrates. The authenticator is often the photographer, but can also be anyone at all, as long as he or she is familiar with the subject matter of the image.
