Nikon has taken down the winning entry to an amateur photography competition after a social media storm erupted over the obviously edited image.
Singaporean photographer Chay Yu Wei, appeared to capture a plane just as it flew over a building.
But Nikon and Mr Chay had to apologise after thousands pointed out the plane had very clearly been edited in.
It has also emerged that an identical image was posted on Instagram by another photographer one year ago.
Singaporean photographer Lee Yik Keat, who posted that image, called it “the classic lookup”. He told the media that he couldn’t tell if it was the same photo, but said he had always freely admitted this was a composite.
Running it through Photoshop and playing just slightly with the colour levels showed very clearly a white box around the plane, indicating it had been cut and pasted onto the shot. The plane itself also appeared pixellated.
Much of the anger fell on Mr Chay, with photographers turning on his Instagram to accuse him of deliberate fakery.
Another user observed: “He took a similar photo last year as well. Must have been really lucky and skilful to have captured such low-flying planes twice.”
But there was also anger at Nikon for what was seen as poor judgement, and bad handling of the row.
“The problem lies with the judges. May be photo-enthusiasts who are overly zealous in the quest for an ‘impossible’ or ‘wow’ factor in the entries. Please keep it real and get real practicing photographers to be the judges. It may help Nikon’s reputation in many ways,” MY Lye posted on the Facebook page.
Nikon posts an apology, saying “we should not compromise standards even for a casual photo contest”.
“We have made an honest mistake and the rousing response from the community today is a reminder to us that the true spirit of photography is very much alive.”
