Wikipedia:Photoshopped images

While editing Wikipedia, it is important that the images used represent the subject adequately and does not mislead readers. This is especially true while writing about living people. However, some editors may feel that the non-edited photos of the person in question available on Wikimedia Commons are not good enough and may want to use a program such as Adobe Photoshop or GIMP to make it better. However, be careful as editing a photo too much may misrepresent the subject it depicts, and misrepresentations of things have no place on Wikipedia.

When editing a photo of a living person to be used in Wikipedia's main namespace, make sure that you only modify what could appear differently in a different environment, such as color balance, brightness, or contrast. Other modifications, such as removing an object that is on the skin or hiding details of the skin, are misleading as it might appear differently if the photo was taken without those objects blocking the view. Other examples of modifications that are unacceptable since they might be misleading to Wikipedia readers are ones that change the appearance or position of body features such as hair or the eyes.

Acceptable modifications to images of article subjects

 * Color balance adjustments
 * Brightness and contrast adjustments

Modifications to images of article subjects that should be done with caution

 * Colorization
 * Spot healing (see also WP:CENSOR for consensus on potentially objectionable content)
 * Level and curve adjustments

Prohibited modifications to images of article subjects

 * Gradient mapping
 * Effect rendering (lighting effects, lens flare, etc.)
 * Layer masking
 * Distortion (displacement, shearing, etc.)
 * Blurring (gaussian blur, radial blur, motion blur, etc.)
 * Liquification
 * Adding text on top of an image