Pixiq

We've all tried to use some of the effects available in photoshop to add a different look to our digital images.

fauxtography means false or faked photography

"Fraudulent photography. News images that have been faked by various means, generally to promote an ideological agenda or to manipulate the emotions of the viewer. (Derived from a combination of the French term faux meaning “false,” and “-tography,” the second half of the word “photography.”) 

 The word was first used to describe the doctoring of photographs by Reuters photographer Adnan Hajj during the Lebanon War of 2006, and has since been generalized to mean any dishonest or faked news photo. 

Methods for creating “fauxtographs” include: using Photoshop (or similar software) to digitally alter the photo; photographing staged scenes or simulated news events and presenting them as real; interfering with or manipulating photo subjects to creat a “more effective” picture; adding inaccurate and/or misleading captions.

and…

A single image may be referred to as a 'fauxtograph' or 'fauxto' and could depict flying saucers, ghosts or the head of a famous celebrity on a naked body.

and…

Staged, doctored, or misleadingly cropped or labeled photographs intended as war propaganda, particularly to further the interests of terrorist groups such as Hizbollah and Hamas." - Urban Dictionary

"Misleading presentation of images for propagandistic or otherwise ulterior purposes, involving staging, deceptivemodification, and/or the addition or omission of significant context" -Wiktionary

However, I am using the term to describe something a bit different. After all, the act of falsifying anything is fakery and therefore a faux activity. I use the label here to discuss the simulation of another photographic medium by digital means.

Film, TV, video, imaging toys, early computers, dot matrix printers, alternative photography have produced hundreds of different looks over the past Century and a half. All of those looks represent the history of photography and are potential fodder for fauxtography.

Generally for the purpose of this article, Faux Photographers as I will call them, are photographers and software users that strive to recreate the look and feel of photographic processes using software tools. Creating images that attempt to look like the real thing can be done with a computer and some know how. In some cases it is simply done with a plugin or an app. 

The list below contains many links to groups that practice some form of faux manipulation of photographs. The list also contains many of the looks that are associated with various techniques and processes.  The links will take you to both real images (images produed by real cameras and real media) or to examples of digitally created fakes. In some cases even digital looks are faked. There are also a bunch of media types listed that are not linked. They are listed here as to indicate at least of the vast number of photographic looks that are part of the history of imaging.

1. cyanotype
2. painting
3. Black borders
4. gum print
5. palladium 
6. Platinotype
7. albumen
8. Polaroid Transfer
9. collodion
10. Xerox
11. Black and White Video
12. pinhole
13. Kodachrome 
14. Vintage Kodachrome
15. Fauxtography
16. Bromoils
17. Cross processing
18. Polaroid
19. Tintype
20. Alternative
21. Caffenol
22. dot matrix printers
23. SX-70
24. Holga
25. Cell phone
26. Tilt-shift Miniature Fakes
27. Simulated
28. Commodore 64
29. Amiga
30. Fake postcards
31. Faux Vintage
32. be Poladroid !
33. Hipstamatic Fake
34. Fake-a-roid
35. Faux Film
36. photographic images without a camera
37. PHOTOGRAM
38. Home made negatives
39. retro photos
    
40. FAKE OLD PHOTOS
41. Lomo or Fauxmo?
42. Cyanonegatives
43. Process Photography
44. Camera-less photography
45. Faux-keh
46. vintage inspired
47. Pseudo TTV
48. Fake Film Effect
49. Digital Polaroids
50. TiltShift Generator
51. Phoney Diana
52. Fakin' da Holga
53. Fake XPRO
54. Fake DoF
55. Instamatic
56. calotype
57. Anaglyph
58. postcard
59. negative
60. poster
61. Big grainy color
62. Dirty lens
63. Diana
64. Bleached
65. False color
66. Faded
67. Phot Coies
68. Type 55PN
69. 50's Snapshot
70. toy camera
71. 120
72. vintage camera
73. Stereo
74. 35mm film
75. airbrushed
76. TTV
77. 110 film camera 
78. Pinhole
79. Zone Plate
80. Out of focus
81. Infrared
82. False color
83. Toy camera
84. Lomo
85. B&W print
86. Distressed
87. bokeh
88. broken cameras
89. Freelensing 
90. Photo Booth
91. GameBoy Camera
92. Video Frame
93. lithograph
94. Carbon process
95. DOF
96. 3D
97. 4X5
98. Kodak #1 round
99. Noise
100. Flair
101. fade
102. camera shake
103. grain
104. tone
105. Double Exposure
106. Multiple exposure
107. Zoom effect
108. Vignette
109. hand coloring
110. Light stream
111. Contact Sheet
112. Xerox
113. Liquid emulsion
114. Drawings
115. Sketches
116. Sprockets
117. Wet Plate
118. platinum
119. Dust
120. Scratched
121. Line art
122. Finger prints
123. Torn
124. Folded
125. jpeged
126. Feedback
127. Static
128. Marked
129. pixelated
130. jpeg artifacts
131. anamorphic
132. Blotchy
133. Super saturated
134. Lumachrome
135. Defocused
136. WebCam
137. Cartoon
138. Polaroid transfers
139. Kaleidscope
140. KeyChainCams
141. Anamorphs
142. Toy Digital
143. TV
144. Pixels
145. Cibachrome
146. 50's TV
147. iPhone
148. End of roll
149. Tiny digital
150. Autochrome
151. Negative
152. Vandyke Brown
153. Harris Shutter
154. Tilt Shift 
155. Security camera
156. Mug shot
157. Video stills
158. Movie frame
159. Half frame
160. Grain Brain, Noise Joys
161. Monotone
162. Duatone
163. Halftone

And these are just a few of the looks that are out there.

Why do we like these looks?

  I believe it is in part because they embody the past. They are what we are familiar with from our memories. They represent the things we find in galleries, in old magazines and books, in picture boxes, on the mantle, in our histories and in recollection. They are nostalgic processes, crops, tones, textures, patinas and timeworn looks, created by the cameras, processes, materials and subjects that were photographed. They are the foundation for what we call photography.

I also believe that we are all looking for something deeper than what digital has given us so far. Not that there is anything wrong with digital, but perhaps because digital is just too new.

Much of what is happening now is seen by many as over processed, hyped, gaudy, limited, and maybe for some, too easy! 

I believe at least some of us are in the process of reinventing what we want photography to be and are looking to the past for ideas.

The one thing that we can say about all photography is that it has had many different appearances.

In my photographic and digital life, I am happy to say that I have had the pleasure of playing with the real cameras, real processes, and real techniques listed above and many others that are not. To me and those that have, there is nothing like the real thing!

At some point, I will discuss the idea of altering history and current events using the original context of Fauxtography. That form of Faux is used for propaganda, marketing and other evil exploitation.  

Personally, I like keeping things real!