How to tell if photo has been manipulated

[photonovice]

Hi,

I am of course a novice at the inner workings of photoshop. We were wondering if there is a way to tell if a digital photo has been manipulated? At what level can you tell? Can we look at a JPEG emailed and be able to read source to see if photoshop was used? Does photoshop leave a trail such as coding?

thanks
novice

 

[7Hunters]

One of the ways to tell is to look at levels/curves, if it isn't a solid wave form and has verticle disruptions then it has been edited in a program -- but having been edited doesn't mean it has been faked.

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k318/7hunters/edited.jpg

Also a person can take a photo of a photo which would rule out this method. Some photos have exif data google, "viewing exif data."

Just a guess here - people are always asking me, "is this photo of this chick real?" *groans.....