Getty freelancer Marc Feldman was let go from Getty Images for removing the caddie out of a photograph of Matt Bettencourt on Sunday. The image, of Bettencourt holding up the ball and acknowledging the crowd, is somewhat hampered by Bettencourt’s caddie, who is inconveniently standing directly behind Bettencourt. Feldman submitted the photo to Getty, sans caddie. The only problem? Also in his submissions was the original photo, with caddie. The tom foolery was discovered by Dallas Morning News Photo Editor Guy Reynolds (read his initial article here, and also a recount of his subsequent conversation with Feldman here.) He then shortly thereafter alerted the NY Getty picture desk, who issued a mandatory kill on the photo and cut ties with Feldman permanently.
Feldman’s story is that he was in the press tent editing photos, when Bettencourt and his caddie came in to look at some of the pictures. The caddie told Feldman that the photo would be better if he wasn’t in the background, so Feldman demonstrated how easy that could be, cloning the caddie out, cropping it tighter, and saved it to his desktop. He then unintentionally sent it to Getty with his batch, resulting in both the original and the manipulated versions in the image bank. “There was absolutely no intent to pass this off as a real image. Only a moron would have sent both,” Feldman said. “And I would’ve done it a lot better too.”
Lesson of the day – If you decide to show off your sweet photoshopping skills to somebody on a news photograph, DELETE IT AFTERWARDS.
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