The New York Times Article

Photo manipulation had become a significant issue in our society today. Most use it to advertise a product so it will sell better, other to be someone or something they are not because they want to be better, others though, a minority, do it just for fun with no personal gain.

Photo manipulation is the application of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion or deception through analog or digital means. Its uses, such as cultural impact, have made it of much of an interest beyond the technical process and skills involved. In digital editing, photographs are usually taken with a digital camera and input directly into a computer. Transparencies, negatives or printed

A notable case of a photo manipulation was in 1982 by National Geographic. It made a cover using two Egyptian pyramids that were very close together so that they would fit on a vertical cover. The argument against this editing was that the magazine had showed and advertised something that did not exist, and presented it as a fact.

A very famous instance over photo manipulation was made by the Time magazine in the summer of 1994. It concerned race. After O.J. Simpson (a black man) was arrested for murdering his wife and her friend, multiple publications had his image. However, Time Magazine had published an edited image. The color saturation was removed from the original, that way making Simpson's skin darker, the corners were burned and the size of the prisoner ID number was minimized.

The image on the right is the original photo and on the left is the manipulated one by the Times Magazine:

There are many companies who use photo manipulation tactic to retouch many of their images for their own personal gain, to advertise, sell, and earn money by making the people who see the perfect retouched image that makes them feel less and vulnerable to manipulated and controlled over. An example for that will be an advertisement in a teen magazine. On the cover of that magazine was an image of a beautiful tanned young woman. In a website, I do not recall its name though, was said that the image on the cover was manipulated and was actually made by twenty-seven different women.

Some examples of photos that were manipulated for the purpose of advertisement:

Others, on the other hand, use photo manipulation just for their own amusement and fun without harming others. They fix red eyes, crop, resize, blur (as for scars or acne), etc. those kinds of people do not publish those images on public, at least not for the purpose of advertising. They mostly post them on websites such as Facebook, MySpace, and many others.

An example of peoples personal manipulated photos:

As a conclusion, most people use photo manipulation tactics to influence others badly but some don't. Even though the good people are the minority I don’t think they shouldn’t be able to use programs of photo manipulation such as Photoshop. But, I do think that this kind of programs will be unauthorized for advertisement.