Question Do you know a tool/command to detect if a digital image was edited or not?

[Manuel Jordan]

Hello Friends

Being curious if you know (if exists) a tool(s) or even a *command* that can indicate if a digital photo was edited or not.
It for either Linux or Windows

For example:

* A fake voucher for a wire transfer. I mean an original voucher but edited with fake data
* A product (laptop, car, bike) edited to hide a hit/impact

Thanks for your understanding

 

[USAFRet]

ALL images have been 'edited'.

The jpg that comes out of the camera or phone has been 'edited', by whatever software and algorithm that device uses.

But...a clueless editor will apply the wrong compression, and show compression effects.
Someone clueful will use good tools and skills, and you'll never know.

 

[triplex1]

Hello Friends

Being curious if you know (if exists) a tool(s) or even a *command* that can indicate if a digital photo was edited or not.
It for either Linux or Windows

For example:

* A fake voucher for a wire transfer. I mean an original voucher but edited with fake data
* A product (laptop, car, bike) edited to hide a hit/impact

Thanks for your understanding

The fastest and most effective way to find out if a picture has been altered is to look at its EXIF or geolocation data. Simply right-click on the image and open the file properties. If you see Photoshop or other photo editing software next to the Program name, that means the picture has been edited before

 

[USAFRet]

The fastest and most effective way to find out if a picture has been altered is to look at its EXIF or geolocation data. Simply right-click on the image and open the file properties. If you see Photoshop or other photo editing software next to the Program name, that means the picture has been edited before

Right.
But that might just mean cropped for size, or color enhancement.
Not "dent removal".

 

[Secret-Squirrel]

Manuel, you can also zoom into the area of concern and check for inconsistencies such as blurring, pixelation, or anything else that doesn't appear in the rest of the image.

 

[Ralston18]

@Manuel Jordan

Powershell may prove useful with respect to examining EXIF files:

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/scripting/use-powershell-to-find-metadata-from-photograph-files/

https://powershellfaqs.com/get-details-of-a-file-in-powershell/

There are many other similar links.

Indeed, the editing may have been routine with no harm/deceit intended.

Overall advantage to Powershell being that you can tailor or customize the cmdlet or script to key in on your specific requirements to detect editing.

Some inconsistency or inconsistencies thus being noted: either directly within the metadata or indirectly with respect to whatever else may be known about the image and circumstances.

 

[Manuel Jordan]

Hello Friends

As usual Huge thanks to all for the valuable replies!

 

[Grobe]

Note that with the correct choice of tool set, any part of the exif data of a jpg image can be cloned, exported, imported, etc - and thus a jpg file with correct exif data for one particular camera device bare no solid evidence that the image isn't manipulated.

However, like already mentioned above - there are some indicators to look at, other than only the exif data itself

• Are the file size comparable to images of similar scene taken by the same camera model and settings ?
• Does the dimension of the image match exif tag, and does the camera model support saving images with those specific dimensions ?

The downside of those is, you have to either have the same model by hand or ask someone having that specific model to take pictures for you.

Btw - also be aware that many online services have a tendency of re-compressing and stripp off any exif data to an image being sendt. Examples of this are Apple iPhone mail (don't know if it's the app on the phone or server that is actually doing this) and also facebook.

 

[JeffreyP55]

Hello Friends

Being curious if you know (if exists) a tool(s) or even a *command* that can indicate if a digital photo was edited or not.
It for either Linux or Windows

For example:

* A fake voucher for a wire transfer. I mean an original voucher but edited with fake data
* A product (laptop, car, bike) edited to hide a hit/impact

Thanks for your understanding

I set my Nikon for the proprietary NEF raw format. More manipulation options. Saved work is converted to Jpeg. That's manipulation step one.