Samsung did have some problems with false advertising in the past and it appears that it happened once again. They used a photo taken with a DSLR in order to promote the “portrait mode” of the smartphone.
The woman in the photo is Dunja Djudjic, a photographer from Serbia. She uses the EyeEm service to sell her images. She recently received a notification that one of her photos was licensed. The client purchased a full license, for $250. As a result of that, she ended up searching for her picture. She found it on a Samsung website.
There were two versions of the image, one with a regular background, and one with a blurred background. Compared to the original photo, the pictures were heavily photoshopped. The worst part is that Samsung presented them as photos taken using the portrait mode:
Focus where needed. Take portrait shots that pops. Thanks to it’s high-performance dual camera system with 16MP and 24MP lenses, Galaxy A8 Star can capture stunning images. You can manually manage the depth of field to focus on the object you want.
The reaction
In the photo, we can see Djudjic, with a leaf in her hand which is used to cover her mouth. The Samsung images were heavily photoshopped. Her skin was perfectly smoothened, to the point where it barely looks real, and her hair was edited as well. They also changed the background of the image but used an autumn landscape as well. Djudjic explained how she felt when she discovered this:
My first reaction was to burst out into laughter. ust look at the Photoshop job they did on my face and hair!
I’m pretty sure that Samsung at least bought my photo legally, even though I haven’t received the confirmation of it. But regardless, this is false advertising.
Many users criticized Samsung, and it appears that the company became aware of its mistakes. Under the pictures, we can now see the words “Image simulated for demo purpose” written in small letters.
Nora Reynolds is a major in biology and a minor in Biological Basis of Behavior, writing about science in general. She also likes to try new gadgets and sports about the AI new era.
