FBI's advanced photo technology: cutting-edge or cut-and-paste?

Talk about your Photoshop disasters! Gaspar Llamazares, a member of Spanish parliament, discovered that his hair and some his facial features had been used by the FBI in a new Most Wanted poster of the world's most notorious terrorist, Osama Bin Laden. The FBI claims to have used "cutting-edge" technology to create the image, depicting what Bin Laden probably looks like today. In that case, Adobe will be glad to hear that the Bureau was so impressed with Photoshop. Is it just me, or does most of this high tech mockup look cut-and-pasted from Llamazares campaign photograph?

The FBI says that they often use stock photos to find the features they include in such mockups, but in this case, the right features weren't available. Llamazares' photo was pulled from the Internet, and "the forensic artist was not aware of the identity of the individual depicted in the photograph. The similarities between the photos were unintentional and inadvertent." That's all well and good, but it might be smart to make sure the guy whose photograph you're using isn't a celebrity or, in this case, an elected official of a foreign government.

Llamazares is reportedly considering legal action. "Bin Laden's safety is not threatened by this but mine certainly is," he said.

[via BBC News]

Tags: bin laden, BinLaden, FBI, mockup, most wanted, MostWanted, news, oops, photoshop, photoshop disasters, PhotoshopDisasters, poster