Is this old photograph manipulated somehow (photoshop)

If it was manipulated they did a good job, and choosing an old photo is a good choice since it is easier to hide the after effects of their work.

Zooming in on the male head however, you can see a “halo” of lighter pixels, not very noticeable, and maybe that’s normal for old photos, I’m no expert, but I’d say just a head swap because of that and the way they are facing.

I’m tempted to say it’s ‘shopped because of how tailored the coat is to her body. That’s a very modern-looking suit coat for a woman.

Zooming in quite far, you can just see the cut marks around the heads.

‘Tis quite well done, I agree.

Except for that coat. The near side is noticeably shorter than the far side.

My guess is that it’s not photoshopped, but is a ‘poster picture’- that is, there’s a big poster on the wall, picturing a couple of people. The heads are cut out. People pay their dime, go behind the poster, and stick their faces into the holes, whereupon a picture is taken. Profit!

If they swapped heads, she most definitely had man hands.

I believe the hands were altered as well.

Definitely a head swap going on, clear by their posture.
The guy looks way too comfortable in that frock also.

There’s absolutely no doubt this has been altered. It’s pretty obvious, actually.

How so?

The only way I can describe why is to say just look at it! The heads and hands have quite clearly been altered. Their posture, random blurryness around his right hand, etc.

The neck of the man doesn’t look right to me. The woman looks pretty good though.

“Shopped” both heads and feet.

Obviously.
From the obvious issue that they are uncomfortably looking in the wrong directions (due to the head swap), to the clearly visible distortion of the right one’s torso.
There is also an artifact, possibly a remnant of the woman’s hair, on the left figure’s neck.

Photoshopped. In the original picture, they would have been looking slightly inward and toward the camera lens. After their heads were switched, both are turned in awkward positions away from each other and the camera.

She certainly was much taller than he was.

The difference in height might have been what tempted someone to choose this photo to start with.

Look at the positions of the hands. They look like they’ve been not only swapped but switched right-for-left using mirror images. The giveaway is the position of the hand “holding” the flowers versus the corresponding hand on the other figure.

Could the suited male figure have been altered enough just by adding well-placed shading and cutting into the waist?

Pretty good effect at first glance, anyway.

Hm. The wedding band on the man’s is on RIGHT hand…...if that’s any clue.

The detective work by you people is very interesting.

Here’s the answer

@jaytkay, I think I lurve you! ;)

Excellent to all (not me!) But…the wedding band is still on her right hand….?

How were their respective heights doctored? I can’t see any mismatches or stretch marks.

Wow a lot more was done than I thought, holy crap.

They did a really good job.

I love photoshop!!! The way the man’s coat was given a bosom and hourglass figure is great.

@Jeruba How were their respective heights doctored? I can’t see any mismatches or stretch marks

The woman’s body was stretched vertically. They did a nice job touching up the area between her outfit and the suit.

I examined the shot in PS at 600%. There is indeed some anomalous morphing in the chest lines of both garments. It’s extremely good photoshop work, but at extreme magnification, the sharpness around hard lines is inconsistent. As well, the clone stamp cleanup shows some repeating patterns. Very few, but they are present.

Fun question. @jaytkay should be a detective!

So why do you suppose the artist didn’t do a mirror-image flip of the heads so they’re still facing toward one another? That seems to be the oddest lapse.

@Jeruba That was my early thought, too. But if you mirror-flip the heads, the lighting is wrong. The shadows on the heads would contradict the shadows elsewhere.

Ah. Of course. Very good observation and analysis.

Fluther PI!

I dragged the image into a Google Image Search and found this article.

Cool statement though from the photo you have provided, it seems it’s an artist interested in gender roles.

But definitely manipulated.

*And of course I didn’t read any answers in the posts and the answer is already there!