海角大神

GOP presidential hopeful Senator Marco Rubio enthusiastically shakes hands with President Obama in an image disseminated by rival Senator Ted Cruz's campaign, seemingly proving Sen. Cruz's point that Sen. Rubio cooperated with the president to make secret, backroom deals. But there's something a little .

Experts say the photo of the two men shaking hands with their left hands,听with the headline, 鈥淭he Rubio-Obama Trade Pact,鈥� sends up red flags for anyone familiar with stock photos and Photoshop, leading many to look for more tangible clues to fakery.

The image appeared on the website听, paid for by Cruz for President. It has since been replaced with a photo of the two men shaking hands before the State of the Union address.

The Cruz campaign fired back after allegations of photo-doctoring, but didn't deny that the photo was faked.听鈥淥f course Marco Rubio is throwing a fit because he鈥檚 ashamed of his liberal record of standing with Chuck Schumer and Barack Obama to try to pass amnesty,鈥� Cruz spokesman .

To tell if an image has been Photoshopped or edited you can look at the digital file's听metadata or try an online ,听examine the photo's lighting,听or simply ask yourself if it feels 鈥渦nsettling.鈥�

Adam Waltner, a teacher at the听听says in an interview with 海角大神, 鈥淵ou can see it鈥檚 been edited very heavily in the lighting, shading, color, tone and whoever created this image kinda knew what they were doing a little bit, but nothing in it looks real to me. It looks like a stock image composite where almost every element looks artificial.鈥�

鈥淭he real problem is that it doesn鈥檛 FEEL real,鈥� Mr. Waltner adds of the Rubio image.听鈥淭hat鈥檚 the thing about Photoshop is the feel just gets under my skin. You know in your heart of hearts that something鈥檚 just not right. It鈥檚 almost kinda creepy.鈥�

Rubio supporters on Twitter began their digital detective work to produce explanations. Some even doctored their own photos of Cruz and the president.

, digital photographer, author, and digital photography expert, says in an interview, 鈥淭he听stock image听people on Twitter found is actually a perfect match for the image of Rubio and President Obama. It鈥檚 the exact same photo just flipped. Same watch, same tablet, same suit and same whatever he鈥檚 holding. And the other problem is that the lighting is wrong.鈥�

Mr. Grey offers these tips for spotting a fake with an emphasis on the issues in the Rubio-Obama composite photo:

Check to see if light and shadows match:听Light likes to obey the laws of physics. 鈥淚n this case, Rubio is obviously illuminated by a light in front of him and slightly above him, and a relatively bright light source at that. As expected, the shadows fall toward the back of his head and toward his neck. The shadows on Obama are from a completely different lighting scenario 鈥� like they were in two different rooms 鈥� and also the heads and bodies on each man were lit differently.鈥�

Head and body mismatch:听鈥淩ubio seems to be a pretty fit guy, but I've never seen him look as scrawny as he does in this composite image.鈥�

Odd human interaction:听When people shake hands they generally make eye contact and share a similar facial expression.

鈥淚n this case, they aren't even looking at each other, and their facial expressions are wildly different,鈥� Grey points out. 鈥淩ubio is looking upward with the expression of a child who has just met Santa Claus, while Obama seems to have a bit of a proud 鈥業'm POTUS鈥� look, like he just presented an award to someone.鈥�