You can tell from the pixels

MDaF found a nice conspiratorial thread on some random Obama family photo. No other thread I have yet seen shows how obsessively intense scrutiny inevitably leads one down a rabbit hole:

Noamie would be right at home in 4Chan:

I use Photoshop professionally and I would say that there is a very high chance that this photo is “shopped,” except that this is such a low res example it is tough to really say for sure.
Some things that stand out:
1. Lower right edge of her dress. That dark line is different from what you would expect to see and could be the remnants from something that was in the her original photo (a dark background on original in that area).
At first I thought that it was just the seat support behind her (and it could be up to a point), except that the dark line extends to her foot.
2. Black, or gloved, hand. Simply put, humans have pretty regular conformations and the human forearm is roughly the length of a person’s foot. The forearm in this photo is grotesquely elongated.
Even if she were wearing a sheer-typed glove, her forearm is too long to fit with the hand as it is positioned in this photo.
3. Something that may be hard to explain, but immediately jumped out to me is that if you printed this photo and then took a straight ruler and placed it along the edge of the top side of the white wall in the background you would find that it is straight all of the way across.
If you place the ruler on the lower edge of the white wall you will find that the left side of her dress is raised up slightly and not in line.
It’s just odd.
4. The lighting isn’t quite right on her face, but that would be hard to judge unless you know how the light is getting into the room (windows, glass, &c.?) and if something were blocking it in places.
5. Hair. The hair above her left shoulder appears to “fade” away. Hair does not do that in reality, but it often does it in bad photoshopping. Hair is often a tale-tell sign.
It would be nice to have a higher res version to see better - especially her hair.

RummyChick spots the issue:

holy crap, that is a black man’s hand. Is it possible someone in Obama’s camp put the black hand in there just to mess with the birthers?

Smokeyblue knows what's important:

Dang. I’ve never seen that photo. Odumbo is really, really fat.

svcw has never heard of puberty. Explains a lot.

How does a chubby round faced dark skin kid turn into a lanky light skinned long faced adult?

GOPJ explains that fake photos are pretty Communist:

Communists were big on doctoring photos long before it became easy with home computers. And they made stupid mistakes too - like the kind shown here...

GeorgeWashingtonsGhost wants a Congressional investigation of darkhandgate:

That's Frank Marshall Davis' right hand. He's got his hand clasped due to holding sun glasses. He was probably originally standing approximately where Ann now is, or a bit to the right of that. There is no possible way anyone can successfully argue this is Ann's hand. It's too large and would indeed be lighter in tone even if in a shadow.

This SHOULD trigger a Congressional investigation, but it won't. Some allege Davis was a spy for the Soviet Union, so Barack's grooming could certainly be connected to a much bigger Soviet plot... "More flexible" now takes on a whole new meaning.

GeorgeWashingtonsGhost has uncovered another suspicious photo:

Raise your hand if you think 0bama's head looks way to big here..

CIB-173RDABN knows even obvious hoaxes only show how deep the conspiracy goes!!!

If I had some potentially embarrassing photo from my past and if I thought if the truth got out it could damage me or my career, I do not think I would spend my time trying to get control of them.

I would do the opposite. I would flood the market with embarrassing obvious fakes.

This way if a real photo should surface it can be brushed aside as a fake. True believers and true haters do not care about the truth. It is those in the middle that need to be confused so they give you the benefit of the doubt.