Before photo manipulation on computers, what did you do for group photographs when everyone was not present?
In the above photograph, from the Scurlock Collection at the Archives Center of the NMAH, the two people not present were cut from other photographs and pasted in. Can you tell who was not originally in the photo?
The man on the left, not facing toward the camera, and everything behind him are from another photograph. His left foot is not visible behind the chair and the bookcase does not align. The man on the far right, standing, has been cut and pasted on top of the photograph with precision to fit behind the seated man so he does not cover any of his facial features, his ears are a good example, but his lower body is absent.
While changes made to the physical photograph are much easier to spot, the picture above shows how a well cut-and-pasted photograph could have been used, for publishing, etc., when everyone was not available for the group photo.