Samsung Once Again Busted Using DSLR Photo To Advertise Galaxy A8's Camera

Smartphones are now getting closer to abilities to take good photos like the DSLRs, so some companies think they can comfortably use DSLR photos in their phone advertising. But it is still only closer, not the same quality. Most smartphone cameras are far from the quality DSLR can offer. And Samsung just becomes the latest company who thought that they could get away with it.

The recently released Samsung Galaxy A8 Star

At DIYPhotography, Dunja Djudjic, a photographer and writer, claims that she found out Samsung Malaysia was using her photo to advertise their mid-range smartphone, the Galaxy A8 Star. They use that photo in particular to show the capabilities of the phone’s portrait mode. Djudjic believed that Samsung licensed her image from her through EyeEm, a photo site, so payment is not really a problem. However, she emphasized that the picture was not taken by the Samsung Galaxy A8 Star. Instead, she took it with her own DSLR.

Samsung did not say explicitly that the picture was shot using the Galaxy A8 Star, but it was surely implied that way as the page it was on meant to show off the A8 Star’s capabilities. There was no such note saying the photos were simulated, and they proceeded to show the dual rear cameras of the Galaxy A8 after showing the photo of Djudjic, implying there was a connection.

The photo of Djudjic was edited for featuring on the Galaxy A8 page as well. The picture’s subject was removed from its foreground, then touched up and pasted over a different background. Djudjic was also colour-corrected to match. This surely not the biggest issue, she called it out as poor editing work and referred to it as a “franken-image”.

The original photo (left) and edited photo (right)

Samsung is not the first phone maker to get caught for using a DSLR photo to feature in the advertising of their smartphone’s capabilities. In fact, as she noted, Huawei got busted doing the same thing for its commercial in August and Samsung, once again, but that time it was its Brazil branch that attempted to do the swapping trick.

Using other people’s photos to advertise products is not something uncommon these days, but when it comes to showing off capabilities of a smartphone’s camera, it is deceptive, giving buyers a wrong understanding of what the phone can deliver. Samsung’s high-end smartphones are surely able to take excellent shots. It is not that hard for them to just take some pictures to illustrate what their phones are capable of. If their Galaxy A8 can’t take good photos to feature on their advertising, then maybe they should not bother because buyers will find out about it anyway.