Every photo carries two hidden layers: the EXIF data your camera writes automatically, and the C2PA Content Credentials that can be cryptographically verified. This guide shows you how to read both in about ten minutes with free tools on any device, and what each layer really proves. It also covers the part most guides skip: what to do when the metadata is missing, faked, or quietly contradicting itself.
We took an AI-generated photo of a burning helicopter and ran it through our detector: flagged as computer generated, 80% confidence. Then we screenshotted the same image, uploaded that instead, and the tool found nothing at all. Here is what a screenshot does to a file, and why it quietly breaks almost every forensic test you can run.
Five of the most shared fake news photos of recent years, one free ELA scanner, and a few results I did not expect. The scores ranged from 50% to 100% on images we know are fake, and that gap says a lot about how image forensics really works.
Deepfake images went from a party trick to roughly 8 million fakes circulating online, and only a sliver of people can reliably spot one by eye. This guide breaks down exactly how these images get built, the visual tells that still work, and how detection software catches what humans miss.
Fake photos are everywhere, but you don't need a forensics lab to catch most of them. This guide walks through the core image forensics techniques and the free tools that put them in your browser, from error level analysis and metadata checks to spotting AI-generated images. You'll learn what each method actually reveals, and where it falls short.
