To be precise, the image in question is being used to promote the Galaxy A8 Star’s Portrait Mode feature, and still is at the time of writing. The act of was discovered by Dunja Djudjic, the photographer and writer who had taken the picture originally and put it up for sale on the photography community site and marketplace, EyeEm. Djudjic said that she performed a reverse image search days after the sale of the image. What she found was her picture plastered on Samsung Malaysia’s site. However, the image was inherently different from her original image; it had a more vivid colour tone. More importantly, the bokeh effect in the background was both clearly and heavily edited to accommodate for the Galaxy A8 Star Portrait Mode. There’s nothing wrong with using a licensed image in the promotion of product’s feature. So long as there is a proper disclaimer stating that the image and visual effects seen with it are purely for feature illustration only. Having said that, it can be argued that Samsung’s description and use of Djudjic’s image heavily implies that the picture was captured and edited by the Galaxy A8 Star. To be fair, Samsung isn’t the only guilty party to use DSLR images in their advertisements. Some of you might remember that Huawei Mobile Egypt was caught using a DSLR camera to simulate the AI camera feature of its Nova 3 and Nova 3i smartphones. Djudjic says that she had attempted to contact both Samsung Malaysia and Samsung Global about the picture use, but still hadn’t gotten an official response from the brand. (Source: DIY Photography via DP Review, EyeEm)
