The aphorism "the camera never lies" was never true. Yet photography's mendacious capabilities have been amplified by the capabilities of image editing software such asPhotoshop.

This month, the French magazine Paris Match published photographs of a bare-chested President Nicolas Sarkozy that appeared to have been "improved". Courtesy of some unknown digital artist, Mr Sarkozy lost his love handles (les poignées d'amour, if you were wondering), thus appearing just that tiny bit more like his muscular counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and a little less like the Michelin Man.