I'm posting it here for others because I'm frustrated that people think Morgan Freeman's photo is fake.

##The image was actually authentic. If anyone had looked at the noise/grain in the image they would have seen this. Unfortunately no one bothered for more advanced techniques other than levels and 3D ( which is based on brightness levels anyway ).

##How it is done

• Create new layer
• Set layer to difference
• Add slight gaussian blur ( just to very slightly start noticing lines and noise
• use Cntr,Alt,Shift,E ( to duplicate visible as new layer ) adjust Levels to brighten it up.

What you'll notice by doing this correctly is that the noise/grain has a pattern. which is consistent throughout the image including that AmA paper, though lighter. Also both the horizontal and vertical 'lines' of the grain match up.

Including the above method, you can clearly see that the person that took the photo was not a professional photographer, because of the amount of grain and lighting. And that no photoshop use for even sharpening or contrast was done.

TL;DR It is actually a lot harder even for a professional to have faked the original image.

Proof

*I made a thread specifically for this that went totally unnoticed by the community, and even got downvotes(/ maybe my choice of subredit )/ I'm not saying it supports what happened in the AmA itself. Only that the image appears to be authentic after all.