Most of the faked news pictures that have been spotted have been of two kinds: something photoshopped, and something where the actual subject matter of the picture is not what is described in the news story or caption.

The latter is far more common. Photos of old artillery shells labeled as missile parts. Photos of burning dumps labeled as a crashed plane. Photos and films that were staged for a specific effect. The number of examples, particularly war photos, is legion. Some of the cartoons that started Muslim riots were fake. If I had hours, I could post all the separate references here.

These are hard to detect, since the photos themselves have not been modified. Just lied about. Sometimes an alert reader will locate the original photo and find out the real story. Sometimes it's a matter of analyzing the picture, like running the "missile parts" photo past someone who knows exactly what piece of hardware is in the picture.

This site divides it into four categories, not two, but gives some examples from the Lebanon war.