Charlotte Observer photographer Patrick Schneider has lost his job for manipulating the colors in a photo that appeared in Thursday's newspaper.

Schneider has been reprimanded for altering photos before. In 2003, he was stripped of three state-level prizes when contest officials learned some of the photos he entered had been heavily adjusted.

In this case, the problematic image shows a firefighter on a ladder, silhouetted against the sun and a vividly red sky. It was published in color on the front of the paper's local news section.

In a note published Friday, Observer editor Rick Thames apologized to readers for the altered photo and announced that Schneider no longer works for the paper.

"In the original photo, the sky in the photo was brownish-gray. Enhanced with photo-editing software, the sky became a deep red and the sun took on a more distinct halo," the editor's note says.

"Schneider said he did not intend to mislead readers, only to restore the actual color of the sky," the note continues. "He said the color was lost when he underexposed the photo to offset the glare of the sun."

Schneider did not immediately return a phone message left at his home Friday morning.

Most newspapers, including the Observer, have strict policies forbidding photographers from manipulating images. Generally, small adjustments are permissible as long as they do not significantly change the photograph.

In this case, as with Schneider's work in 2003, editors decided the manipulation was too extreme.

The 2003 controversy concerned images Schneider had submitted to the North Carolina Press Photographers Association Pictures of the Year contest. The NCPPA board voted to withdraw three awards it had given Schneider and the Observer suspended Schneider for three days without pay.

One of the 2003 images was darkened to obscure the background, making the image more visually appealing but removing details visible in the original.

Another image that caused controversy in 2003 is strikingly similar to the firefighter picture published Thursday. It also shows a man silhouetted against the sun, and it also was altered to boost the red coloring of the sky. (The 2003 pictures are visible on the Poynter web site.)

Schneider has consistently won NCPPA awards for his work, including Best of Show in 2004 and Clip Photographer of the Year in the 2005.

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