Celebrating 35 Years of Adobe Photoshop
Every child’s photo that you see on a NCMEC missing poster was touched by Adobe Photoshop.
Whether to resize, remove distractions or eliminate a social media filter, each photo is brought into Photoshop first to ensure we have a clear picture of the child to share with the public.
“The missing child image, time and time again, has proven to be one of the most valuable tools to engage with the community,” said John Bischoff, vice president of the Missing Children Division at NCMEC. “It’s paramount to everything else that we do. Adobe Photoshop helps us do that.”
Thirty-five years ago, Adobe launched the first version of Photoshop, transforming the way the world designs and creates. NCMEC’s partnership with Adobe spans nearly two decades. After an Adobe employee heard NCMEC present at a conference, he was inspired to get involved.
“That session profoundly affected me,” said John Penn, senior architect for law enforcement technologies at Adobe and now a NCMEC board member. “It was my first introduction to what NCMEC did and I wanted to figure out if there was a way to help.”
That help has included access to Adobe’s creative tools for our staff, along with assistance from their engineers to overhaul our website. That project helped modernize our site and make it easier and more intuitive for the public to access critical information.
“It's always important for us as an organization to be utilizing the latest and the greatest technologies,” said Bischoff. “We need to be putting our best foot forward technically to save these children, to help find them and to help engage with the public.”
One of the most unique applications of Photoshop at NCMEC comes out of our forensic services unit. This team of four artists is responsible for the creation of more than 7,800 age progressions of long-term missing children and more than 300 reconstructions of unidentified deceased children.
“Photoshop allows us to do our work quickly, effectively and with confidence,” said Colin McNally, who supervises the forensic services unit at NCMEC.
Colin McNally works on an age progression image in Adobe Photoshop. (Credit: NCMEC)
These images are often described as a combination of art and science. Our artists study skull development, analyze family traits and use ancestry clues to anticipate what a child might look like as they grow. Combine all this with artistic skill, and the artists create an image that can be shared with the public to reflect what a child might look like today, or in the case of unidentified remains, what that child may have looked like in life.
“The fact that we're able to do that within Photoshop with such ease, and it's such a streamlined approach to the work, it's really just made a huge difference,” said McNally.
And the results are undeniable. Hundreds of children have been found because someone recognized a child from a NCMEC age progression. This is especially impressive given that these cases range from a few years old to children who’ve been missing for decades.
For McNally, success has many definitions. It’s showing a family we haven’t forgotten about their child. It’s providing a new tool to law enforcement in the search. And ultimately, it’s bringing a child home.
“Knowing that there has been a recovery and somebody saw your age progression and called in a tip, I mean, that's the best feeling in the world.”
At NCMEC, Adobe Photoshop is more than just a tool – it’s a vital resource in the search for missing children. From enhancing images to helping us create age progressions that change lives, our partnership with Adobe has helped rewrite the stories of countless families. As we celebrate this milestone, we look forward to what’s ahead: more children found and more families reunited.
“We need partners to help us in this fight to find missing children, to protect children,” said Bischoff. “Adobe is absolutely one of those amazing partners who help us with our mission day in and day out, and we can't thank them enough.”