Photo Expert Dubs Oscar De La Hoya Pictures Phony

While many continue to question the authenticity of the racy Oscar De La Hoya photos, at least one expert has already made up his mind.

The photos are fake, image expert Jeff Sedlik insists.

The photos, which purport to feature the former boxing champ in a fishnet body suit, black pumps and a wig, were posted by photo agency X17 Online on Wednesday.

However during an interview with Access Hollywood, Sedlik said upon a close examination, his opinion is that the photos show tell-tale signs of being phony.

“Whoever retouched these photos has mediocre skills in photoshop,” Sedlik told Access. “It looks like they spent a lot of time to put one over on everybody, but didn’t quite make it. When you zoom in and look at this pixel by pixel you can tell they’ve been retouched.”

Sedlik, a professor of photography and forensic expert in photography, said there are signs of blurring the images and shifting the color, which would hint they are not authentic.

However, had someone with more advanced photoshop skills been the one to alter the images, it’s possible no one could have discerned the difference.

“An expert with sufficient skills could retouch these images so that nobody could tell,” Sedlik added. “Somebody spent a lot of time attempting to mask their work. They were looking for a pay day and it looks like they got it.”

Meanwhile, Gotham magazine columnist R. Couri Hay, the man who broke the story about the photos, said none of the photo authorities he showed the pictures to could tell they were fakes.

“I’ve taken [the photos] to some of the best photo agencies and photographers in the world and I’ve asked them, ‘Could these possibly be photoshopped?’ And to a person, everyone says no. It’s virtually impossibly,” the columnist told Access.

Shortly after the photos were posted online, an attorney for De La Hoya released the following statement to Access Hollywood:

“Oscar does know the woman who we believe is selling these photographs to the tabloid media. But he assures me that the photos are phony. He has asked me to pursue his legal remedies. Because we are contemplating legal action, Oscar will make no further comment at this time.”

However, X17 continued to stand by the their photos.

In a statement on their Web site, X17 Online said “regarding the possible Photoshopping of the images – we got a letter from Oscar’s lawyer today and while they’d love us to take down the pix, they didn’t initially dispute their authenticity!”