He made up an old photograph???

[Allon-sy]

I have this sentence

He made up an old photograph.

Does this combination of the phrasal verb 'make up' and the object sound okay, when it means that he made a fake photograph that looks old? Does it sound natural?

Thank you in advance.

[emsr2d2]

I have this sentence

He made up an old photograph.

Does this combination of the phrasal verb 'make up' and the object sound okay, when it means that he made a fake photograph that looks old? Does it sound natural?

Thank you in advance.

"Made up" doesn't really work here. You can make up a fact. You can make up your face (using cosmetics). With something like a photograph, you "fake" it.

However, if you say "He faked an old photograph", it's not clear whether he faked the entire photo, or if he took a real photo and only faked the "old" part of it.

He manually aged a photograph.
He digitally aged a photograph.
He manipulated a photograph to make it look old.

[BobK]

Also, what a crooked antiques dealer is distressing furniture - for example, boring small holes to give the impression of woodworm. I don't think 'distress' would collocate with 'photograph'.

b