1. A method, comprising: altering at least one recognizable metric or text in a digitally-encoded photographic image by a computer operating an alteration algorithm in response to user input data while preserving an overall aesthetic quality of the image and obscuring an identity of at least one individual or geographic location appearing in the image, wherein the altering comprises altering selected facial recognition metrics; defining an alteration algorithm for the altering of the facial recognition metrics so as to obscure the identity from automatic recognition using a minimal value of Δ = ∑ 1 ⁢ ⁢ to ⁢ ⁢ M ⁢ ⁢ ∂ ⁢ i _ , wherein δi is a measure of metric alteration each of a number M of different facial recognition metrics; and storing, in a computer memory, an altered digitally-encoded photographic image prepared by the altering of the at least one recognizable metric or text in the digitally-encoded photographic image.