Preserved Topic: Is this image doctored?

Even though the question of a manipulated image is more suitable in the Photoshop forum, the specific nature of this specific picture is more approprite here. If a mad-sci disagrees, feel free to move it over.

In any case, there are some apparent inconsistencies which have been pointed out in the image released of the London bombers, and I would like to get opinions from people who work with images (namely those here at the Asylum), and have a greater understanding than myself on it from an objective POV.

Here is the original image we were given by the authorities, grainy, small, and not very clear:



Now for the enlarged versions:




You can see in the enlarged images of the bomber directly in front of the railing what appears to be a black outline/border around the man's hat and on the left side of his head, as if it was poorly superimposed. Also, it appears as if one of the rails is going through his arm, as well as through his head, to a lesser extent. Bad photoshop job or trick of the light coupled with lack of clarity? Thoughts are appreciated.

Original link that led me to investigate.

Ramasax
www.AmericanSerf.us

(Edited by Ramasax on 07-26-2005 00:06)

the dark halo around the hat is consistent with other areas in the image where there's similar levels of contrast.

the bottom rail does look out of place, or in front of the guy. That said, it could very well be that the portion below that bar that you're taking to be the man's leg (or whatever) could very well be a continuation of that dark verticle area behind the rail (and no part of his anatomy extends into that area), and it just happens to line up.

looks pretty consistent all round at a glance



(Edited by JKMabry on 07-26-2005 00:37)

The haloing could be the result of sharpening (sharpen a photo in PS and then zoom in to see what is happening--you'll see the same sort of haloing around areas of solid color). As for the bar "going through" the guy, well, it reminds me of the "crosshairs appearing behind the astronauts in the moon landing photos" phenomen sometimes cited by moon landing hoax believers. Not that the same principle is involved, but that it would actually be a lot harder to doctor a photo this way then it would be to doctor it the right way. In other words, if the guy was superimposed over the railing, why would there by a tiny piece missing that is just big enough to show the railing?

I see no reason to believe that the photo has been doctored.

___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

My guess is that we're looking at digital images with a slow frame rate and fairly significant compression. Usually the compression works by only storing changes to the previous frame in a video. If someone stands there with little movement, or small but siginificant changes you can easily get artifacts left over from the last frame in the stream.



.:[ Never resist a perfect moment ]:.

(Edited by bitdamaged on 07-26-2005 01:15)

^What they said - that halo looks like a by-product of image enhancement processing.

I can't see where the lower bar is supposed to be intersecting the body at all - that darker grey area matches up well with the vertical band running to the top of the picture, and he'd have to be a pretty odd shape for that to be his leg or lower arm - you can see the bend of his arm fairly clearly, but the rest of him (esp. at the height of the signified bar) is obscured by the body and back-pack of the man in the foreground... or is that something he's holding? Either way, same result - the bar disappears behind the first object naturally obscuring it.

As for the bar against his face, I would suggest that this is another enhancement effect, exacerbated by compression artifacts and the shades apparent in both the image of the bar and of the man's blurred facial detail. I have seen similar results when trying to enhance the hopelessly low-quality images taken with my phone's camera. Both bars appear to be 'bleeding' into certain details of the obscuring objects in a fairly common way to such low-fidelity imaging.

If this image was doctored, as also said above, it would have been more work to mess it up like that than to make it convincing.
Besides, why bother doctoring this image like that? What would be achieved? If it was doctored, why make such a pig's ear of it?

(Edited by White Hawk on 07-26-2005 22:16)

quote:

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Suho: The haloing could be the result of sharpening (sharpen a photo in PS and then zoom in to see what is happening--you'll see the same sort of haloing around areas of solid color).

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Yep, I was able to reproduce this effect in PS, though not to the same degree.

The railing is still puzzling to me, but as you say "why would there by a tiny piece missing that is just big enough to show the railing?"

Thanks for the comments guys.

Ramasax
www.AmericanSerf.us