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Is there an easy way to tell a fake UFO pic?

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Xylo

Xylo

Paranormal Adept
Okay, I'm not an image expert. I'm not an image amateur. I don't dabble in photoshop and I don't understand gimp. I have a hard time understanding how to crop or re-size my own images.

There are some images in the UFO field that I find compelling, others that I don't. But are there a few simple things that I can look for to determine if something is indeed a fake? Don't tell me to turn up the green channel or anything like that...just maybe some simple indicators.

dB mentions "atmospheric haze" all the time, and I look for that now. Are there any more things to look for? (don't tell me to look for strings attached either! :P )

This is actually a serious question.
 
The older photos are easier. It gets harder these days with all the computer stuff. People like Bruce Maccabee made a real science out of spotting fakes.

David knows his stuff too of course!
 
Pixelization, inaccurate light sourcing, shadows (either the lack thereof of the incorrect placement of same) and mismatched colours are all starting things you can look for without ever opening PS.
 
I would think that with all the technology out there now, anyone would have to be a complete idiot to think they could get away with photoshopping anything anomalous into their photo's or movie clips.

For this reason, the fake stuff that's out there now looks obviously fake because those who do this know that even if they spent hours and hours trying to erase their tracks, they still know that after someone analyzes it in photoshop or any other editing program out there -- they are going to be found fake... for this reason those who are still hoaxing things don't bother putting a lot of time into their (fake) ufo photo's to make them look real.... it's like, why bother?
 
Simple. You can deduct it is a fake if it came from Greer, Sereda, Hoagland, Project Camelot, ATS forums, Coast2Coast, UFO Magazine, one-armed men of any kind, etc.

That eliminates 99% of 'em right there. Now you too can be a UFO image expert with 99% accuracy!
 
I try to look at atmospheric qualities that should either be there or not be there. David mentions this quite often and since then, I've been trying to hone my eyes to tell the signs.

Look at the Meier photos, these are great examples of what faked photos look like and I feel that the lack of an atmospheric interference is one of the more convincing arguments that prove this.

David can describe this much better than I can.
 
methshin said:
I try to look at atmospheric qualities that should either be there or not be there. David mentions this quite often and since then, I've been trying to hone my eyes to tell the signs.

Look at the Meier photos, these are great examples of what faked photos look like and I feel that the lack of an atmospheric interference is one of the more convincing arguments that prove this.

David can describe this much better than I can.
Click to expand...

That's still not enough since atmospheric perspective can be convincingly faked easily enough.

For example I can model something out in Max or Maya then hop over to an accurate unbaised renderer such as Maxwell or FryRender. I'd use an HDR image as a lighting source - I can either provide my own bracketed HDR image or find an existing one and tweak it so that it closely matches the lighting in the photo. I would render that model against the photo to create a smooth edge with the rendered object.

Then I take that into Photoshop along with its alpha channel, sample some background sky tone and apply that over the ufo along with some sampled noise using a filter such as GrainSurgery.

Then I shrink the photo, save it, then reopen it and blow it up again, then sharpen it and resave it all using jpeg compression. This ends up creating consistent noise and artifacts across the entire image. Presto you have a VERY convincing UFO photo.
 
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