126 Photos Worth Freezing?

Feel free to chow me, because while I did search, I didn't search the old snopes board. But has this site been discussed before? A friend gave me the link, and I can't even tell if the photos are *supposed* to be real or not, but some of them look really.... off.

http://www.yeeeeee.com/2008/09/07/12...orth-freezing/

Opinions, anyone?


Heather

[UEL]

I see a lot of staged photos (one girl kicking another girl's butt, for example) and a lot of candid ones.

The only two I have trouble believing are the real things are:

- the B&W car accident with the body flying through the air

- the Saab smashing through the window (although that could be a staged photo, but who would do that to a beautiful Saab?)

But there are many great pictures there.

[One-Fang]

Care to indicate which look 'off'? I can't see anything I would question as possibly not a real photo. Certainly some staged. Mostly just good timing. Some tediously boring.

I have no issue with the car ones above - they certainly look real and we just may not know the circumstances around them.

The cat though - the one doubled up over water. It rather looks as if it's being carried at the tummy and the person carrying it is cut out. That's not a normal body position for a jump or leap.

And the balloon pop - awesome.

[UEL]

Originally Posted by One-Fang

I have no issue with the car ones above - they certainly look real and we just may not know the circumstances around them.

I would not call it an issue with the cars. Perhaps well staged. Definitely the Saab one would be staged. After all, who would have a camera pointed at a window like that from that level. It's not a security camera.

The B&W one though, a car going fast enough to throw a person like that would definitely be blurrier. In addition, the camera set up on the side of the road to catch an "accident" like that seems implausible. When I was in the photography club in high school (too many decades ago) we used to have filters that allowed us to take photos leaving parts of the film unexposed, and opposite filters where we could take a second exposure on that piece of film with only the previous unexposed film exposed It was a lot of fun, and would be super easy to create that car image.

Not an issue with the B&W, just a trick.

[Hans Off]

Originally Posted by UEL

The B&W one though, a car going fast enough to throw a person like that would definitely be blurrier.

I'm not so sure, jusding by the grain in the sky it looks like pretty fast film...

[Jay Tea]

There are some remarkable photos here, and some very dull ones as well but not a single example looked to be faked in any way, to my eye.

[rockstar1976]

anyone else notice that a LOT of the photos on that page involve water? What's up with that?

[Jay Tea]

Originally Posted by rockstar1976

anyone else notice that a LOT of the photos on that page involve water? What's up with that?

Water makes for cool pictures, either for the water itself or it's handy value as a crash-mat for stunts.

More of us have the hardware and ability to adjust shutter speeds these days so it's inevitable that more photographers are setting up shots of fluid, given it's 'blink and you miss it' properties...

[imjustasteph]

Originally Posted by Jay Tea

Water makes for cool pictures, either for the water itself or it's handy value as a crash-mat for stunts.

More of us have the hardware and ability to adjust shutter speeds these days so it's inevitable that more photographers are setting up shots of fluid, given it's 'blink and you miss it' properties...

I agree wholeheartedly about water making good pictures. I am pretty bad with a camera, and I have some beautiful shots out by the pool. No, not all of them show what I wanted them to at the moment, but the color is just gorgeous, that pretty blue, and they just look....happy and sunny and splashy.

[Roadsterboy]

Originally Posted by UEL

The B&W one though, a car going fast enough to throw a person like that would definitely be blurrier. In addition, the camera set up on the side of the road to catch an "accident" like that seems implausible. When I was in the photography club in high school (too many decades ago) we used to have filters that allowed us to take photos leaving parts of the film unexposed, and opposite filters where we could take a second exposure on that piece of film with only the previous unexposed film exposed It was a lot of fun, and would be super easy to create that car image.

Not an issue with the B&W, just a trick.

It's also an old 50's era car. I would not be surprised if that was a still from some long lost low budget movie, as opposed to a lucky photo opportunity.

-RB

[Em]

Originally Posted by One-Fang

Care to indicate which look 'off'? I can't see anything I would question as possibly not a real photo.

The only one which seems a little weird to me is the woman bowling (23rd from the bottom). The ball blur looks strange, but I'm not entirely sure why. It seems to match the blur around her outstretched arm and leg, though, so it's probably nothing.

[erwins]

Originally Posted by Em

The only one which seems a little weird to me is the woman bowling (23rd from the bottom). The ball blur looks strange, but I'm not entirely sure why. It seems to match the blur around her outstretched arm and leg, though, so it's probably nothing.

It's because the blur looks "backwards". The flash went off, freezing the image, then the shutter stayed open for another fraction of a second, which led to a blur going forward. There is a setting on some cameras (most sophisticated cameras) for "delayed flash". Using that setting will make the flash go off at the end of the shutter being open instead of the beginning. That will give you the more easily read blur behind the moving object.

erwins

[Xia]

Originally Posted by One-Fang

The cat though - the one doubled up over water. It rather looks as if it's being carried at the tummy and the person carrying it is cut out. That's not a normal body position for a jump or leap.

Another possibility is that the cat was dropped or thrown. The position looks normal for a cat being held out and then dropped just before the photo was taken.

To me none of the photos look fake but a lot of them seem to be very carefully staged.

[FullMetal]

i remember seeing quite a few just like those in an old national geographic on high speed photography (they also had a lot of cool pictures of bullets in flight, going through apples etc). the rest look like further endeavours in high speed photography, a lot being humourous. there's also a lot of play on perspective. basically they're photos any half decent photographer could do with a good camera.

I guess I just don't know enough about the more sophisticated cameras, then. I didn't see any that actually looked photoshopped, but I just wasn't aware that cameras could capture stuff like that, so split-second and such. *shrugs*

But yeah, the cat one was one of the ones that really gave me pause.

[Hans Off]

Originally Posted by erwins

It's because the blur looks "backwards". The flash went off, freezing the image, then the shutter stayed open for another fraction of a second, which led to a blur going forward. There is a setting on some cameras (most sophisticated cameras) for "delayed flash". Using that setting will make the flash go off at the end of the shutter being open instead of the beginning. That will give you the more easily read blur behind the moving object.

erwins

Front curtain sync

For the cat one, I thought it was on a beach and is leaping up as water is running under it?

The only iffy one that I can see (at the moment) it the giant windmill falling over, something is fishy about it, but I haven't had time to look properly!

ETA: and the bloke falling down the staircase, that is a pretty poor composite...

[franjava]

I think the guy falling down the staircase is a setup where he's jumping onto a mattress or something soft that we can't see.

Staged or not, a lot of those photos are really cool.

[Hans Off]

Originally Posted by franjava

I think the guy falling down the staircase is a setup where he's jumping onto a mattress or something soft that we can't see.

Staged or not, a lot of those photos are really cool.

Naa.. Its a shop job, the plane of focus on the man desn't match the rest of image, and the flash is not casting any shadow of him on the wall behind even though the shadows of the banisters are clearley defined.

[jw]

What about the one with the bullet?
Is it possible to capture something exiting at that speed?

Most of the water shots are very cool, especially the crown one.

[Jay Tea]

Originally Posted by jw

What about the one with the bullet?
Is it possible to capture something exiting at that speed?

Easily.