Re: Further Analysis of the Last Photo

by canada12 24.07.14 2:34

Sonmi-451 wrote:
canada12 wrote:Thanks Sonmi-451. There are some small anomalies in The Last Photo which I'd like you to take a close look at, using the high-res photo on page 1 of this thread.

The anomalies are:

1. Madeleine's little braid, on the left side of her head as she faces us. There is a definite line running across her hair below the elastic band. It's a different colour from the rest of her hair. In addition, above the elastic band, it's supposed to be a braid, but it disappears into nothing, and loses all definition.

2. Madeleine's left arm, on our right as she faces us. If you increase the size of the photo about 3x, and look at the outside of her arm, you'll see a brown line which runs along the edge of her arm, down past her wrist. If you were looking at a normal photo of an arm, you'd expect the line of her arm to indent at her wrist. We can see the contour of her skin indenting at her wrist, but the outside brown line, which is about 2 pixels wide, continues straight, without indenting at her wrist. If I were a photoshopper, I would say that this is a remnant of cropping and pasting, and the two pixel line wasn't cleaned up.

3. Behind Amelie is a black and white object on the pool deck. We could argue that this is the depth indicator, which you can see in the photo I posted above somewhere, of the pool without people. However the pool depth indicator is white, and has a black edge on it on the bottom. The object behind Amelie is black at the top, and it has a white edge on the bottom. I can't see any way to confidently explain this. Perhaps you could give it a try.

4. You can clearly see the edge of the pool behind Madeleine, curving behind her back. Yet if you look at the edge of the pool where Amelie is sitting, which is the next time we see it, it doesn't seem to link up in a properly curving perspective, if we assume that the black and white thing behind her is the depth indicator.

Thanks.. I haven't been able to explain any of these anomalies to my satisfaction - maybe you could have a very close look at them and tell me what you think. :-)
Will do... I'll go into more detail when I'm not covered in varnish after catching up engraving some wedding photos...

(1) The splodgy bit below the braid I've looked at and is indeed the only 'possible' photoshopping bit I might yet be able to be convinced by, (I'm aware of the concerns about the 'bead' that may/may not have been found after the 4th and KM writing about removing something from MBM's hair so it is odd... the Mystery Writer in me imagined finding a statement by a cleaner saying they found such a bead on, say, the 2nd... which would have helped show this photo preceded that date... but that's just my active my wishful thinking and over-active imagination!!!)... (2) I think the contrast band on the wrist is a symptom of how digital cameras process images. I'll do the technical bit that might explain it when I have time..that might also explain (3) the high contrast of the pool edge behind Amelie and a raised tile, (that's my first thoughts...and liable to change!)... and as for '4' I don't think I can explain that one.. is it an optical illusion or evidence of manipulation? I fear that the only way to check that one out might be to take a 3 and 4 yr old and an adult and sit them in the exact same place. I will try and draw some vector lines over the curve though to at least fairly share the results...

I must dash now... Sorry for my haste... I gotta finish tons of stuff for posting tomorow :D G'night !

No problem. Just one more thought.

Regarding Madeleine's wrist - I would be inclined to believe that the vertical brown line running down her arm past her wrist might be how digital cameras process images, however nowhere, and I mean nowhere, else on the three people in this picture does that anomaly appear. If it was something that the camera was doing, I would expect to see it on Amelie or Gerry's arms, and I don't. The line only appears on Madeleine's arm. Surely it should also show up on the others?

Her hair is indeed a mystery.

The black and white thing defies logic and explanation.

Anyway, I thank you for your continuing investigations and look forward to your thoughts. I firmly believe that the devil is in the very small details.

by Sonmi-451 24.07.14 4:29

canada12 wrote:

{Snipped}

The black and white thing defies logic and explanation.

Hi Canada12,

I've grabbed a few minutes before overdue zzzZZZ to look at the white/black thing behind Amelie. It did look odd, however I'm 100% sure it's not a white/black thing. The 'white' is actually the same shading as the pool's top coping, so it must be the pool edge. It's an optical illusion that it appears 'white' owing to the contrast with the surrounding tones, (the effect is really well illustrated in this YouTube clip... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9Sen1HTu5o ... If the link doesn't work search YouTube for: Incredible Shade Illusion
)

Here's a quick few words and an illustration of moving the white bit onto the coping to show it is the same shade...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]" />

by Guest 24.07.14 7:31

Forget the "black and white square" thing.

The camera itself makes decisions about colour.. what you see isn't what you get. You need to find out what JPEG compression does.

There's a lot of chaff in this thread isn't there.

The most important thing about the picture is that it seems not to have been taken on 3rd May.

by canada12 24.07.14 9:05

Sonmi-451 wrote:
canada12 wrote:

{Snipped}

The black and white thing defies logic and explanation.

Hi Canada12,

I've grabbed a few minutes before overdue zzzZZZ to look at the white/black thing behind Amelie. It did look odd, however I'm 100% sure it's not a white/black thing. The 'white' is actually the same shading as the pool's top coping, so it must be the pool edge. It's an optical illusion that it appears 'white' owing to the contrast with the surrounding tones, (the effect is really well illustrated in this YouTube clip... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9Sen1HTu5o ... If the link doesn't work search YouTube for: Incredible Shade Illusion
)

Here's a quick few words and an illustration of moving the white bit onto the coping to show it is the same shade...
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]" />

Thanks for that. I can see that the white bit is probably the edge of the pool and the brownish bit is Amelie's shadow on the edge of the pool. But I still don't understand the black strip at all. I think this may have to be one of the "unsolved" anomalies of this picture.

Here is a closeup of the arm detail I was asking about.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Note how the brown line on the outside of Madeleine's arm continues down her wrist, and does not indent where her wrist indents. I've examined the entire photo and cannot see anywhere else where this anomaly exists on anyone. You can see the hairs on Gerry's arm. You can see the definition of Amelie's arm without any outlining. Only on Madeleine's arm do we see this brown line which extends all the way up her arm.

by canada12 24.07.14 9:12

BlueBag wrote:Forget the "black and white square" thing.

The camera itself makes decisions about colour.. what you see isn't what you get. You need to find out what JPEG compression does.

There's a lot of chaff in this thread isn't there.

The most important thing about the picture is that it seems not to have been taken on 3rd May.

I agree that the time date stamp is the most important thing, BlueBag.
But I don't see anything wrong in a close examination of the tiny things which have always niggled me about this photograph. If we were forensic examiners, we'd be looking at every tiny detail, not just the big picture.
And I don't think it's chaff to try and get explanations for things which don't look right.