Did Iran PhotoShop This Photo?

Guy here is the video link check it out www.liveleak.com...

Originally posted by flice
Upon closer inspection it becomes more obvious...
The missile truck was probably in an unwanted position, so they took the top of the dirt mount on the right and placed it where the truck was. It's only just visible from the similar lines etc. in the mount.


EDIT: For clarification... the "Real" shot and the first image you posted are shot probably ½ sec from each other. So they are two different shots. Nevertheless is the one with four missiles heavily shopped.

I'm sitting with the images overlapped in PS right now. Another thing is that one of the images was even stretched or squeezed...

[edit on 10/7/08 by flice]

Hehehe you and me both, I was about to post the same findings, but thought Id better wait to see what else pops up. Good call.

Definitely not the same shot, but definitely of the same launches, imo. And definitely the first one is touched up, you can even see a slight contrast difference where the cloning around the added missile is not uniform, where the gradient of the sky did not quite match, so has been touched to lessen the obviousness..

But to whoever did it.. dont give up your day job..

Well, maybe we're really not all the nutty here on our conspiracy site! We must have some NPR employees lurking around. I was just listening to the radio on my way home from work and heard the announcement of an upcoming story: "Did Iran photoshop the photos of their recent missile test?"

I had already seen the headline on ATS this morning but hadn't heard about this in any other MSM outlet. Nice to see someone here was ahead of the curve with this one!

That photo is without a doubt edited. The highlighted portions match perfectly - with one teeny glitch in the upper trails; I checked by viewing the portions like you would a stereograph. I can use the cloning stamp much more competently than that!

I just checked again with the magical cross-eyed method and there's far more duplication than just what is in the rectangles.

[edit on 10-7-2008 by EnlightenUp]

We all remember the photoshopped iraq civilians thread and the likes used by MSM so this is hardly suprising, given condooolezza rice's lunatic raving lately...

reply to post by GhostR1der


Could you please give a link to that thread? How recent is that?

Concerning the OP.
It's obvious that this was photoshopped, but the whole video (excluding the dude talking in front of the camera) could be fake as well. I'm a 3d graphics artist and I can safely say that it would not be hard at all to film some footage and then animate some missles flying around, now rendering this all out though takes some time, so photoshopping that first image would save some time.

Then agian it could just be that, that one news station chopped it or the Iranian Gov did it (I doubt that though).

One thing you have to remember is that the Iranians are not a bunch of monkeys with guns, they are very smart folks, so photoshopping would'nt be a hard thing for them to do and as far as access to a new version of photoshop goes, well, I know how you can get a version of CS4 (which isn't even out yet) for free off the internet as well as any other program you want and I'm not talking about torrents here.

-Jimmy

Originally posted by jimmyjackblack

One thing you have to remember is that the Iranians are not a bunch of monkeys with guns, they are very smart folks, so photoshopping would'nt be a hard thing for them to do

-Jimmy

Exactly, they wouldn't be foolish enough to release something like this would they?

So begs the question, who did and why?

[edit on 10-7-2008 by Denied]

I think everyone who helped Denied work on this did a wonderful job. Star and flag for you. After reading a lot threads lately with lots of negative comments its nice to see this thread and how everyone worked together to get to figure it out. Great job!!!!!

What happens if it comes out to the public that this was photoshopped. I wonder who will fess up that they did this.

reply to post by Denied


While I have no plans to find the specific guilty party however my gut tells me it is an act of putting feelers out there just to tune the machine to the proper level in order to work out the length required to go to in order that suggestions cannot be consciously rejected. They can then be accepted without resistance by as many as is possible. The intellect along with the will is the strongest (and last) level of resistance to anything while the subconsious will accept whatever is pressed upon it. I hope I'm making some sort of sense here.

reply to post by Denied


I just did some logic thinking here and noticed something.
It must be our country's media that did this. Not the Iranian media
How am i so sure of this?
Well, why are there the two different images of the first photo?

:Tampered:



:Original:



The MSM has the original so the Iranian Gov obviously did not give us a fake. Smaller news stations take stuff like the original photo and some videos from CNN/FOX/MSN/CBS/NBC, you know the BIG news stations (I know this cause I have a friend that works for a small news station and he explained it to me), so if the MSM has the original, then a news station from our own country obviously doctored the photos.

But if the Iranian Gov is hosting a site that has the tampered one on it, then we know it's the Iranian Gov that the newsgroup that posted the tampered one got it from the Iranian Gov.

So now the biggest question is, did the tampered photo come from the Iranian Gov's website?

-Jimmy

[edit on 10-7-2008 by jimmyjackblack]

[edit on 10-7-2008 by jimmyjackblack]

Originally posted by isa75
I think everyone who helped Denied work on this did a wonderful job. Star and flag for you. After reading a lot threads lately with lots of negative comments its nice to see this thread and how everyone worked together to get to figure it out. Great job!!!!!

What happens if it comes out to the public that this was photoshopped. I wonder who will fess up that they did this.

Yes thanks to everyone, everyones input has been great.

Fox news are covering this story now, with AFP saying they knew nothing about it, as was supplied by Iranian Revolutionary Guard's media Web site, Sepah News.

According to The Times, AFP reportedly obtained the photo from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's media Web site, Sepah News, on Wednesday. The photo ran on the covers of major media outlets around the world before anyone noticed the apparent error.

There was no immediate comment from Iranian officials on the photos.

www.foxnews.com...



[edit on 10-7-2008 by Denied]

Originally posted by Denied
I cant take credit for spotting these myself, i found this on the net, and apparently it hit the web a few hours ago, but well worth posting on ATS.


I believe there is a video of this event, i cant find it, but the image shown is strange and does look fishy.

Is this just to beef up the photo too look more impressive?
Or just the way it is, would the video show the same? Then no photoshop used....

Source.

Here's another photo of the missile tests by Iran, taken from fox news, the smoke clouds are all completely different.

**Please note this is a different picture, i just used it as an example to look at the smoke trail, the original photo to the above photo is posted further down.

It is the same launch taken from different angle, once again proving the above photo as photoshopped**

Source.



[edit on 10-7-2008 by Denied]

[edit on 10-7-2008 by Denied]

The answer is yes it was photoshopped as per this mornings tv news. They think that they are clever.

Sorry... I don't mean to be disrespectful. But it seems like a lot of people didn't read the entire thread.
There's continous rambling about the Iranians when I think that it's much more plausible that AFP were the ones to # around in the cake.

Time for people to go back and read the entire thread.
If not here's a recap:

I previously put in some different links. They were for news stories that carried the photos as presented by the agency AP and there were links as carried by the agency AFP.... mind you, two different agencies:

- AFP
- AP

Every single AFP news story I read, before I was stupid enough to write to them and ask if it was common for them to photoshop their images, had 4 missiles in it.
Every single AP news story I found, had 3 missiles in it.
That brings up 1st question:
- Why only bother giving photoshop images to one agency?

The two images vary but not much. Go back, check my animated gif. It might be a bit fast (1 sec loop). I aligned the images so that the static environment is the same. This not only shows that it was the same camera for the two shots, but also lets us know that the two shots were taken ½ sec apart. Nothing interesting there to be honest. It's normal for news suppliers to release more photos of the same to give you a choice to select the one you like the most.

Then, why was the image photoshopped and by who? Several ideas come to mind. I'll start with the ones that are in my oppinion less likely and end with what I think was the silly deal.

1. They (read Iran) added the missile because the launch failed and didn't wanna look like a-holes.
A. No... why bother shopping that one image, which ONLY AFP got, and then don't care about, the other images, the live footage and then let AP use an untouched photo the day after. No... this is not the answer.

2. They added the 4th after having seen the photos and found that 4 looks more convincing and more evil and powerful than 3 missiles
A. That's a given no... Because no one would care. The whole "more convincing and more evil" only exists because of comparison. You always need a "than" when you have a "more" and if you only saw the photo with 4 missiles, then you wouldn't have anything to compare with, hence you wouldn't be more scared or care more.

3. You said it yourself, it's two different images!!!
A. Hehe yes, but if they could do a piss poor job on one image, you'd stick around and do it to the whole batch before sending it out for the agencies to choose.

4. The Iranians did this so to make AFP look like fools,
A. We need some motives for that. Again remember, only AFP are the ones to bring the shopped photo. AP didn't get duped.


5. AFP shopoed the image. They did this to make it look better, so it would sell more / simply get the double benefit from a shopped image (I'll explain this last).
A. Bingo! Very plausible explanation. AFP are photo lovers. Amongst having writing reporters the survive on a huge news stockphoto service. They are photographers. They appreciate a good and beautiful image. That's why when they saw what Sepah had to offer them from the show, they just had to fix it up a bit. Why? It's more beautiful... even I can see that. Forget what it's of... look at shapes, numbers of objects, the way they are placed. It's so basic aesthetic photography that it reeks of, wanting to be the best in the top.
The photoshopped image.... looks... nicer. It is more pleasing to the eye. Boring but true.

Now, what did I mean about "double benefit"? Well, from what I just said, AFP believed that the shopped version would be easierly sold as stock if touched up. After having said that, why do a pisspoor job? Photojournalists cannot go near photoshop. It's a nono. No excuses. So they probably had a halfass doing it with lack of experience.
OR... this is where it gets tricky. They did a piss poor job on purpose simply because they knew they would get caught, but fortunately for them, they are able to push the blame further down the line to Sepah, because Sepah isn't really in a position to defend themselves or call AFP liars.
So when AFP got caught, they point at Iran and the # hits the fan, "new" news story... they effectively sell the freaking image twice!! How about that for a sense of business... Suddenly AFP is sitting on a story large than the story itself, and we dig into it.

Recap:

- We have two images, shot ½ a sec apart.
- One image is shopped, clearly.
- Other image is not.
- ONLY AFP images are shopped..............
- AP images are not.
- The shopped imaged was reported to have been handed to AFP wednesday
- AP got their image today.

Ask yourself again... why hand a photoshopped image the first day, but then turn 180 on yourself and hand an unphotoshopped image the second day to a different agency.
Ask yourself again... why hand a photoshopped image the first day, but then turn 180 on yourself and hand an unphotoshopped image the second day to a different agency.
Ask yourself again... why hand a photoshopped image the first day, but then turn 180 on yourself and hand an unphotoshopped image the second day to a different agency.

End comment... It may seem like I'm trying to defend Iran, or making the allied forces look like idiots here. But read again. I'm not making Iran better than they are. Not making someone look worse is not the same as making them look better......
I'm not bashing the allies. I've practically only once mentioned that they could be involved.
I am however questioning the ethics of AFP and how they sell "news". Questioning how they manage to stay on top of the game, where they claim to be award winners.
For the record I had no grudge with AFP till now. I love great news footage, but not when it comes at the consequence of ethics and truth.
You never ever touch up a news photo. Having said that... yes, I know that that happens. I think we were lucky to catch these guys in the act.

Most likely we'll never know the truth in all this. MSM has already bought the idea of Iran doing the touching. In a way that kinda soothes me. Shows they are every bit as blind as most people.

Ignorance is bliss, eh? Especially when it sells news.

BUT, BUT, BUT this is Iran....i mean they are SO trustworthy and their leaders NEVER lie and they are just being picked on and misunderstood. Why on earth would they lie about their military tests?

reply to post by jimmyjackblack


Yes... read all my posts. That's the deduction I've been giving along the way. But either people don't care when it's "Debunking rambling Flice" or people didn't read the whole thread

[edit on 10/7/08 by flice]

Ok, I just saw that some news agencies are say there's some Iranian news agency called "Sepah News" that released the tampered photo, however I cannot find this news agency why would that be?
However Fox News says that the photo came from AFP, but I cannot find it on AFP's site, did they take it down?

-Jimmy

Originally posted by flice

Most likely we'll never know the truth in all this. MSM has already bought the idea of Iran doing the touching. In a way that kinda soothes me. Shows they are every bit as blind as most people.

Ignorance is bliss, eh? Especially when it sells news.

Thats exactly how fox news is pumping the story, like their waiting on Iranian officials to comment they say.

I never discounted the idea AFP could be the guilty party, thanks for picking that all up...

If they did it just for visual effect, look at how its been played out now.

[edit on 10-7-2008 by Denied]

Here is the gif I did on page three again. Same point of view. Image fade from the first photo to the one ½ sec later. First image shows the launch truck, second photo shows the touch up.



Again... if Iran wanted to fool us, they would have bothered to touch up the first image. Again... the touched image went out yesterday through AFP, the untouched image was handed to AP today. BOTH images came from Sepah.

Originally posted by flice

Again... if Iran wanted to fool us, they would have bothered to touch up the first image. Again... the touched image went out yesterday through AFP, the untouched image was handed to AP today. BOTH images came from Sepah.

So your scenario no.5 in earlier post about AFP touching it up themselves can not be true then??

And your saying Sepah are the source, for both photo's, isnt Sepah a direct link to Iran??

Sepah News, the media arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard

Source.

[edit on 10-7-2008 by Denied]

Originally posted by Denied

Originally posted by jimmyjackblack

One thing you have to remember is that the Iranians are not a bunch of monkeys with guns, they are very smart folks, so photoshopping would'nt be a hard thing for them to do

-Jimmy

Exactly, they wouldn't be foolish enough to release something like this would they?

So begs the question, who did and why?

[edit on 10-7-2008 by Denied]

I am looking in the direction of the White House and their masters the World Bankers.

[edit on 10-7-2008 by 2stepsfromtop]