Calling on photogs to help with explanation

A friend of mine took these photos in S. California. He says he didn't see the "objects" in the photos until he was reviewing them after the trip. Does this look like internal lens reflections? i'm not a photog but figured I would ask here to see if anyone might have an explanation.

Thanks....

Almost appears to be a ring on a hand that is reflected from inside a car possibly?

(edit, added a pic below to show what I mean)

originally posted by: Qumulys
Almost appears to be a ring on a hand that is reflected from inside a car possibly?

I'd wonder if it was taken through the window, or without any obstructions.

Reflection makes the most sense, but if not through glass, it's a bit of a head scracher.

I'll take Lens Flare or Other Reflection for $100 Alex.

a reply to: network dude

Yeah, it's a bit hard to be certain, but we know it's taken very close to a road (pulled over? or possibly travelling) as we see the traffic. I can almost make out a hand it's quite hard to see but there seems to be a hint of gold around the light spots. The first pic is cropped so I wonder if the other pics are cropped too? It might be advantageous to see the originals if Blarney can get them?

a reply to: Qumulys

Sorry... I don't have much more information besides they were taken in SoCal.... I was thinking someone may have seen this type of thing before in their own photos. I don't think they were taken from inside of a vehicle.

a reply to: Blarneystoner

Oh bummer...
Quick photoshop to highlight the hand with the ring, hopefully it makes it clearer for others to see what I was seeing.


Thoughts? I'm about 75% on the fence

Well the rings appear to be repeated multiple times, therefore I'd go with multiple exposure.

a reply to: Blarneystoner

Well, at first glance it coud be a lens flare. Lens flares can form rings,



but I admit your picture is quite different, since the rings are well defined, are not next to the Sun, and come in funky bunches. Yet, the angle would match that of the sun, if I judge by the lighting on the dome in your first picture. And the repetition of the ring could be caused by multiple glass layers.

So, I would guess lens flare.

a reply to: Qumulys

excellent... thanks so much.

originally posted by: Qumulys
a reply to: Blarneystoner

Oh bummer...
Quick photoshop to highlight the hand with the ring, hopefully it makes it clearer for others to see what I was seeing.

Thoughts? I'm about 75% on the fence

Thats interesting, now add a multiple exposure. First a shot of the hand then the mountain shot on top?

originally posted by: Qumulys
a reply to: Blarneystoner

Oh bummer...
Quick photoshop to highlight the hand with the ring, hopefully it makes it clearer for others to see what I was seeing.

Thoughts? I'm about 75% on the fence

nailed it right on the head, nice work.

a reply to: VoidHawk

I can't quite see how multiple exposures could be at play here since we can see the hand in all the shots. The slight multiples of the hand (more easily seen in the gold ring) would be from the inside and outside of the window glass pane (internal reflection).

Also, to 100% cement things, it's looks darn cold outside so therefore they have to be inside a cosy warm car


Edit - Thanks slapjacks, I'm still open to other ideas though

a reply to: Blarneystoner

OP...

I have just opened the pictures you posted and I viewed their code.

I found Photoshop's watermark in the codes of those pictures.

In other words, the pics you posted were Photoshopped.

Something fishy going on here.

I was going with lens flares because the artifacts seem to point towards where the sun might be in the pic. If you look at the truck and the clouds you can get a sense where the illumination is coming from.

But that hand/ring finger thing...darn, that's good too.

Scratch on the lens? Dust particles?

a reply to: swanne

mmmmmm....

And then the OP disappears...

a reply to: Qumulys

Agreed. I hadn't realised it was taken from behind glass.

ETA: Having looked again, the hand really shows! I need new specs

The dude has nearly two thousand posts. I'd be pretty shocked if he just vanished forever. Also, didn't someone say the images were cropped?

a reply to: VoidHawk

You might not need glasses, much of the time our computer monitors struggle with colour accuracy making spotting things tricky. My screen is rubbish at darker colours for instance.

Also, I'm still slightly on the fence - upon pondering, the hand does appear to be in a quite unusual position, and doesn't seem to be holding a camera...

Although, I'm kind of thinking the photographer was looking at the camera's LCD screen whilst taking the photo's so perhaps was holding up the ring hand to block some of the external light so they could see the lcd more clearly - the hand therefore would appear higher on the glass - which can also possibly be attributed to the sloping side angle of car glass which also goes upward to the roof.