Watson Le tour gap pic
- Thread starter CHEWY
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DOM
Eats Squid
They reckon only 1 guy got professional photo's of it ... hes a pro photographer
they reckon this photographer aint back in the country till August and also you think he would just upload it secretly to pinkbike database without telling the admins of pinkbike ? or trying to sell the photo to a bike mag first ????
As if pink bike wouldnt do a story on the photo ... or have a news post up saying ... We have it here first !!!! they photographer would of emailed or sent to the admins of pinkbike .. and i doubt they would of reduced the quality to 30kb ? hes a pro photographer surely he knows a thing or two about digital photo's .. and as if pinkbike would reduce it ?
I reckon it's a fake... and youll know about the real photo as youd hope it looks alot better.
they reckon this photographer aint back in the country till August and also you think he would just upload it secretly to pinkbike database without telling the admins of pinkbike ? or trying to sell the photo to a bike mag first ????
As if pink bike wouldnt do a story on the photo ... or have a news post up saying ... We have it here first !!!! they photographer would of emailed or sent to the admins of pinkbike .. and i doubt they would of reduced the quality to 30kb ? hes a pro photographer surely he knows a thing or two about digital photo's .. and as if pinkbike would reduce it ?
I reckon it's a fake... and youll know about the real photo as youd hope it looks alot better.
Techno Destructo
Riding In Peace
I have to agree with CreepyJoe. I work in a studio where we deal with digital images all the time. It might be a fake, since a image manipulation pro using Photoshop can fool anybody.
But like what was forementioned, the distortion around the areas of sharp colour change in the photo are called "artifacts". They're the result of JPEG compression, which is a "lossy" form of compression that removes image detail and reduces image file size by grouping areas of like colour together in small blocks. Try that with any photo where there is strong, sharp contrast between colours (similar to Watson in front of the sky blue background). Make sure you've got the best quality image possible before you start (maybe scan a photo at 300 dpi or better). Now, try saving it as a JPEG image at various levels of compression. You'll see that the higher the compression is, the more chunky-ness you'll see around image edges (the same thing that's happening in the photo of Watson).
Combine this with how Watson is painted on the road (the same way as other pro Tour riders have their names painted), how people are looking up, and the dust from the takeoff.
I'd say it's real.
Why would they release the photo? To create a buzz for the next NWD, and to dispel rumours that the jump was a hoax, so as to not dissuade people from buying the video (as there is probably some people out there who would buy it for just that stunt alone).
Why is it such bad quality? To prevent the photo from being used without their permission for various things - same concept they do for MP3's on music store sites. Just enough quality for you to know what you're listening to, but not much good for anything else.
Was that really long and boring?
But like what was forementioned, the distortion around the areas of sharp colour change in the photo are called "artifacts". They're the result of JPEG compression, which is a "lossy" form of compression that removes image detail and reduces image file size by grouping areas of like colour together in small blocks. Try that with any photo where there is strong, sharp contrast between colours (similar to Watson in front of the sky blue background). Make sure you've got the best quality image possible before you start (maybe scan a photo at 300 dpi or better). Now, try saving it as a JPEG image at various levels of compression. You'll see that the higher the compression is, the more chunky-ness you'll see around image edges (the same thing that's happening in the photo of Watson).
Combine this with how Watson is painted on the road (the same way as other pro Tour riders have their names painted), how people are looking up, and the dust from the takeoff.
I'd say it's real.
Why would they release the photo? To create a buzz for the next NWD, and to dispel rumours that the jump was a hoax, so as to not dissuade people from buying the video (as there is probably some people out there who would buy it for just that stunt alone).
Why is it such bad quality? To prevent the photo from being used without their permission for various things - same concept they do for MP3's on music store sites. Just enough quality for you to know what you're listening to, but not much good for anything else.
Was that really long and boring?
Sommoner
Likes Dirt
Well my thought is that because it is a low quality jpeg you should not judge it by the if the pixel’ation matches, but more on the light and the shadows, knowing that this would be the hardest thing to photo shop. If you have a look at the shadows they are all in the correct places. Look at the shadow on the bike/rims/top to me it looks like it all matches.
wombat
Lives in a hole
Guys what's wrong with debating the pic? It seems to be at least as constructive and intelligent as "how big a drop can i do on this bike?". Sure it's a pretty insignificant fact in the scheme of things but I'm bored...
Anyways, back to the argument...TD: thanks for the info, like I said my knowledge is (very) limited so it's nice to have somebody straighten me out.
Still not sure about the way it's been released though, I thought there would've been more of a fuss.
Actually, here's a question regarding compression for Techno or anyone else. Why is it that photo shops which print digital images insist on using JPEGs? If you're trying to obtain the best quality, wouldn't it make sense to use a non compression format?
Anyways, back to the argument...TD: thanks for the info, like I said my knowledge is (very) limited so it's nice to have somebody straighten me out.
Still not sure about the way it's been released though, I thought there would've been more of a fuss.
Actually, here's a question regarding compression for Techno or anyone else. Why is it that photo shops which print digital images insist on using JPEGs? If you're trying to obtain the best quality, wouldn't it make sense to use a non compression format?
Techno Destructo
Riding In Peace
Hmmm... that's interesting... I would have expected any photo printing place worth it's salt should be able to handle any image format. It must be the software they're using, but you're totally right... they should be using a lossless form of compression... not something lossy.wombat said:
I suppose the reason would be because it's such a generic file format that everyone can provide images in it, and it's less work for their software... But yeah, if I was to get something printed, and I needed the highest quality, it'd be a TIF, BMP, PCT, etc...
In anycase, if the original is uncompressed, and you save to a JPEG at 100% quality, it should look practically identical to the original.
wombat
Lives in a hole
Exactly my line of thinking. I asked if I could supply them in TIF, and he said they could do them, but it's more difficult and would cost more.
One more question, does anybody know of a good site which explains the basics of the file formats, because I'd really like to learn more.
One more question, does anybody know of a good site which explains the basics of the file formats, because I'd really like to learn more.
Techno Destructo
Riding In Peace
'cuz that's the joy of a forum! Exchanging ideas and opinions!bmxbandit said:
DOM
Eats Squid
I Still think .. that Pinkbike would of done more of a story on it ?
weird how there was only 1 photographer and he just secretly uploaded it to Pinkbike with no Credit on the photo or anything ????
If you took a kick ass pick like that wouldnt you at least watermark your name into the bottom of it ???????
I think people need to stop looking at the photo .. but more the way it was uploaded .. the hype surronding it .. and read over the news postings of the event .. They reckon only 1 guy took the pic .. i would of thought hed get credit for it ?
weird how there was only 1 photographer and he just secretly uploaded it to Pinkbike with no Credit on the photo or anything ????
If you took a kick ass pick like that wouldnt you at least watermark your name into the bottom of it ???????
I think people need to stop looking at the photo .. but more the way it was uploaded .. the hype surronding it .. and read over the news postings of the event .. They reckon only 1 guy took the pic .. i would of thought hed get credit for it ?
G
Guest
Guest
if the landing is where the people are he doesnt look like hes gonna come up short
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