Photographer Takes Pics Of People In Public From 2 Perspectives And It Shows How Easily The Media Can Manipulate Reality
InterviewPerception is reality until proven otherwise. But our perception may change in an instant depending on exactly how much we know. Recently, two Danish photographers have taken this idea to a whole new level.
In these times of fake news, it’s hard to know what’s real anymore. Media manipulation is rife in some of the largest reporting outlets around the world. How do we know, from the pictures alone, that biased news articles and stories aren’t secretly being fed to us? It turns out, we can’t.
Photographers Ólafur Steinar Gestsson and Philip Davali conducted an experiment for the photo agency Ritzau Scanpix. The Copenhagen-based artists used their cameras and certain optical illusions to capture the same people chilling out outside on the same day. The trick was to use two different lenses — a wide-angle lens and a telephoto lens — to create certain perspectives. Their photography techniques show a staggering difference in the perceived distance between these people. It makes us wonder if the journalism code of ethics is always being followed by photographers too.
More info: Instagram | Twitter | Ritzau Scanpix
Telephoto-lens
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
Wide angle
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
Bored Panda contacted Kristian Djurhuus, the editorial manager at Ritzau Scanpix, who appointed Philip Davali and Ólafur Steinar Rye Gestsson for this shoot, to find out more about the project.
Kristian told us how he came up with the idea: “The proximity of people has widely been debated in Denmark in the past weeks. Danish politicians and authorities have frequently referred to images which they believed to show members of the public behaving in disagreement with the general guidelines.”
Telephoto-lens
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
Wide angle
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
As a national photo news agency that supplies important visual coverage, Kristian became aware that their “contribution could be misread”. With regards to media manipulation, the choice of angle and perspective is now equally as important as the image being shot. Now, basic photography techniques have taken on a darker, new meaning. But this wasn’t always the way. “The technical choices have never been a politically debatable issue in the history of photography,” said Kristian.
Telephoto-lens
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
“As producers of photography, we have a responsibility to draw attention to the fact that images in some cases do not show the proximity of objects as people seem to believe,” he continued.
“The right solution would be to clarify the circumstances in the captions of the images so that they won’t be misread.”
Wide angle
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
Telephoto-lens
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
Wide angle
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
Telephoto-lens
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
The wide-angle lens is similar to the way our eyes see. Ólafur Steinar Gestsson explained to a local Danish website: “it takes wider pictures, and as a photographer, you use it when you are close to what you need to photograph.” Similar types of cameras are built into our iPhones, helping us to capture images the way that we imagine them.
Meanwhile, the telephoto lens is the long lens used to photograph press meetings, football matches, and any situation where the subject is far away. “It gets closer to what you are photographing, and in a way, it pulls the subject together,” he said.
Wide angle
Image credits: EPA / Philip Davali / Olafur Steinar RyE
Ólafur told TV2 that viewers should be aware of the lens and equipment photographers used to take a particular picture. “If there was a description in the caption of how the image was taken, the editor would have the freedom to choose.” According to him, photographers “must always keep in mind how we do our job”. So, if reporting is to be fair and unbiased, perhaps a new journalism code of ethics should be drawn up for photographers too.
This is what people had to say about it
The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) has published a journalism code of ethics for their members, but really, any budding photojournalist should follow their advice. Here are a few notable takeaways:
“Be accurate in the representation of subjects. Resist being manipulated by staged photo opportunities. Be complete and provide context when photographing or recording subjects.”
If reporting is to be fair and unbiased, it’s up to the reporters to uphold their standards. And you can see how easy it is to manipulate people with just a lens and a certain angle.
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Share on FacebookAnd why don't photographers show a third perspective, a normal lens? You know, reality?
Even a "normal" lens, (most photographers would consider that to be a 50mm) compresses things to an extent, especially from certain angles. Photographs just can't show full 3D reality in 2d
Load More Replies...To all of you, who complain how "no one ever reports about *insert topic of concern*". Well, yet you know about that, how? If you're not an insider, it means that SOMEONE actually is reporting about these things....
Every time someone reports on something of which i'm an insider i can't help but notice how everything is so distorted that it has little to do with reality. I've accepted the fact that being informed is basically impossible.
Load More Replies...the one who bitched about picnickers being selfish, OYVEY! look around, there's plenty of room and plenty of places to spread out and have a picnic!
A great lesson to teach people in general... don't believe everything you see and hear! Critical thinking skills should be taught in schools so that young people are made aware of this kind of thing... especially when it comes to social media and advertising.
In my school, they do teach critical thinking, but only in certain classes that you have to pass an extremely hard test to get into. A lot of the kids at my school are overwhelmed enough with assignments that don't require critical thinking that anything with that added in would be nearly impossible for them. Schools teach to the test, meaning you're taught how to pass your test and nothing more. They can't test us on critical thinking, so they don't bother teaching it.
Load More Replies...I used to be a professional photographer and I can tell you that the media only want sensationalism, because it’s what sells. And they need money to run, and the two enemies of the media are the absolute truth and good news. Now a lie with a half truth??!! — they eat that up!
Not only because sensationalism "sells", but because in postmodernism truth was ousted and relativism permits anything, distortion, manipulation, deceit. After all, "who are we to judge", isn't it?
Load More Replies...And what...like we already didnt know the media is biased and doesnt tell the whole story
People don't though. They'll take clearly distorted, biased news and repeat it like it's objective and gospel.
Load More Replies...I don't understand what is all the noise for. Doesn't people know everything from different angle looks different? I don't get it.
It shows how media can take a small group of people, say at a rally or protest and blow it all out of proportion. "Thousands attended." Nope. Maybe a hundred.
Load More Replies...I think it's interesting the way some people's response is 'photos lie!'. No, photos tell a story from a certain point of view. It's the same as if you hear one half of a conversation: take for example, "I love you." I remember doing an exercise in my very first acting class, where the topic was infusing every line with the entire history and present of the story. A woman saying "I love you" to a child, to a man beating her, to her dying father, to her mother who has betrayed her yet again, all you may hear is the words, but there is so much more being said. Are the words lying? Or are you just not hearing the whole truth? We all like to believe we are soooo smart. But no one ever knows the whole truth. A picture says a thousand words... but if the words you hear are only the ones you want to hear, then you still don't know what the picture is really saying. The picture didn't lie. You just decided to only hear the song you wanted it to sing.
I can’t speak for everyone else, but for me it’s not so much about the photo that is lying, it’s more about the person sculpting a narrative around the photo that is lying.
Load More Replies...The media? Or the photographers? Besides, I don't see much difference in most pics
The media can use the pictures they choose though.
Load More Replies...Lenses don't lie. They have properties. And all these close ups have dead give aways that they are taken by a telelens. The feeling of the subjects being cardboard cutouts is what you need to look for.
Lenses do not lie. They distort though. People lie. Some people hardly ever but certain people, no matter what position they have in society, lie a lot. A present president stands out.
Load More Replies...Media loves to hype up & blow everything out of proportion. Why? What does it gain them? It just pisses everyone off & makes the uninformed even less informed.
This would be far more instructive if you had simply shown actual pictures the media have used to distort reality like you're describing here. Anyone that has a bit of experience in photography knows that you can create these depth of field effects. But the underlying theme is that this is being done by "the media" to intentionally deceive people. So let's see the pictures and the accompanying stories from the media that are guilty of doing this. Otherwise, I would say it's you that's using this to deceive your readers.
Uh, just go check out some media coverage on the virus and social distancing from the last month. Lots of photos like this have been used.
Load More Replies...How can rational people watch a Trump Rally on TV and not see that the crowd behind him look like there on stage with him - it's the same thing. A camera person would have to be in the crowd to not use a telephoto lens. Every video I have seen on the demonstrations show multiple angles including drone footage - you can see who is complying with social distancing - nobody is trying to manipulate this - another aha moment by someone who doesn't understand cameras.
Most important is to listen and hear what was said at any rally and judge it objectively.
Load More Replies...What is wrong with people. For this you need to take a shot from different angle. Frontal shot and rear shot. The photographer stays in front for the first shot and have to move to the side for the second shot. The first frontal shot combined with long lenses simply magnify things - make them bigger, closer and blurs the background so you focus on the people. Long lenses just make the people stand out more. The second rear shot combined with wide lenses don't make things bigger, closer and doesn't blur to force your focus just on the people. Wide lenses just doesn't make people stand out so much. The key is the angle - front and rare. Lenses just spice things a little more.
Thank you for your comment Nirity; the difference between the frontal, close-up shot and the wide angle side shot should be obvious. Only biased people accuse reputable news media of lying.
Load More Replies..."The media" can manipulate reality? Can't anyone with a camera do the same thing? Or the "president" and his cabal of death-dealing morons?
i think the purpose is to capture many moments in one frame.. big landscape with 1-2 person or smaller size make it look bad.. unless the main point is the landscape / background..
To be fair, quite a few of these people are closer than 6ft / 2m and hanging out in public areas was hopefully before the lockdown...be patient, stay safe
Don't fear the reaper. Don't pay the ferryman. Don't stop thinking about tomorrow. So much classic music is based on a negative.* (Old School Camera Joke #37)
Not everyone who works in the media is deceptive. Thinking so says a lot about the media outlets you choose to follow.
I find it very interesting and I am glad the photographer pointed it out. So it may give people something to think about when they see something in the news. Good job.
"Could be", "can be" but not "did" It could have happened but it didn't All this is is a a quick and simple basic photography lesson
Forced perspective tricks have been used in photography and filmmaking for decades. You'll have pictures where, let's say a dog appears to be several times larger than an adult human, or a person might appear larger than a several story building, due to the angle and the position of the subjects in the image. One cliched trick they used to use in movies and TV was the shot of the ringing telephone in the foreground, with someone entering the room in the far background, and at first the phone is larger than the person. You might also use the trick to make one model (say of a building or a ship or whatever) look much larger than another, when in fact they're probably about the same size as each other.
Just don't totally buy that the lense is all the pictures show, there are people walking by that aren't, posts that aren't there, a few of them do look to more perspective but some of the others look like trying to mislead to me.
I don't buy those are just different lenses , things disappear too, which makes little sense in some of them.
YEAH YOU MAKE A POINT ABOUT PERSPECTIVE IN PHOTOS. MAYBE NEXT TIME WHEN THESE PHOTOGRAPHERS WANT TO TAKE TWO DIFF PICS USING DIFFERENT LENS. IT WOULD DRIVE HOME THE POINT MUUUUUUCH BETTER IF THEY TOOK THE TWO DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE SHOTS IN QUICK SUCCESSION. WHEN OBSERVING THE PEOPLE WAITING IN LINE AND OTHER PICS IT'S QUITE OBVIOUS THERE WAS SOME TIME LAPSE BETWEEN PICS AND SUBJECTS COULD QUITE WELL HAVE SOMEWHAT CHANGED THEIR POSITIONS /LOCATION. VERY SURPRISING THEY DIDN'T THINK ABOUT THAT BEFORE USING THE PICS TO MAKE A POINT ABOUT PERSPECTIVE. THEY COULD EVEN USE UNALTERED TIME-STAMPED IMAGES TO MAKE THEIR POINT EEEEVEN MORRRRE CREDIBLE. AHHH.
The media--all of it--has been lying to us for generations. People are only now beginning to catch on. This is why when the media insists on social distancing, wearing masks and gloves in public and isolating healthy people "for the sake of everyone" to battle a disease less dangerous than your average flu, I call BS on them all. All of these "protective" steps we're taking against Covid are going to result not only in destroyed economies everywhere (except for China... suspicious!), but will lower our resistance against more common diseases to which we are normally exposed daily. We are doing the exact wrong thing... because the media said to.
Whoever thinks the role of photography is to reflect "reality" is dellusional.
"We constantly tend to misuse or misunderstand the term reality in reference to photographs. The photograph itself is the only thing that is real, that exists. The elements in the print are simply referents of various kinds which operate on various levels. Obviously no picture, photographic or otherwise, can hope to come close in duplicating or even simulating reality." ~ Robert Heinecken
Wait till people learn how a focal point can change the way someone looks too.
On the first photo there is a woman with a scarf, covering her head. I don't see her on the second photo.
As for the person who said it's still selfish to have a picnic even if you social distance, because if everyone did it, you couldn't possibly do social distancing; I've been around parks often when there's no social distancing, yet the park isn't nearly "filled to the point that you couldn't do social distancing"!
The 1st picture show a Muslim woman walking alongside the woman in the gray jacket. 2 people behind green sweater dude. The 2nd shot does not show the Muslim woman.
And yes...you should have a picnic. And the idea that everyone is going to do it is ridiculous. Not everyone picnics during good times!!
Having an agenda first and then trying to show it is valid is its own form of agitprop.
This is nothing new. If you watch congressional hearings, they all look crunched together, and often times, the name plate is wrong. That is because the CSPAN camera is far away and uses a telephoto lens, which distorts Depth of Field.
I saw some people outside yesterday. As I'm on a 6th floor, I had a good perspective. They wanted their friend to look like she had her arm around one of them in a pic. She stayed 6 feet away, and just stuck her arm out, they lined her up, and the photo did end up looking like she had her arm around the other person.
Part of the issue lies in the position of the camera relative to the subject. Every one of these may have used two different lenses, but they also used TWO DIFFERENT POSITIONS for each lens. I could take every one of those shots with the same lens ans still gotten a different perspective because of the angle of incidence I used to take the shot.
One comment says you shouldn't have picnics. We are encouraged to buy and all you can get is takeout. you have to sit somewhere to eat the takeout so if you are socially distancing then why can't you eat your food.
I don't know anything about lenses and photography. But I know that from what angle and from what distance a picture is taken make a huge difference. There's a big difference between a FRONT view picture and a SIDE view picture, between a close-up shot and a open view. Telephoto - lens are close-up shots and were taken from straight (or almost straight) angle - of course the distance between persons standing in a row (not line) and people sitting side by side is distorted. The wide lens gives us the "whole" picture. But that's not a secret, that's why I object to Bored Panda's proclamation that media manipulate reality. Get real.
I was already thinking this was how our NEWS programs were telling us how the world was running.
The pictures taken with the telephoto lens look flat and odd to me. Looking close you can see the perspective is off. Yes it is good to let people know that photos may not be what they seem, but then educate people on how to identify them. And this article seems a bit biased...why are all the pictures of people and infer social distancing? I am sure there are other uses for this as well.
The camera never lies. To lie you have to have an intellect. So the camera never lies; the photographer lies.
All you need to know is the photo says whatever the photographer wants you to hear.
Just like 100000 test in one day.. did Matt actually get completed 100000 tests in one day?? of course not but people read the headlines and believe he did.. So yet again the Fake News Machine at No 10 achieved success.
This is ridiculous, the most ridiculous thing I've seen on BoredPanda. Why even start this nonsense? The top photo is completely staged and the rest are just telephotos.
It's not staged Polly, it's a front view, and that shows people standing in a row, and that distorts the distance between each person (it shortens it) while a side view does not do that, people appear standing in a line. Also a distance from which a picture was taken makes a big difference.
Load More Replies...The person that is pooping on people having picnics needs to be throat punched.
Telephoto lens photos with different focal distances at Thessaloniki's (Greece) seafront pedestrian way. During the coronavirus lockdown several news agencies used photos and videos shot at very high focal distances, to show falsely that people were crowding. all6-5eac2...0830a3.jpg
Obviously, I'm going to agree here, given that I covered this very topic 6 weeks ago: https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/gordonlawrieblog.wordpress.com/163
Whatever you all say- the point is- people still don't give a s**t about corona and even go back to normal. So what is this? This is happening everywhere- stop explaining 'photo manipulations'. Concentrate on real issue.
An "objective, unbiased" person bitterly complain to a journalist: "You didn't say one nice word about ....(his favorite politician). The journalist said: "It's not my job to say nice things or bad things about anybody. My job is to report the facts, the truth."
Load More Replies...Done this with a video couple years ago. We needed to fill up a church. Turns out we didn't need the 120+ people for the frontal take, just a full front line and just fill in the spaces in the rows behind. Less than 25 guys in total.
The media distorting? Why I never.... Say, did anyone see the latest dump of FBI HANDWRITTEN notes outlining their plan to get General Flynn fired or to falsely accuse him of lying. Front page news....oh wait, not a peep...hmmm.
Yes, I've seen many articles about that. It is on every news website.
Load More Replies...The News Media these days have lost all their Ethics and Credibility of reporting facts, instead they distort conversations, go by hearsay and don't bother investigating and find out the true facts and reporting it the way it is and not the way they want it to sound. Most of them are a Disgrace and CNN is at the Top of that List.
This is the media making the story. This angle has come up in most of the protester photos. What ever happened to JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY?
Well any questions about the 'protestor' photos can be cleared up by watching the videos.
Load More Replies...It's selfish to have picnics? They are social distancing! And researchers have found that being in the sunshine kills the virus. Being in the fresh air is healthier than being confined in houses.
The sunshine kills some bacteria, it will not kill this virus!!!!
Load More Replies...This is how they are showing the pictures from the beaches in California, making it look like people are shoulder to shoulder. From above, you can see nearly everyone practicing social distancing.
Best factual article I have seen on Bored Panda. I'm glad I checked it out.
One of the best pieces of advice I have ever heard is "Do not believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see with your own eyes."
You can believe the LIVE TELEVISED broadcast, Monica, and even than some will see what they want to see, and they will hear what they want to hear, what suits them, everything but the truth - what really was said. Sounds familiar?
Load More Replies...These are still Covidiots no matter what angle the pictures taken. covidiots-...be9a7.jpeg
Mud throwing has become all the rage in the US since the tangerine toddler took office. Apart from the fact that it shows any lack of civilisation and respect for others, it's also nasty, as your esteemed leader likes to call everything he doesn't like, like critisism or questions . If the media publishes verified and true facts about your idol, you probably are the first to climb the barricades shouting "Fake News" and "That's not what he said and if he said it it was not what he meant and if he did mean it he was joking and if he wasn't joking it was taken out of context and if it wasn't taken out of context he was sarcastic to the press!!!"
Load More Replies...And why don't photographers show a third perspective, a normal lens? You know, reality?
Even a "normal" lens, (most photographers would consider that to be a 50mm) compresses things to an extent, especially from certain angles. Photographs just can't show full 3D reality in 2d
Load More Replies...To all of you, who complain how "no one ever reports about *insert topic of concern*". Well, yet you know about that, how? If you're not an insider, it means that SOMEONE actually is reporting about these things....
Every time someone reports on something of which i'm an insider i can't help but notice how everything is so distorted that it has little to do with reality. I've accepted the fact that being informed is basically impossible.
Load More Replies...the one who bitched about picnickers being selfish, OYVEY! look around, there's plenty of room and plenty of places to spread out and have a picnic!
A great lesson to teach people in general... don't believe everything you see and hear! Critical thinking skills should be taught in schools so that young people are made aware of this kind of thing... especially when it comes to social media and advertising.
In my school, they do teach critical thinking, but only in certain classes that you have to pass an extremely hard test to get into. A lot of the kids at my school are overwhelmed enough with assignments that don't require critical thinking that anything with that added in would be nearly impossible for them. Schools teach to the test, meaning you're taught how to pass your test and nothing more. They can't test us on critical thinking, so they don't bother teaching it.
Load More Replies...I used to be a professional photographer and I can tell you that the media only want sensationalism, because it’s what sells. And they need money to run, and the two enemies of the media are the absolute truth and good news. Now a lie with a half truth??!! — they eat that up!
Not only because sensationalism "sells", but because in postmodernism truth was ousted and relativism permits anything, distortion, manipulation, deceit. After all, "who are we to judge", isn't it?
Load More Replies...And what...like we already didnt know the media is biased and doesnt tell the whole story
People don't though. They'll take clearly distorted, biased news and repeat it like it's objective and gospel.
Load More Replies...I don't understand what is all the noise for. Doesn't people know everything from different angle looks different? I don't get it.
It shows how media can take a small group of people, say at a rally or protest and blow it all out of proportion. "Thousands attended." Nope. Maybe a hundred.
Load More Replies...I think it's interesting the way some people's response is 'photos lie!'. No, photos tell a story from a certain point of view. It's the same as if you hear one half of a conversation: take for example, "I love you." I remember doing an exercise in my very first acting class, where the topic was infusing every line with the entire history and present of the story. A woman saying "I love you" to a child, to a man beating her, to her dying father, to her mother who has betrayed her yet again, all you may hear is the words, but there is so much more being said. Are the words lying? Or are you just not hearing the whole truth? We all like to believe we are soooo smart. But no one ever knows the whole truth. A picture says a thousand words... but if the words you hear are only the ones you want to hear, then you still don't know what the picture is really saying. The picture didn't lie. You just decided to only hear the song you wanted it to sing.
I can’t speak for everyone else, but for me it’s not so much about the photo that is lying, it’s more about the person sculpting a narrative around the photo that is lying.
Load More Replies...The media? Or the photographers? Besides, I don't see much difference in most pics
The media can use the pictures they choose though.
Load More Replies...Lenses don't lie. They have properties. And all these close ups have dead give aways that they are taken by a telelens. The feeling of the subjects being cardboard cutouts is what you need to look for.
Lenses do not lie. They distort though. People lie. Some people hardly ever but certain people, no matter what position they have in society, lie a lot. A present president stands out.
Load More Replies...Media loves to hype up & blow everything out of proportion. Why? What does it gain them? It just pisses everyone off & makes the uninformed even less informed.
This would be far more instructive if you had simply shown actual pictures the media have used to distort reality like you're describing here. Anyone that has a bit of experience in photography knows that you can create these depth of field effects. But the underlying theme is that this is being done by "the media" to intentionally deceive people. So let's see the pictures and the accompanying stories from the media that are guilty of doing this. Otherwise, I would say it's you that's using this to deceive your readers.
Uh, just go check out some media coverage on the virus and social distancing from the last month. Lots of photos like this have been used.
Load More Replies...How can rational people watch a Trump Rally on TV and not see that the crowd behind him look like there on stage with him - it's the same thing. A camera person would have to be in the crowd to not use a telephoto lens. Every video I have seen on the demonstrations show multiple angles including drone footage - you can see who is complying with social distancing - nobody is trying to manipulate this - another aha moment by someone who doesn't understand cameras.
Most important is to listen and hear what was said at any rally and judge it objectively.
Load More Replies...What is wrong with people. For this you need to take a shot from different angle. Frontal shot and rear shot. The photographer stays in front for the first shot and have to move to the side for the second shot. The first frontal shot combined with long lenses simply magnify things - make them bigger, closer and blurs the background so you focus on the people. Long lenses just make the people stand out more. The second rear shot combined with wide lenses don't make things bigger, closer and doesn't blur to force your focus just on the people. Wide lenses just doesn't make people stand out so much. The key is the angle - front and rare. Lenses just spice things a little more.
Thank you for your comment Nirity; the difference between the frontal, close-up shot and the wide angle side shot should be obvious. Only biased people accuse reputable news media of lying.
Load More Replies..."The media" can manipulate reality? Can't anyone with a camera do the same thing? Or the "president" and his cabal of death-dealing morons?
i think the purpose is to capture many moments in one frame.. big landscape with 1-2 person or smaller size make it look bad.. unless the main point is the landscape / background..
To be fair, quite a few of these people are closer than 6ft / 2m and hanging out in public areas was hopefully before the lockdown...be patient, stay safe
Don't fear the reaper. Don't pay the ferryman. Don't stop thinking about tomorrow. So much classic music is based on a negative.* (Old School Camera Joke #37)
Not everyone who works in the media is deceptive. Thinking so says a lot about the media outlets you choose to follow.
I find it very interesting and I am glad the photographer pointed it out. So it may give people something to think about when they see something in the news. Good job.
"Could be", "can be" but not "did" It could have happened but it didn't All this is is a a quick and simple basic photography lesson
Forced perspective tricks have been used in photography and filmmaking for decades. You'll have pictures where, let's say a dog appears to be several times larger than an adult human, or a person might appear larger than a several story building, due to the angle and the position of the subjects in the image. One cliched trick they used to use in movies and TV was the shot of the ringing telephone in the foreground, with someone entering the room in the far background, and at first the phone is larger than the person. You might also use the trick to make one model (say of a building or a ship or whatever) look much larger than another, when in fact they're probably about the same size as each other.
Just don't totally buy that the lense is all the pictures show, there are people walking by that aren't, posts that aren't there, a few of them do look to more perspective but some of the others look like trying to mislead to me.
I don't buy those are just different lenses , things disappear too, which makes little sense in some of them.
YEAH YOU MAKE A POINT ABOUT PERSPECTIVE IN PHOTOS. MAYBE NEXT TIME WHEN THESE PHOTOGRAPHERS WANT TO TAKE TWO DIFF PICS USING DIFFERENT LENS. IT WOULD DRIVE HOME THE POINT MUUUUUUCH BETTER IF THEY TOOK THE TWO DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE SHOTS IN QUICK SUCCESSION. WHEN OBSERVING THE PEOPLE WAITING IN LINE AND OTHER PICS IT'S QUITE OBVIOUS THERE WAS SOME TIME LAPSE BETWEEN PICS AND SUBJECTS COULD QUITE WELL HAVE SOMEWHAT CHANGED THEIR POSITIONS /LOCATION. VERY SURPRISING THEY DIDN'T THINK ABOUT THAT BEFORE USING THE PICS TO MAKE A POINT ABOUT PERSPECTIVE. THEY COULD EVEN USE UNALTERED TIME-STAMPED IMAGES TO MAKE THEIR POINT EEEEVEN MORRRRE CREDIBLE. AHHH.
The media--all of it--has been lying to us for generations. People are only now beginning to catch on. This is why when the media insists on social distancing, wearing masks and gloves in public and isolating healthy people "for the sake of everyone" to battle a disease less dangerous than your average flu, I call BS on them all. All of these "protective" steps we're taking against Covid are going to result not only in destroyed economies everywhere (except for China... suspicious!), but will lower our resistance against more common diseases to which we are normally exposed daily. We are doing the exact wrong thing... because the media said to.
Whoever thinks the role of photography is to reflect "reality" is dellusional.
"We constantly tend to misuse or misunderstand the term reality in reference to photographs. The photograph itself is the only thing that is real, that exists. The elements in the print are simply referents of various kinds which operate on various levels. Obviously no picture, photographic or otherwise, can hope to come close in duplicating or even simulating reality." ~ Robert Heinecken
Wait till people learn how a focal point can change the way someone looks too.
On the first photo there is a woman with a scarf, covering her head. I don't see her on the second photo.
As for the person who said it's still selfish to have a picnic even if you social distance, because if everyone did it, you couldn't possibly do social distancing; I've been around parks often when there's no social distancing, yet the park isn't nearly "filled to the point that you couldn't do social distancing"!
The 1st picture show a Muslim woman walking alongside the woman in the gray jacket. 2 people behind green sweater dude. The 2nd shot does not show the Muslim woman.
And yes...you should have a picnic. And the idea that everyone is going to do it is ridiculous. Not everyone picnics during good times!!
Having an agenda first and then trying to show it is valid is its own form of agitprop.
This is nothing new. If you watch congressional hearings, they all look crunched together, and often times, the name plate is wrong. That is because the CSPAN camera is far away and uses a telephoto lens, which distorts Depth of Field.
I saw some people outside yesterday. As I'm on a 6th floor, I had a good perspective. They wanted their friend to look like she had her arm around one of them in a pic. She stayed 6 feet away, and just stuck her arm out, they lined her up, and the photo did end up looking like she had her arm around the other person.
Part of the issue lies in the position of the camera relative to the subject. Every one of these may have used two different lenses, but they also used TWO DIFFERENT POSITIONS for each lens. I could take every one of those shots with the same lens ans still gotten a different perspective because of the angle of incidence I used to take the shot.
One comment says you shouldn't have picnics. We are encouraged to buy and all you can get is takeout. you have to sit somewhere to eat the takeout so if you are socially distancing then why can't you eat your food.
I don't know anything about lenses and photography. But I know that from what angle and from what distance a picture is taken make a huge difference. There's a big difference between a FRONT view picture and a SIDE view picture, between a close-up shot and a open view. Telephoto - lens are close-up shots and were taken from straight (or almost straight) angle - of course the distance between persons standing in a row (not line) and people sitting side by side is distorted. The wide lens gives us the "whole" picture. But that's not a secret, that's why I object to Bored Panda's proclamation that media manipulate reality. Get real.
I was already thinking this was how our NEWS programs were telling us how the world was running.
The pictures taken with the telephoto lens look flat and odd to me. Looking close you can see the perspective is off. Yes it is good to let people know that photos may not be what they seem, but then educate people on how to identify them. And this article seems a bit biased...why are all the pictures of people and infer social distancing? I am sure there are other uses for this as well.
The camera never lies. To lie you have to have an intellect. So the camera never lies; the photographer lies.
All you need to know is the photo says whatever the photographer wants you to hear.
Just like 100000 test in one day.. did Matt actually get completed 100000 tests in one day?? of course not but people read the headlines and believe he did.. So yet again the Fake News Machine at No 10 achieved success.
This is ridiculous, the most ridiculous thing I've seen on BoredPanda. Why even start this nonsense? The top photo is completely staged and the rest are just telephotos.
It's not staged Polly, it's a front view, and that shows people standing in a row, and that distorts the distance between each person (it shortens it) while a side view does not do that, people appear standing in a line. Also a distance from which a picture was taken makes a big difference.
Load More Replies...The person that is pooping on people having picnics needs to be throat punched.
Telephoto lens photos with different focal distances at Thessaloniki's (Greece) seafront pedestrian way. During the coronavirus lockdown several news agencies used photos and videos shot at very high focal distances, to show falsely that people were crowding. all6-5eac2...0830a3.jpg
Obviously, I'm going to agree here, given that I covered this very topic 6 weeks ago: https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/gordonlawrieblog.wordpress.com/163
Whatever you all say- the point is- people still don't give a s**t about corona and even go back to normal. So what is this? This is happening everywhere- stop explaining 'photo manipulations'. Concentrate on real issue.
An "objective, unbiased" person bitterly complain to a journalist: "You didn't say one nice word about ....(his favorite politician). The journalist said: "It's not my job to say nice things or bad things about anybody. My job is to report the facts, the truth."
Load More Replies...Done this with a video couple years ago. We needed to fill up a church. Turns out we didn't need the 120+ people for the frontal take, just a full front line and just fill in the spaces in the rows behind. Less than 25 guys in total.
The media distorting? Why I never.... Say, did anyone see the latest dump of FBI HANDWRITTEN notes outlining their plan to get General Flynn fired or to falsely accuse him of lying. Front page news....oh wait, not a peep...hmmm.
Yes, I've seen many articles about that. It is on every news website.
Load More Replies...The News Media these days have lost all their Ethics and Credibility of reporting facts, instead they distort conversations, go by hearsay and don't bother investigating and find out the true facts and reporting it the way it is and not the way they want it to sound. Most of them are a Disgrace and CNN is at the Top of that List.
This is the media making the story. This angle has come up in most of the protester photos. What ever happened to JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY?
Well any questions about the 'protestor' photos can be cleared up by watching the videos.
Load More Replies...It's selfish to have picnics? They are social distancing! And researchers have found that being in the sunshine kills the virus. Being in the fresh air is healthier than being confined in houses.
The sunshine kills some bacteria, it will not kill this virus!!!!
Load More Replies...This is how they are showing the pictures from the beaches in California, making it look like people are shoulder to shoulder. From above, you can see nearly everyone practicing social distancing.
Best factual article I have seen on Bored Panda. I'm glad I checked it out.
One of the best pieces of advice I have ever heard is "Do not believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see with your own eyes."
You can believe the LIVE TELEVISED broadcast, Monica, and even than some will see what they want to see, and they will hear what they want to hear, what suits them, everything but the truth - what really was said. Sounds familiar?
Load More Replies...These are still Covidiots no matter what angle the pictures taken. covidiots-...be9a7.jpeg
Mud throwing has become all the rage in the US since the tangerine toddler took office. Apart from the fact that it shows any lack of civilisation and respect for others, it's also nasty, as your esteemed leader likes to call everything he doesn't like, like critisism or questions . If the media publishes verified and true facts about your idol, you probably are the first to climb the barricades shouting "Fake News" and "That's not what he said and if he said it it was not what he meant and if he did mean it he was joking and if he wasn't joking it was taken out of context and if it wasn't taken out of context he was sarcastic to the press!!!"
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