There will be blood - Photo Analysis

Aside from speculation, the first question one might ask is simply, are there additional photos?<p>In fact there are: <a href="http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Syrian-warplanes-bomb-rebel-held-town-20-killed-3791667.php#photo-3334011" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.timesunion.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;article&#x2F;Syrian-warplanes-bomb...</a><p>Now the &quot;staging&quot; looks a lot more complicated.<p>Also note that, the photographer won a Pulitzer(which means he&#x27;s be vetted more thoroughly then most), while this reviewer has a history of making strongly worded claims that are disproved.<p>If interested look at this post which was soundly rebuked, and proved to be misleading.<p><a href="http://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index.php?/archives/549-Unbelievable.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hackerfactor.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;index.php?&#x2F;archives&#x2F;549-Unb...</a><p>Note this response: <a href="http://petapixel.com/2013/05/14/forensics-expert-claims-world-press-photo-winner-a-fake-photographer-responds/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;petapixel.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;05&#x2F;14&#x2F;forensics-expert-claims-worl...</a>

Can we stop the negativity toward the forensic expert here? He&#x27;s doing his job. Trying to find out fake pictures. If you disagree, just give a counter point. Stop the Ad-hominem.<p>Here are my counter-arguments:<p>1. Blood gets very dry: Not necessarily. Blood requires a sufficient level of platelets to get dry quickly. This can be the case, and it&#x27;s not a rare condition. (I have it and my nose bleed frequently).<p>2. Blood color: Same argument. Depend on the constituents of the blood; and whether it&#x27;s oxygenated or not.<p>3. Look at her right eye-brow. It looks like she was hit there and blood was bleeding from that place all over her right face. It can be the source of fresh, red blood.

Regardless of all the criticism of the analysis, or whether the analysis is &quot;worth it&quot;: this post is a really interesting look into how someone that does photographic forensics professionally operates. I thought it was pretty nifty :)

I wasn&#x27;t there. But I&#x27;m unconvinced and a little offended by some of this &quot;reasoning.&quot;<p><i>As far as I can tell, there is no consistent angle that matches all of the blood drips.</i><p>Why must she have stood (or lain) still while the blood finished dripping?<p><i>Her eyes show no sign of pain.</i><p>Have you ever been bombed, or shot, or in a car accident, or fallen down stairs? The pain often doesn&#x27;t kick in immediately. The pop explanation for that is &quot;adrenalin&quot; - I don&#x27;t know the scientific reasoning. But it&#x27;s a very real effect.<p>While I realize you intend your tone to be scientific and dispassionate, it is a little too reminiscent of those you use &quot;rational analysis&quot; to deny, well, just about anything.

100000 people killed, 2200000 refugees (1000000 of them children) and we are talking about a photo instead of taking action to end the war NOW.

So his whole argument boils down to him thinking it looks fake? It seems irresponsible to publish accusations like this without any hard evidence and without considering the consequences of being wrong.<p>Studies have shown that people are likely to remember accusations of wrong doing and forget retractions or corrections. His insinuation that either the subject or photographer is &quot;faking it&quot; is damaging their credibility just so this guy can get his kicks playing PhotoShop detective.

I know of allegations that Palestinians frequently make stuff up about their war zone (which does not take away from the real harm that they endure at the hands of the Israelis, but does make it hard to evaluate the extent of that harm). <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awYMPzSrh5o" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=awYMPzSrh5o</a> Maybe that is simply common to all war zones? People want to draw arms and money to their side of the war, so it makes sense to do whatever you can to engender empathy in the viewer. It&#x27;s just another form of propaganda. But props for doing this breakdown and helping us recognize it for what it is.

Keep in mind there has already been precedent for faking photos and videos in the Syria conflict, as well as other conflicts around the world.<p>It&#x27;s very much in the interest of militants, and other actors (<i>cough</i> Saudis) to topple the Assad regime, and of course the only way to do that is to get the West involved...<p>In Iraq you have Sunni-Shia conflict, and that&#x27;s pretty much what&#x27;s going on in Syria right now too (with the same actors funding the conflict behind the scenes...).

What would the motive be to fake an injury when we all appear to agree there really were injured people there? True or not, this reasoning based on things that cannot be objectively tested smacks of conspiracy theory.

Is it really just me who thinks it&#x27;s obvious as day that this is red paint?<p>The blood is way too red. And it starts on her forehead... where? Nowhere.

I enjoyed the analysis, and lots of good points were made, and now has me believing it was faked. But I&#x27;ll be honest, when I clicked the link, I was kinda hoping for some sort of image processing&#x2F;hyperspectral article.

``Believing Is Seeing&#x27;&#x27; by Errol Morris is a great read for those who are torn here... A great read.

While the author seems to know something about photo analysis (he believes the photo was not tampered with) he know jack shit about blood or wound analysis. And neither do the &quot;professional photographers and artists&quot; he knows.<p>I find it rather disturbing that someone would suggest that it was staged based on such flimsy evidence. And the subtitle &quot;Just A Flesh Wound&quot; is a reference to an extremely bloody but hilarious scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail - nice.<p>The Syrian Civil War is a tragedy and the civilians are not the villains.

Re: wiping, isn&#x27;t it possible that she wiped it herself initially (as author suggest she would, consciously or not) and then eventually left it alone and it streamed down past where she had wiped?