Photographic Fakery Adequate Evidence? Maybe Not...

By Avery Wilkins

Seeing is no longer believing, Formerly irrefutable evidence may now be merely high-tech fraud. Today, almost any home computer equipped with the appropriate software can be used to create fraudulent photographs.

     Here's how I created the UFO photo seen here. First, I electronically scanned a black and white, 35mm negative of the Camp Adair military base for the background image; then I turned my attention to the saucer. Originally, I had planned to build a model, photograph it against a solid color, scan the photo and isolate the UFO from the background.

     In the end, however, I decided to design the UFO using the three-dimensional modeling and rendering program, Specular Infini-D®. Using Infini-D, I swept a two dimensional cross section of the UFO through the third dimension in a 360° arc. I then chose a camera angle to simulate looking up at the UFO, and a light source to simulate early evening sunlight. Finally, I ray traced the scene, creating the final image of the UFO. Ray tracing traces the path of every light ray emitted from each source as it bounces around the scene and then uses that inforfnation to create a very realistic image. Infini-D gave me extremely precise control over the lighting and camera angles, as well as making it possible to tweak the UFO as needed, things impossible to do using a scanned photo.

     I imported both images into Adobe Photoshop, an image editing program. There I composited them, blurred both images slightly, added artificial film grain as uniform noise and in only forty-five minutes I had a beautifully fraudulent photo.

     Note, the technology exists to put any electronic picture on Kodak thermal paper almost like the real McCoy! Or, the picture can be captured on slide film. The point is, with appropriate, and readily available software, faking photographic evidence is a piece of cake. The tabloid press, of course, has been doing it for years.