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Originally posted by Blaine91555
I'd hate to see ATS resort to censorship before the fact due to poster like this OP. Granted this was an obvious hoax out of the gate, but much of what I see here is not so cut and dried.
I've been using professional level cameras and image manipulation software for over 10 years now I think. I even do some professional work now to help pay for that equipment and software. Even so, I often don't post an opinion because it is just NOT that easy to spot hoaxes when the hoaxer is even remotely familiar with their camera or software like Photoshop.
We can't say in many cases that photo evidence is either real or a hoax with any certainty. Sometimes, like this time it is obvious but not always.
Photography has truly changed recently. When I first started with film it was in the realm of those who could actually afford the equipment. Now we suddenly have point and shoot digital cameras that take all the need for knowledge out of the equation. The equipment has gotten so good that even though I have professional gear, I generally rely on the camera to make my decisions for me.
Another oddity is that suddenly people are buying Photoshop for play even though it is very expensive. Between Photoshop and the available plug-ins, with a little study people could easily make images that would make it impossible to detect the manipulation. I see more problems with this on the horizon, not less.
Every time I open one of these threads, I truly hope to see something genuine that I can not explain; I honestly do. Lately I've been frustrated to the point I end up not even bothering to look at many of them. Not because of hoaxers, but more due to the constant flood of pictures of tiny lights in a nighttime sky or blurred objects that could be anything being presented as proof of some sort. I think that is more of a problem than the hoaxes which will eventually be found out. Its like people disengage their brains to allow them to post these things with a straight face.
This trend of people immediately believing every airplane landing light, helicopter or blurred image of bird they did not notice as being evidence or proof is maddening. Where we should be seeing an occasional image to be vetted, we are flooded with childish nonsense.
Even so I think we need to bite our lips and pass them by because tolerating them is far preferable to the alternative of censoring to aggressively and missing the one in a million that may be the real thing.
Those who say things like this is ruining the board or get way to angry over something rather than just "turn the channel and look at something else" are just as big of a problem.
We also need to not let these threads get under our skin to the point we throw out the proverbial "Baby with the bathwater".