NavList:

Frank Reed wrote:

Don, thanks for pointing this one out. For anyone who didn't follow the link, I am attaching a copy of a portion of it. It's pretty. But it isn't real. By my analysis, this image is ALL fantasy, or more generously "digital art".

The vessel is a little too neat. Notice that nearly all of the rigging is perfectly straight. The end of each mast and spar is perfect in outline. And everything about the vessel is just a little too perfectly symmetrical. For me, the real proof that this is a "digital" ship are the furled sails. Look at the sails on the second and third spars counting down from the top. Apart from scale and a slightly rotated attachment to their respective spars, they're identical. And if you crank up the brightness and contrast, there are more details that are the same on both furled sails. That just doesn't happen in the real world. I would guess that there is some specific 3d imaging software that includes the ability to generate a 3d model of a sailing vessel like this. I would love to know the name of it.
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Frank, I knew that the moon was photoshopped in, but it did not occur to me that the ship was also cgi. Now that I look at the rigging more closely, I see your point about it being too perfect.

I had estimated the distance of the photographer to be almost two miles. From a practical aspect, it would have been extraordinary. It is highly improbable that a photographer could have positioned himself at the exact spot at such a distance so as to capture the exact moment when the rising moon so perfectly silhouetted the ship and its spars. Not only are all three in a perfect line, but the ship has obligingly pointed its bows directly at the distant photographer. And the ship is neither anchored nor moored; it was underway at the time.

But even if this improbable conjunction of time and space had occurred, the supposedly telephoto image does not jibe with the perspective of the ship. The angle is such that the foremast appears taller than the main mast, and the fore yards are higher than their corresponding ones on the main. From this evidence, the 'photo' was clearly taken from a short distance forward of the ship.

I do wonder about another possibility, that the creator had started with a real photo of a ship at night at close range, added the grossly over-sized moon, and then added in the upper yards and rigging by duplicating and scaling several lower yards that were already present?

Don Seltzer
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