5 ms·

To my eye, the Gaza photo appears to be illuminated by an off camera flash above and to the left of the camera. The man at the front on the left has a very brig

To my eye, the Gaza photo appears to be illuminated by an off camera flash above and to the left of the camera. The man at the front on the left has a very bright left side of his face, and a very dark right side (also notice the shadow and light around his ear). Everything else in this photo seems consistent with this. The reason for there appearing to be more dirt on the child's face is simply because it's a higher contrast image. Maybe it has been manipulated more than is allowed, but I'm not seeing it. EDIT: I'm not sure that there's only one artificial light source — notice how the front left man's visible ear is red? That's because it's being brightly illuminated from behind. Also notice that the top of his back (his left — photo right — shoulder) is illuminated, and that would be in shadow if the photo was only being lit by the flash that is lighting the left (his right) side of his face. Finally, there's another light source (maybe the sun?) that is causing the shine on the top right section of many of the heads (such as the bald man carrying the dead child).

sengstrom 13y ago
The striking photographic detail about the photo is how the faces appear to be artificially lit. The arguments about the sun's position may actually explain that if you consider the possibility that the light on their faces is reflected light from the left wall plus the photographer's off camera flash.
- slantyyz 13y ago
  The faces could be the result of some aggressive shadow recovery. I find that being overaggressive with shadow recovery can result in fakey, HDR-like images where the lighting on the subjects' faces can seem... off.
slantyyz 13y ago
>> , the Gaza photo appears to be illuminated by an off camera flash It could also be that there were multiple photographers on the scene in various places shooting with strobes simultaneously which created all the extra light.
ricardobeat 13y ago
Take a look at the image linked here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5698476 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5698476 The original version is less heavily edited, but shows the same lighting patterns. He just got a great angle with good ambient light, and sunshine reflecting from the wall on the left. Because of the wide range he must have done a good deal of shadow/highlight recovering; the desaturation and dodge/burn done for the final submission were over the top and made the image look artificial.

sengstrom 13y ago

The striking photographic detail about the photo is how the faces appear to be artificially lit. The arguments about the sun's position may actually explain that if you consider the possibility that the light on their faces is reflected light from the left wall plus the photographer's off camera flash.

slantyyz 13y ago
The faces could be the result of some aggressive shadow recovery. I find that being overaggressive with shadow recovery can result in fakey, HDR-like images where the lighting on the subjects' faces can seem... off.

slantyyz 13y ago

>> , the Gaza photo appears to be illuminated by an off camera flash It could also be that there were multiple photographers on the scene in various places shooting with strobes simultaneously which created all the extra light.

ricardobeat 13y ago

Take a look at the image linked here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5698476 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5698476 The original version is less heavily edited, but shows the same lighting patterns. He just got a great angle with good ambient light, and sunshine reflecting from the wall on the left. Because of the wide range he must have done a good deal of shadow/highlight recovering; the desaturation and dodge/burn done for the final submission were over the top and made the image look artificial.