Some people have suggested that the following video of the two Japanese hostages held by ISIS is fake.
Original video: https://ia902602.us.archive.org/13/items/msg_p/ms.mp4
The main evidence cited for this is shadows, where we can see the shadows on the faces of the hostages look like they are being lit from different sides (note where the shadow falls on the neck and shoulders). The shadows behind the hostages are also claimed to be wrong, with the shadows converging.
However, a brief experiment in replicating the video shows this is actually exactly what happens. The video is simply shot with a wide angle lens. The two hostages are angled slightly in to directly face the camera, which accounts for the face shadows, and shadows behind simply converge because of perspective.
Here's a video of me replicating the positions of the three men. Notice the direction of the shadow behind me:
And here's three frames composited from the same video. Notice the shadows on the neck and shoulders look like the light is coming from different directions, when there's only one light source here, the sun.
(Note: the ground I am standing on, and on which the shadows are cast, is perfectly flat, this makes the shadows longer than if they were cast on a slope).
Reducing it to the simplest level, here's a video of two objects. You can see they cast parallel shadows, but when viewed from the front the shadows converge.
A close up of the shadows in the ISIS video shows that they match the flapping of the clothing:
There's simply no indication of green screen or video compositing in this particular video. The fact that it's shot from two directions is further evidence that this video is genuine. And in this shot you can tell that the two hostages are looking slightly inwards, as they are looking directly at the camera. This accounts for the neck shadows, as seen above.
[Update]
My setup is not exactly the same as the hostage setup.
On flat ground, shadows will all converge at a single vanishing point. In my example, this point is behind the center me. In the hostage photo it's between the Jihadi and the hostage on the right.
Here's a 3D model
From above it looks something like this:
And varying the position of the sun:
[Update 1/29/2015]
Infowars attempted to duplicate this video in order to show it could have been faked. However their attempt only illustrates how if the ISIS video is fake, then there's nothing to distinguish it from a real video.
Compare the two videos with the hostage on the right
There are two obvious differences with the Infowars attempt - there are only faint washed out shadows (because they used multiple lights), and the hostage is not looking at the camera, because he is facing forward. The fact that he's not looking at the camera, and actually seems like he is looking in a totally different direction to the other hostage shows just how little they understand the role of perspective in the shadows.
And they didn't even attempt to cast shadows on the ground.
Bottom line, since there's nothing to indicate that the video is fake, so the simplest explanation is that it is real. While we can't prove a negative (you can't prove ANY video isn't fake), we can demonstrate there's zero evidence that it's fake, so why are people suggesting it is?
[This is a Summary Debunk, from material in the thread below, the original first post follows this post]
Original video: https://ia902602.us.archive.org/13/items/msg_p/ms.mp4
The main evidence cited for this is shadows, where we can see the shadows on the faces of the hostages look like they are being lit from different sides (note where the shadow falls on the neck and shoulders). The shadows behind the hostages are also claimed to be wrong, with the shadows converging.
However, a brief experiment in replicating the video shows this is actually exactly what happens. The video is simply shot with a wide angle lens. The two hostages are angled slightly in to directly face the camera, which accounts for the face shadows, and shadows behind simply converge because of perspective.
Here's a video of me replicating the positions of the three men. Notice the direction of the shadow behind me:
And here's three frames composited from the same video. Notice the shadows on the neck and shoulders look like the light is coming from different directions, when there's only one light source here, the sun.
(Note: the ground I am standing on, and on which the shadows are cast, is perfectly flat, this makes the shadows longer than if they were cast on a slope).
Reducing it to the simplest level, here's a video of two objects. You can see they cast parallel shadows, but when viewed from the front the shadows converge.
A close up of the shadows in the ISIS video shows that they match the flapping of the clothing:
There's simply no indication of green screen or video compositing in this particular video. The fact that it's shot from two directions is further evidence that this video is genuine. And in this shot you can tell that the two hostages are looking slightly inwards, as they are looking directly at the camera. This accounts for the neck shadows, as seen above.
[Update]
My setup is not exactly the same as the hostage setup.
On flat ground, shadows will all converge at a single vanishing point. In my example, this point is behind the center me. In the hostage photo it's between the Jihadi and the hostage on the right.
Here's a 3D model
From above it looks something like this:
And varying the position of the sun:
[Update 1/29/2015]
Infowars attempted to duplicate this video in order to show it could have been faked. However their attempt only illustrates how if the ISIS video is fake, then there's nothing to distinguish it from a real video.
Compare the two videos with the hostage on the right
There are two obvious differences with the Infowars attempt - there are only faint washed out shadows (because they used multiple lights), and the hostage is not looking at the camera, because he is facing forward. The fact that he's not looking at the camera, and actually seems like he is looking in a totally different direction to the other hostage shows just how little they understand the role of perspective in the shadows.
And they didn't even attempt to cast shadows on the ground.
Bottom line, since there's nothing to indicate that the video is fake, so the simplest explanation is that it is real. While we can't prove a negative (you can't prove ANY video isn't fake), we can demonstrate there's zero evidence that it's fake, so why are people suggesting it is?
[This is a Summary Debunk, from material in the thread below, the original first post follows this post]
Last edited:
faked from this...
