Chinese Earthquake Photos!!

bladerunner · May 14, 2011

( RE photo in post 81)

Remember the Beijing Olympics, when no one was aware that the television presentation of the fireworks were digitally enhanched? until told so

Dont forget these could be stills from the video footage. Hendrick at post 86 said "This is well made Video. CCTV is running serial on rebuilding of Wenchuan"
Perhaps a at the time of the filming, all the planned work wasnt completed and they included "mock ups" of certain areas which have since been built.

Last year I saw a art festival film called "New Beijing" It was joint Australian Chinese production directed by Georgina Wallace Crabbe
It was made just prior to the Olympics and depicted the demolition of the hutongs etc etc. The film included lots lots of sq meters (probably hundreds) of carefully crafted models layed out depicting what Beijing would look like in the decades to come. The way it was filmed, one could have thought one was looking at a genuinely constructed area from a birds eye perspective.

Im not suggesting what we are seeing of the newly rebuilt Wenchuan consistsed entirely of this.

Hendrik_2000 · May 14, 2011

bladerunner said:
( RE photo in post 81)

Remember the Beijing Olympics, when no one was aware that the television presentation of the fireworks were digitally enhanched? until told so

Dont forget these are stills from vide footage. Hendrick at post 86 said "This is well made Video. CCTV is running serial on rebuilding of Wenchuan"
Perhaps a at the time of the filming, all the planned work wasnt completed and they included "mock ups" of certain areas which have now been built.

Last year I saw a art festival film called "New Beijing" It was joint Australian Chinese production directed by Georgina Wallace Crabbe
It was made just prior to the Olympics and depicted the demolition of the hutongs etc etc. The film included lots lots of sq meters (probably hundreds) of carefully crafted models layed out depicting what Beijing would look like in the decades to come. The way it was filmed, one could have thought one was looking at a genuinely constructed area from a birds eye perspective.

Im not suggesting what we are seeing of the newly rebuilt Wuhan consistsed entirely of this.

Why would they fake the building with photoshop or model?. As Quickie said anyone can go to the city and see it for themselves.

I don't think CCP is masochist.Xinhui blog show more fotos

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In case anyone still doubt the quality of now notorious school building this is a good video

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bladerunner · May 14, 2011

Hendrik_2000 said:
Hendrik_2000 said:

Why would they fake the building with photoshop or model?. As Quickie said anyone can go to the city and see it for themselves.

Click to expand...

And why not, it is CCTV afterall, and its also been pointed out that they used a scenes from a Hollywood movie "TOP GUN" to complement a news item

This is what I said in post 91 "Perhaps a at the time of the filming, all the planned work wasnt completed and they included "mock ups" of certain areas which have since been built."

Hendrik_2000 · May 14, 2011

bladerunner said:
And why not, it is CCTV afterall, and its also been pointed out that they used a scenes from a Hollywood movie "TOP GUN" to complement a news item

This is what I said in post 91 "Perhaps a at the time of the filming, all the planned work wasnt completed and they included "mock ups" of certain areas which have since been built."

Click to expand...

The reconstruction of Sichuan is unprecedented in scope and progress No where else can you find such efficiency and commitment. Some people just can't accept the fact and go to such length to deny and diminish a truly laudable effort and hard work.

Compare that to Katrina and Haiti or Gulf of Mexico Hey even Fukushima No comparison!

Blitzo · May 14, 2011

Hendrik_2000 said:
The reconstruction of Sichuan is breathtaking is scope and progress No where else can you find such efficiency and commitment. Some people just can't accept the fact and go to such length to deny and diminish a truly laudable effort and hard work.

Compare that to Katrina and Haiti or Gulf of Mexico He even Fukushima No comparison!

Ah I dont' think bladerunner is saying that at all, certainly questioning the authenticity of those photos are unfortunately necessary given some mistakes from Chinese media in the past like the fireworks over the olympics and the top gun fiasco, both of which had reasonable explanations. The former had something to do with it being dangerous for a helicopter to film the actual fireworks display/visibility of the display and the latter was just simple incompetence.

I don't think CCTV or anyone else goes out of their way to trick people, when they get it wrong it's just laziness and/or bad reporting. I personally feel that these pictures aren't fabricated given how easy it would be for people to check up on its progress and the general sensitivity and emotions left behind from the earthquake.

Engineer · May 14, 2011

bladerunner said:
( RE photo in post 81)

Remember the Beijing Olympics, when no one was aware that the television presentation of the fireworks were digitally enhanched? until told so

Remember the Beijing Olympics, where plenty of acts were real?

bladerunner said:
Dont forget these could be stills from the video footage. Hendrick at post 86 said "This is well made Video. CCTV is running serial on rebuilding of Wenchuan"
Perhaps a at the time of the filming, all the planned work wasnt completed and they included "mock ups" of certain areas which have since been built.

These could be stills from video footage, yes, but video footage of the actual city. The city has been ready for people to move in at least a month ago, if not longer, and this was reported in Chinese media back then. A well made video has no correlation whatsoever with whether these pictures are real or not.

bladerunner said:
Last year I saw a art festival film called "New Beijing" It was joint Australian Chinese production directed by Georgina Wallace Crabbe
It was made just prior to the Olympics and depicted the demolition of the hutongs etc etc. The film included lots lots of sq meters (probably hundreds) of carefully crafted models layed out depicting what Beijing would look like in the decades to come. The way it was filmed, one could have thought one was looking at a genuinely constructed area from a birds eye perspective.

And what does that has anything to do with the photos? Absolutely nothing. One is a documentary on what to come, the other is a documentary on what has been done.

Engineer · May 14, 2011

bladerunner said:
And why not, it is CCTV afterall, and its also been pointed out that they used a scenes from a Hollywood movie "TOP GUN" to complement a news item

Correct, it is CCTV after all, which means it is more authentic than Western media when it comes to reporting of China.

bladerunner said:
This is what I said in post 91 "Perhaps a at the time of the filming, all the planned work wasnt completed and they included "mock ups" of certain areas which have since been built."

In other words, this is merely what you wished to be happening and not what actually happening.

Asymptote · May 14, 2011

Hendrik_2000, the reconstruction of Sichuan is real, there is no doubt about that. Its just those photos Martian posted were from maybe developmental CG renderings.

Particularly the first picture - the lighting seems unurealistic (or faux realistic) - its too perfect, the pronounced specular lighting on the red car on the top right corner (that's a stock CG model of Ferrari F40! As a matter of fact, ALL the cars in there are stock CG models), the trees (I am pretty sure these trees are CG trees, no trees in real life looks like that). The whole scene lighting is over-bright, the contrast is too dramatic that only happen in CG (eg. places in shadow are too dark even in bright day light like that), the lighting on the surface, the textures used, just speaks to me that THIS IS CG RENDERING as bright as the day. I would even guess the rendering software used was VRay.

The second picture seems to have some pronounced "shadow leaks" that you can see along the bottom where the building connects to the ground - there is slight dark gradients around the building footprint. That's due to "ambient occlusion" (or HDRI) technique used.

The third picture is harder to judge because its overlay over real photo (the bridge and along the river banks) but generally the lighting is too over-bright particularly the buildings along the top part of the image; the cars (particularly the red one) stands out as red car don't stands out like that in a day time lighting, and that red "billboard" on the left (I can't quite make out what that is) really stands for its almost "glowing" lighting; and generally some surfaces lack detail, and the trees they used are CG model trees.

Over all, the angle they presented these pictures are also pretty odd, they are very "CG rendering" - almost Axonometric projection in angle (

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Again, I am not doubting the fact that reconstruction of Sichuan is real, I am just saying these pictures stands out to me as CG renderings.

Hendrik_2000 · May 14, 2011

It one thing of using footage to dramatize a scene or use the firework shot from previous day because the opening day was cloudy, but to say that the photo of building is fake or photshop is pushing it too far. People can see it for themselves if it fake. If that is the case imagine the headline in Guardian, New York times or Wall street Journal. I can see the headline already "POTEMKIN VILLAGE IN SICHUAN. "

There is no travel restriction to Sichuan. Any western reporter can come and go as they wish. So how come no huge cry of FAKE?

I haven't seen anything like that In fact Wall street journal run a photo slide show with title 3 years after Wenchuan earth quake

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Martian · May 14, 2011

Xinhua is one of the most trusted newspapers in China

Asymptote said:
Hendrik_2000, the reconstruction of Sichuan is real, there is no doubt about that. Its just those photos Martian posted were from maybe developmental CG renderings.

Particularly the first picture - the lighting seems unurealistic (or faux realistic) - its too perfect, the pronounced specular lighting on the red car on the top right corner (that's a stock CG model of Ferrari F40! As a matter of fact, all the cars in there are stock CG models), the trees (I am pretty sure these trees are CG trees, no trees in real life looks like that). The whole scene lighting is over-bright, the lighting on the surface, the textures used, just speaks to me that THIS IS CG RENDERING as bright as the day. I would even guess the rendering software used was VRay.

The second picture seems to have some pronounced "shadow leaks" that you can see along the bottom where the building connects to the ground - there is slight dark gradients around the building footprint. That's due to "ambient occlusion" technique used.

The third picture is harder to judge because its overlay over real photo (the bridge) but generally the lighting is too over-bright almost as if they are glowing, and some surfaces lack detail, and the trees they used are CG model trees.

Over all, the angle they presented these pictures are also pretty odd, they very "CG rendering" - almost Axonometric projection in angle (
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).

Again, I am not doubting the fact that reconstruction of Sichuan is real, I am just saying these pictures stands out to me as CG renderings.

In post #81, I provided the source of the pictures. The pictures are from the Global Edition of Xinhua. Xinhua is China's largest and most prestigious newspaper. Unless you have indisputable proof, I believe it is ridiculous for people to claim that the pictures are computer generated. Earlier in this thread, I provided over 30 pictures (e.g. posts #66 through #70) at the ground-level of the newly-constructed Wenchuan township in Sichuan province.

In total, I have provided over 40 pictures (e.g. original 30 of Wenchuan, 5 more from Xinhua, and at least 5 more from the Wall Street Journal). I think it is silly to claim that Xinhua is using computer-manipulated images to make it look like it's photorealistic.

Xinhua is bigger than The New York Times. Xinhua is basically the official newspaper of the Chinese government. Xinhua has been in existence for decades and I have never heard of such a ridiculous charge of printing computer-altered images of rebuilt towns that are recovering from an earthquake.

I can easily post another 20 pictures of the rebuilt earthquake zone, but it will be a waste of my time. Regardless of the number of pictures that I post, the conspiracy theorists will never be satisfied.

Show me a single article from a respectable Western newspaper or magazine by an photographic expert that alleges computer alteration. Unless you have some semblance of proof, it is obvious that it's just typical sour grapes. The anti-China crowd have offered no proof, except the typical whisper campaign.

On People's Daily Online, they have a video of a reconstructed township (which resembles the buildings from one of the photos) titled "Wenchuan 3 years on: A work in progress" at the following link:

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I will once again provide the link to Xinhua and the earthquake reconstruction photos. When you visit Xinhua's website, you will see a total of ten very large pictures. Please feel free to examine each picture in minute detail to your own satisfaction. The pictures that I have posted from Xinhua are also available in lower resolution and different angles from other major Chinese news organizations, such as China.org.cn (see

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Link to Xinhua:

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Unless you want to make the extraordinary claim that Xinhua, Chinaview, People's Daily Online, and numerous other large Chinese news organizations are all involved in an extraordinary conspiracy to alter photographs with computers, without a single major Western news organization or expert detecting the deception, I suggest that you China-haters desist from the ridiculous claim that the pictures are fake.

I invoke the Carl Sagan rule to deal with UFO conspiracy theorists: "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." Where is the extraordinary evidence from you China-haters to substantiate your absurd claim that photographs printed by reputable and well-established Chinese newspapers are fake?

Read the captions on the photographs carefully. They captions state that the pictures are a bird's-eye view of the towns. It does not say "computer-generated" bird's-eye view of the towns.

My parting shot to you conspiracy theorists is another bird's-eye view photograph of the rebuilt towns. Go ahead, knock yourselves out and claim that it is also computer generated.

The bird's eye-view photo taken on April 24, 2011 shows Wenchuan, Southwest China's Sichuan province. [Photo/Xinhua]

Source of last picture:

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Chinese Earthquake Photos!!

bladerunner

Banned Idiot

Hendrik_2000

Lieutenant General

bladerunner

Banned Idiot

Hendrik_2000

Lieutenant General

Blitzo

Lieutenant General

Engineer

Major

Engineer

Major

Asymptote

Banned Idiot

Hendrik_2000

Lieutenant General

Martian

Senior Member