Fake Much?

radbone08's picture
radbone08 started the topic in Friday, 20 Aug 2010 at 12:36am

This was taken at bondi on August the 13th and it is of course fake, which begs the question how often are pictures photo shopped not just in papers but on swellnet as well?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1303526/Between-rock-w...

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Friday, 20 Aug 2010 at 12:46am

Why is that photo fake? Looks perfectly plausible to me, given the swell we saw at Bondi last Friday.

"Photoshopped" is an ambiguous term. Yes, we use Photoshop to colour-correct or otherwise tweak surfing images on Swellnet (when required). However, we receive too many incredible real images from real photographers to waste our time creating fake ones.

radbone08's picture
radbone08's picture
radbone08 Friday, 20 Aug 2010 at 12:53am

i meant photoshopped my bad! but the whitewater has been increased to a bigger size

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Friday, 20 Aug 2010 at 1:23am

but the whitewater has been increased to a bigger size

By: "radbone08"

Are you sure? I've seen many images of Bondi like this in the past. And Friday saw particularly large swells hitting the headland.

brendo's picture
brendo's picture
brendo Friday, 20 Aug 2010 at 1:30am

have a look at these ones, imagine these hitting the rocks - HUGE whitewater spray !!

http://www.coastalwatch.com/news/article.aspx?articleId=7887&cateId=26&d....

benski's picture
benski's picture
benski Friday, 20 Aug 2010 at 1:36am

I thought it certainly looked plausible. It's been a long time but I grew up surfing Bondi and I think I can remember Ben Buckler being a fairly spray heavy sort of a headland. But I really can't remember for sure.

Is there any way in this digital age we can track down the photog for images that show up in places like this (ie non-surfing media) and hear what they have to say?

mtw's picture
mtw's picture
mtw Friday, 20 Aug 2010 at 1:47am

It certainly looks a bit to dramatic to generate that much white water. If I was the guy on the rocks and I saw a wave comming which was that size, I would have certainly legged it well before the wave had hit.

I cant remember where I saw it, I think it was on a photo shoot for a surf clothing label, but they had strung Dane Reynolds up wearing a pair of boardies and with a board on his feet in front of a green screen. My guess is to get the perfect aerial shot. Dont get me wrong the guy is certainly capable airing a board, but it made me wonder how many photos are set up fakes!

Craig's picture
Craig's picture
Craig Friday, 20 Aug 2010 at 1:56am

You watched Stranger than Fiction MTW??? :p

And it could be an illusion with the depth of field.

The swell was massive on Friday and there would of easily been whitewash of that size smashing into the cliffs!

radbone08's picture
radbone08's picture
radbone08 Friday, 20 Aug 2010 at 2:54am

but both those pictures are the same, are the whitewash has been blown up

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Friday, 20 Aug 2010 at 3:05am

radbone08, the shape of the whitewater is clearly different in both images. Sorry to burst your conspiracy theory bubble!

Craig's picture
Craig's picture
Craig Friday, 20 Aug 2010 at 3:05am

That's what I first through Raddy, but have a closer look, they are different.

brendo's picture
brendo's picture
brendo Friday, 20 Aug 2010 at 3:42am

the swell line in the background is about half as high as the spray, so this looks pretty real to me, the guy is a nutter but still looks plausible to me.

radbone08's picture
radbone08's picture
radbone08 Friday, 20 Aug 2010 at 6:49am

oh yeah true that craig sorry hahaha :)

jaffa1949's picture
jaffa1949's picture
jaffa1949 Friday, 20 Aug 2010 at 12:40pm

All sorts of non surfing people go to the cliffs and beaches to see the big swells hit anywhere in the world.
There are plenty of videos of people being sucked off the beach at the wedge in California and if you want a good one go to tidal bores The Severn,the Mascaret and the silver dragon in China (that one you can watch hundreds of people being washed into the bore by the wave

nickg's picture
nickg's picture
nickg Friday, 20 Aug 2010 at 2:13pm

it may be fake (i personally don't think so as i live in the area and witnessed the swell first hand), but i've seen spray like this before. amazing, sure, but not impossible.

the folks at the posted link don't seem to know the water volume/density difference between an unbroken wave, whitewater and spray. probably the same folk that'll be ditching their board at Bondi this Summer when 3ft of fury crumbles in front of them.