Laura J
Member
I enlarged the image with AI Gigapixel and I concluded the picture at night is just a drawing, as others suspected. it still amazes me this pic is sold by photographic agencies like Getty as real
Image of Titanic in Cherbourg at night. Is it real or fake?
- Thread starter Laura J
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- cherbourg photographs
It IS Titanic, but extremely (and poorly) retouched to appear grandly lit... and in much darker setting than the original, un-retouched version.
Examine the photo under zoom, and it becomes plain. The funnels are horribly misshapen by the "artist", and the lights look sooo bad, as if they were highlighted with an old bottle of "White-out" (what typists used to correct typewriter mistakes in the "olden days").
Smoke has been added, too...even to the other 3 funnels, which would not be belching smoke while at anchor.
The crow's nest IS there, but you would only see a slight impression of it from this angle, even in daylight.
As for smoke coming from the 4th funnel...
The 4th funnel WAS used to vent the a la carte restaurant, 1st and 2nd class dining room galleys...with their steam kettles, presses, ovens, scullery, etc... as well as the turbine engine room. Not certain (but maritime engineering practices imply), but it may have also been used to vent exhaust auxiliary steam/condenser/evap gases from the turbine room. There is a reasonable expectation to see SOME of that venting from the 4th funnel, from time-to-time. Granted, all of this would be mostly warm air, steam vapors and barely detectable exhaust gases... and certainly not a constant plume of smoke like the funnels serving the boilers... but there nonetheless.
Even in the more modern era, steam ships moored to the pier in port for extended periods would often be seen venting steam from various exhausts... as the pier would often provide steam ("hotel") connections for assorted shipboard equipment that require it while their own boilers were unlit (called "cold iron" status). To the uneducated, this gives the impression that the ship is still "steaming".
I would imagine this would be more visible in extreme cold, like the vapor from your breath in the winter.
All that said... the photo"artist" who mangled this so badly would have done the world a favor by just sticking to still lifes of fruit on a table.
LOL
Examine the photo under zoom, and it becomes plain. The funnels are horribly misshapen by the "artist", and the lights look sooo bad, as if they were highlighted with an old bottle of "White-out" (what typists used to correct typewriter mistakes in the "olden days").
Smoke has been added, too...even to the other 3 funnels, which would not be belching smoke while at anchor.
The crow's nest IS there, but you would only see a slight impression of it from this angle, even in daylight.
As for smoke coming from the 4th funnel...
The 4th funnel WAS used to vent the a la carte restaurant, 1st and 2nd class dining room galleys...with their steam kettles, presses, ovens, scullery, etc... as well as the turbine engine room. Not certain (but maritime engineering practices imply), but it may have also been used to vent exhaust auxiliary steam/condenser/evap gases from the turbine room. There is a reasonable expectation to see SOME of that venting from the 4th funnel, from time-to-time. Granted, all of this would be mostly warm air, steam vapors and barely detectable exhaust gases... and certainly not a constant plume of smoke like the funnels serving the boilers... but there nonetheless.
Even in the more modern era, steam ships moored to the pier in port for extended periods would often be seen venting steam from various exhausts... as the pier would often provide steam ("hotel") connections for assorted shipboard equipment that require it while their own boilers were unlit (called "cold iron" status). To the uneducated, this gives the impression that the ship is still "steaming".
I would imagine this would be more visible in extreme cold, like the vapor from your breath in the winter.
All that said... the photo"artist" who mangled this so badly would have done the world a favor by just sticking to still lifes of fruit on a table.
LOL
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Charles C. Deroko
Member
This photo appears in Walter Lord's A Night to Remember.
Lord's caption reads: The Titanic at Cherbourg on the evening o April 10. Although heavily retouched, this photograph suggests how she looked from the lifeboats four nights later. (Author's collection)
Lord's caption reads: The Titanic at Cherbourg on the evening o April 10. Although heavily retouched, this photograph suggests how she looked from the lifeboats four nights later. (Author's collection)
robert warren
Member
Notice too- the large chunk of land to the right of the bow in the photo. Then in the night shot you can see low lands in the background of the bow and stern with pinpoints of light to look like they're coming from buildings far away. Hmmmmm....
Arun Vajpey
Member
You are right. Light from buildings that far away will never appear so bright and will be barely visible on a camera unless it is a very long exposure. Also, the 'reflection' of the ship's lights on the water looks very artificial.
Lancastrian Navigator
Member
Sensible sunset for an observer at Cherbourg docks was at 18:51 GMT (18:44 Local Apparent Time) on that date. Contemporary meteorological charts reveal a ridge of high pressure reaching up from Biscay towards the Solent, giving a clear and sunny spring afternoon in northern France. RMS Titanic would have been almost fully illuminated up until around ten to twelve minutes after sunset and clearly visible (although slowly losing colour contrast) for at least another eighteen to twenty minutes after that.
I'll leave it to others more accomplished in the arts of photofakery to offer opinions on any other aspect besides the lighting.
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