Is one of the Michael Jackson rehearsal photos faked?

Holymoly.com suggests that one of the rehearsal photographs of Michael Jackson, said to have been taken the night before he died, is fake. They point out that "the backdrop mysteriously disappears in between Michael's legs." They describe this as a "classic photoshop blunder" and suggest "this could be a fake composite, with Jackson's image being super imposed on top of another pic."

It does look unusual, but I wouldn't be so quick to label it as photoshopped. That may just be how the backdrop looks in that area. (You would need to see an unobstructed view of the entire backdrop to be sure.) And what would be the point of photoshopping the picture? Is holymoly.com suggesting that Jackson didn't actually attend the rehearsal? That seems unlikely as there are other pictures of Jackson at the rehearsal, and (presumably) witnesses.

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Posted on Tue Jun 30, 2009



Comments

I have NO idea what the post above has to do with this article....

The perspective position of the lettering behind Michael is more 'right on forward' than those to the left and right. If you measure the depth these would be as well as what the letters are behind him, that area would be dark (or seemingly missing) unless there was backdrop clutter that was also reflecting and there does not appear to be anything to the side to suggest there is. I do not believe this was photoshopped.
Posted by hulitoons  on  Wed Jul 01, 2009  at  05:02 AM
That's because it was obviously spam. 😊
Posted by Smerk  on  Wed Jul 01, 2009  at  05:34 AM
Maybe its an authentic image that was photoshopped for artistic purposes.

Perhaps somebody decided that the now missing piece of red "s" between michael's legs was distracting to the composition.
Posted by fred  on  Wed Jul 01, 2009  at  09:40 AM
What else from between Micheal's legs is missing? There. I said it... I'm not proud, but I couldn't resist. Carry on, don't mind me
Posted by Hairy Houdini  on  Wed Jul 01, 2009  at  10:08 AM
Well, here is a wider view of the same image, showing more of the stage. And here is an interview with the photographer; it doesn't say anything one way or the other about photo editing, but it does give some information (such as when and where the photos were taken: Los Angeles, on the 23rd of June).

Looking at the wider angle photo, I have to say that it looks suspicious. Either that one "I" behind him is made in a totally different manner than all of the other letters (including two other examples of "I"), or else something was edited out or not added in.
Posted by Accipiter  on  Wed Jul 01, 2009  at  04:44 PM
Right said Fred (I couldn't resist that one sorry :cheese: )

The word behind MJ is "IS". It's clear that the lower part of the "I" is blocked by his right thigh.

But the lower LHS of the "S" (if you extend the LHS of it down using say an averaged angle of the descenders from the RHS of the "S" and LHS of the "I") would rather unfortunately appear as a bright red 8inch "sausage" shape down his left thigh... possibly with a white stripe too.

So yes, it was "shopped" out.
Posted by Joel B1  on  Wed Jul 01, 2009  at  05:30 PM
If the "I" is built in the same way as the others ones, then it should have a bit of it sticking out from behind his leg and visible. Plus, each other letter has that big structural support frame behind it stretching from out of sight above to the bottom of the letter; that should be visible if that letter "I" is like the others.

So either that one letter was made in a very different way, there's some sort of a cloaking device at work, or somebody forgot to add or remove stuff when editing the image.
Posted by Accipiter  on  Wed Jul 01, 2009  at  06:17 PM
Using my program I cut top part of the S and rotated it. I then positioned where it would be. It ended up being just covered by Jackson's left leg. The distortion of the angle creates the illusion that the S should extend further than it does. I suspect that the photographer simply moved to the right until the red of the S vanished and took the picture. (There is no need to worry about the yellow; we're looking at the letters from an angle so the yellow wouldn't be seen [look at the eye.])
Posted by Joe  on  Fri Jul 03, 2009  at  10:39 PM
Do not accept replica photos on Michael Jackson! Because he can not be imitated at any aspect!
Posted by Gowan Rosemc  on  Sun Jul 05, 2009  at  07:23 PM
I don't understand the rest off the 's' and the 'i' is behind his leg isn't it so i dont know what your seeing , and i think they would notice if it was fake that it was missing because they wouldn't just randomly leave that our they would make it look real , so sorry i don't think this is fake 😊
Posted by Michaela Joanna  on  Tue Jan 05, 2010  at  02:54 PM
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