Real or fake?

limr · Jul 22, 2018

So I saw this on Facebook - the claim is that it is one of the first photographs taken of a cat, dated 1870-80.

Anyone else thinks this is faked?

Gary A. · Jul 22, 2018

Fake. The cat looks alive. No cat from 1870 is still alive.

Gary A. · Jul 22, 2018

Honestly, I call fake.

tirediron · Jul 22, 2018

I'm going with 'fake' as well.

Jeff15 · Jul 23, 2018

Its a fake..........

Fujidave · Jul 23, 2018

100% Fake

jcdeboever · Jul 23, 2018

it's on the internet, must be real

Dean_Gretsch · Jul 23, 2018

Let's wait and see if Fox runs a story on it to see if it's real...

snowbear · Jul 23, 2018

Oh, I think it's a real cat.

I found a post on Google+ from 2014, and the dates are 1880-1890.

OldManJim · Jul 23, 2018

It must be real - cats stopped wearing amulets about 1885 and they haven't come back into fashion since. Besides, there's a small tear in the upper left border and that can only happen if it's real.

'Course, it could be a clever fake using a cat actor.

waday · Jul 23, 2018

That picture, not sure. But...

https://io9.gizmodo.com/5900334/eve...-were-obsessed-with-ridiculous-photos-of-cats

Probably the progenitor of shameless cat pictures was English photog Harry Pointer (1822-1889), who snapped approximately 200 photos of his perplexed albeit jovial "Brighton Cats." Pointer began his career shooting naturalistic photos of cats, but he realized in the 1870s that coaxing felines into ludicrous poses was an exercise in delicious absurdity.

limr · Jul 23, 2018

OldManJim said:
It must be real - cats stopped wearing amulets about 1885 and they haven't come back into fashion since. Besides, there's a small tear in the upper left border and that can only happen if it's real.

'Course, it could be a clever fake using a cat actor.

What's up with what looks like bad cloning by the tail, then? And also at the table edge on the other side of the cat? And a rip can be faked -check out all the filters that are supposed to emulate film that adds all kinds of defects onto a digital file.

I have found nothing on the net to suggest that it is faked, but there is also definitely something off about it that puts it into question.

It could also be an authentic photo that was digitally "restored" by a hack.

Jeff G · Jul 23, 2018

Definitely been edited, not sure if the edits were at the time the photo was supposedly done or not, but it does look more like a bad Photoshop job. Then again I have seen real pictures that look wrong and would swear have been edited but know they weren't.

Jeff G · Jul 23, 2018

If this were an episode of CSI they would zoom in on the eye, use their super special software and see the reflection of the photographer and see what kind of camera he was using. :biglaugh:

Fujidave · Jul 23, 2018

Jeff G said:
If this were an episode of CSI they would zoom in on the eye, use their super special software and see the reflection of the photographer and see what kind of camera he was using.

Nikon D3200 was used to take the shot.