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[ethercat]

In 2000, the "Church" of Scientology produced some photos of their New Year celebration event, and made the photos available in a high resolution on their website, no doubt hoping that they would be used by various publications to promote scientology.  The photos were promoted, to be sure, but not in the way that the "Church" hoped. 

From the Washington Post:

THE RELIABLE SOURCE

By Lloyd Grove
With Beth Berselli
Tuesday, January 4, 2000; Page C03

Scientology's Funny Photos

The Church of Scientology insists that more than 14,000 of its faithful packed the Los Angeles Sports Arena for a millennial celebration of Scientology's first 50 years and the "triumph of spirituality over materialism." To bolster that claim, the church's PR operation posted four panoramic color photographs of the Dec. 28 event--for use by the news media--on the Scientology Web site. But then Arlington resident Arnaldo Lerma entered the picture, reports The Post's Richard Leiby.

The 49-year-old Lerma--an ex-Scientologist who has tangled repeatedly with church officials since he quit 23 years ago, and today owns an audio-video and computer business--immediately thought he spotted something fishy: He says the crowd scenes were doctored extensively. In one shot he found repeated images of some attendees--apparently added to fill empty seats. The touch-up work left one doppelganger parishioner with no head. In another shot, a bald man who had been replicated magically grew hair.

On Friday, Lerma shared his discovery with the media and posted his findings on an online Scientology discussion group, and on New Year's Day the church removed two photos altogether and considerably cropped the remaining two. Yesterday, when Leiby asked church spokeswoman Janet Weiland for an explanation, she said there was no intent to inflate the head count. "That was just a goof when they put it up on the Web," she said. "It was later corrected." She maintained that the celebration was "absolutely packed . . . there wasn't an empty seat."

As soon as the photos were discovered, critics got busy inspecting them.  Some of the findings are shown here: http://www.lermanet.com/PhotoLIES.htm and here: http://www.lermanet.com/PhotoLIES2.htm

The full size versions are here: http://www.cnbc.cmu.edu/~dst/LApics/

There are new forms of photo analysis now which would have been useful in 2000, but may be useful in the future for detecting altered images.  This gets pretty technical, but I'll leave this link in case anyone wants to check it out: http://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index.php?/categories/1-Image-Analysis

There is a quickie jpg analyzer on the web here: http://errorlevelanalysis.com/ but don't bother trying the originals from the 2000 New Year celebration - they're bigger than the server can handle. 

[RedShieldwolf]

The Church of Scientology insists that more than 14,000 of its faithful packed the Los Angeles Sports Arena for a millennial celebration of Scientology's first 50 years and the "triumph of spirituality over materialism."

CoS and Photoshopping

The irony in this sentence is fatal.


Correct me if I'm wrong, but Los Angeles and the surrounding area had (still has) lots of Scientologists, right? And yet they still had to lie about their numbers. Sad.

Let's hope no headless Scilons appeared at the New Years celebration.

[ethercat]

Some might say that they're all headless, as long as they're under the influence.    

You're not wrong; at the time LA had (and probably still does have) the largest number, with the possible exception of Clearwater.  Reports are that they have an "all hands on deck" for staff and Sea Org when an event like this occurs, and pressure all the scientologists in surrounding states to attend as well, and still they had to fake the pictures.

It would be interesting if the member who did the shooping has left and would tell the inside story about those photos.  I haven't seen it yet, but I may have missed it.

[Lorelei]

I have also not seen any "confessions of a Sci Shooper" floating around, but I know you know that Arnie Lerma discusses the 'shooping phenomenon (to boost apparent numbers of Scis in attendance at events) on his site in detail, with examples of doctored images.

It would be funny, if it wasn't done to defraud, lie, and misrepresent "stats" in order to help the cult appear more successful and accepted than it actually is.

What I gather from the 'shoop attempts is that Sci has been losing at the numbers game (number of followers) for quite a long time, and had gone to great lengths to pretend otherwise even before the 2008 global "Anonymous" protests began.

I'd be curious, too, to see if anyone involved with the 'shoops has gotten out of the cult, and simply has not thought to mention this particular flavour of deception yet, because they have so many other deceptions they know about firsthand to discuss first, before they even get around to that one.

[ethercat]

I have also not seen any "confessions of a Sci Shooper" floating around, but I know you know that Arnie Lerma discusses the 'shooping phenomenon (to boost apparent numbers of Scis in attendance at events) on his site in detail, with examples of doctored images.

Yes, I was one of those who participated in the "inspection." 

It would be funny, if it wasn't done to defraud, lie, and misrepresent "stats" in order to help the cult appear more successful and accepted than it actually is.

I did a parody of the shooping on the Wacky Cult News site.

http://alley.ethercat.com/wackycultnews/doctoredphoto.html

CoS and Photoshopping

Here's the original image: http://www.solitarytrees.net/pickets/sp861b.jpg

CoS and Photoshopping

What I gather from the 'shoop attempts is that Sci has been losing at the numbers game (number of followers) for quite a long time, and had gone to great lengths to pretend otherwise even before the 2008 global "Anonymous" protests began.

That is true, although the number of ex-members speaking out has certainly increased since 2008, and dramatically much more so since Marty, Rinder, and crew came forward.

They have also removed people from photos, when they left and became "SPs": http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Stop-Narconon/AdvisoryBoard/
http://www.xenu.net/archive/image_edit/

[RedShieldwolf]

I have also not seen any "confessions of a Sci Shooper" floating around, but I know you know that Arnie Lerma discusses the 'shooping phenomenon (to boost apparent numbers of Scis in attendance at events) on his site in detail, with examples of doctored images.

If the success of Chanology is any indication, I am sure we will see the "confessions of a Sci Shooper." After all, it was an entire decade before we got an apology for Battlefield Earth. 

http://www.deadline.com/2010/03/battlefield-earth-scripter-pens-apology/

[ethercat]

If the success of Chanology is any indication, I am sure we will see the "confessions of a Sci Shooper."

Oh, I hope so!   

[Lorelei]

Me, too!

And I LOL'ed at your "Edited" photo. Hur!