when threads collide:

Attachment 38402

OK, the loco's running gear might blur/warp/generally look wrong due to certain quirks of digital cameras, but...that smoke coming out of the loco's stack is just, uh, um, :headshake.

Oil fired boiler.

Think of the pressure required to make the steam/exhaust/whatever shoot straight up like that, at speed. The plume should be bent back over the top of the loco to an extent, shouldn't it? Maybe I'm having a stroke.

Here's the sum of my knowledge of trains, btw: They're big, long, and loud.

Don't know how fast this was going. But it's on a curve, so maybe a little slower than normal.
Attachment 38413
this one looks like it's in a switching yard, so maybe it's slow too.
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Here's one that looks closest to the fake picture.
Attachment 38415

Enough. Here's a panning shot of a speeding locomotive. Note the areas that are blurred.
Attachment 38416

I don't see something that screams "fake". I see an exhaust plume that is moving in the right direction, straight up and big. How far "bent over" it is or should be is all a factor of how fast the engine's moving. I do know enough about photography to know that the blur you see is intentional, and intended to give the viewer a sense of speed. But making that blur is pretty easy and doesn't require HIGH speed (though it looks like they're haulin ass). If anything, the exhaust belies a super high speed shot, and instead is just a real picture, with a relatively slow exposure at sane speeds making it easier and safer to shoot.

The black "smoke" is what you get out of one of the standard brushes, and somebody did this freehand. The gradient/blur around the edges is extremely uniform. And it's identical on the front and back of the plume.

If you look in the rear window of the car, you will see that someone forgot to apply movement blur to the third wheel.

A lot of stuff in the middle was pushed around using the smudge tool.

Vindication.

Attachment 38428

I'm happy for you.

I takes mah victrees where I finds 'em.

:D

This is the part that bothers me. The smoke doesn't come all the way from the front of the pipe (unless the pipe is many inches thick...and a different thickness at the front than it is at the back) and then, at that so-fast-it's-blurry speed, the smoke goes forward at first, then decides to lean back. Also, the going forward smoke hadn't decided to be blurry yet. I'm no physicist, but I'd imagine Bernoulli turning over in his grave as we try to explain this acrobatic smoke. This jet ƒucking black smoke, made of pure hexadecimal #000000.

Oh, and also, the entire photo just screams "ridiculously, stupidly fake."

It's the moster from Lost, currently guest starring as a baby in Game of Thrones.

Heh...