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Photography Question 

Ralph C. Cinque
 

What is the incidence of flipped, reversed images?


How often does it happen that photos get reversed, flipped from right to left, in traditional photography? I mean by accident, not on purpose. And I mean within the realm of professional photographers.
The reason I ask is because I found three images of Lee Harvey Oswald, President Kennedy's alleged assassin, and these images are reversed, where it's the mirror image. For instance, they each show his right eye as traumatized when it was really his left eye that got injured. I am trying to determine whether the reversals happened by accident or on purpose.
Are there any knowledgable opinions about this? Thank you.


Here is one of the flipped images. Again, thank you.


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June 26, 2012

 

Lynn R. Powers
  I never had it happen when I was sending my photos out to be developed. And that covered a lot of years. I never did develop my own color negatives.

Occasionally I would put a negative in the enlarger upside down because I wasn't paying attention. Then there were also times that the photo looked better when it was flipped. The composition just looked better. If you are talking about something that has been printed lately it could be for the same reason as I did it on purpose. Then again it may have been done by someone that had never worked with film. Many people in their early thirties know only about digital images and the percentage goes up as the age drops. Or it could only have been an "Ooooops" that wasn't caught or possibly even cared about.


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June 26, 2012

 

Ralph C. Cinque
  Thank you, Lynn. I have now found a 4th image of LHO that was flipped. That's 4 images of one man taken over 2 days that got flipped. Doesn't it seem mathematically unlikely that it would happen 4 times to the same guy over such a short span of time?


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June 26, 2012

 

Lynn R. Powers
  Considering that JFK was killed 49 years ago people may never have seen the original image. And as I mentioned they may prefer the composition. In today's world truth doesn't seem that important. Then again perhaps no one where these are being published knows which side should go up.


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June 26, 2012

 

Lynn R. Powers
  Considering that JFK was killed 49 years ago people may never have seen the original image. And as I mentioned they may prefer the composition. In today's world truth doesn't seem that important. Then again perhaps no one where these are being published knows which side should go up.


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June 26, 2012

 
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