What is Digg?Warning: The Content in this Article May be Inaccurate
Readers have reported that this story contains information that may not be accurate.373 Comments
- ModernDemagogue, on 03/04/2008, -23/+403I work in broadcast advertising, so two things from a professional standpoint:
1) The aspect ratio shift is exactly 0.9; which is the difference between "square pixels" and "dv pixels," DV pixels are slightly squished for technical reasons relating to the difference in the way TVs and computer screens display images. A squished face happens all the time if footage from one source is not properly imported, or converted when exported. It looks to me like the entire commercial is squished, meaning someone captured this in a DV file format without correcting the aspect ratio for accurate viewing on a computer screen.
2) As you can see in the obvious difference in saturation values; the gamma curve is completely different for the hillary commercial. This is a little more complex, but essentially, the gamma dictates the slope of how the image shifts from dark to light, and is another broadcast vs. computer issue. For example, any image that looks bright and crisp on TV will look too dark and tough to see if played on a computer, while a normal computer image, will look bright and washed out on a television unless it is properly color corrected. This suggests to me that when the spot was compressed for the internet, someone did it wrong, leaving the broadcast colorspace since even the scenes without Obama in them are too dark and contrasty.
Either whoever made the ad simply didnt know what they were doing, OR whoever digitized and captured the ad, and posted it to youtube, didn't know what they were doing; either way, it wasn't an intentional move by the Hillary campaign.
If they had intended to make Obama look "blacker" they would have gone about it in a very different fashion. You would not be able to see any difference in the image, except for his skin tone; extensive and transparent color correction is not difficult to do, happens on a daily basis and is done for every commercial you watch.
I haven't had time to look into the truth of the statements made in the ad, and I hope they're not lies because I think Obama's great, but these accusations are ridiculous. If they wanted him blacker, they would have done it in a way that no one would notice except with a side by side comparison, and the Photoshop color picker. Someone that has a KOS account, please post this in the comments there. They're going crazy over nothing.
Edit: As an aside, the idea that its "almost impossible" for "color profiles" to be responsible for that significant a difference shows an utter lack of knowledge on the part of the article's author. Not only is it easy, its almost certain that an untrained amateur will make these kinds of mistakes when manipulating footage across devices. This is one of many reasons why I still have a job even with iMovie out there. - PeteZaHutt, on 03/04/2008, -25/+235Perhaps Hillary should use the same technology to make her look more like a woman.
- jkbowman, on 03/04/2008, -21/+195I will never vote for Hillary Clinton. - Never
- u2wedge, on 03/04/2008, -51/+148The Republican's New Agenda is to Stop Obama, they want to run against Hillary. They have so much dirt in their Arsenal on the Clintons just waiting to be Unleashed (movies, scandals, lawsuits, books) -- that is why Rush Limbaugh is Begging, Begging his listeners to vote for Hillary. Limbaugh declared: “I want the funeral music to play at some point to the Clintons, but not this early.” America, if Hillary becomes the nominee, we haven't seen nothing yet!
Who released the Canadian Memo and distorted its contents--, where did that come from and who called Goolsbee to a meeting and conveniently set him up? Who pushed up Rezko's trial which, was to start much later this year? Why did the Somali picture come out, along with Farrakahn endoresement and a radio jock mocking of Obama's middle name? Which was allowed to be played over and over again by the Main-stream media. We have to ask these things? Who wants to Kill unity and hope? Was this part of the Kitchen Sink or may be the Basement (Swiftboating)? I do know its dirty politics and until we reject this kind of politicking in America we will be a pawn in their hands, the people of power, and never find our true Independence and Voice which Obama is offering. The Evil Ones are just getting started, warmed up. Someone is trying to pull our strings. The Truth will come out, however. Hopefully, America we can see through this Rouse this time and elect CHANGE! - gwayo, on 03/04/2008, -9/+75FTA: (about the commercial this appeared in) "Besides doctoring the footage, she's lying about the subcommittee. Afghanistan is handled by a different subcommittee, and by the full foreign relations comittee in which Obama participates. His subcommittee met very rarely under previous chairs in the last several years."
- ModernDemagogue, on 03/04/2008, -3/+62http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gammabk7. ...
Straight 2 pass gamma conversion of debate footage (debate encoded using tv gamma, then imported using PC gamma). Looks pretty close to me, though it's crappy youtube quality. If you add a slight color correct to the whole image itll match perfectly. If you were trying to make him look blacker, you'd just pull his skintones. QED.
Pixel-aspect correction is so obvious I don't even need to demonstrate. Whether the editor screwed up, or the uploader screwed up, is irrelevant, its an amateur hour mistake. - cheddarbek, on 03/04/2008, -11/+65Oh please, they dimmed the entire bit of footage to make it greyer. They do this with all footage they want to downplay.
Buried as spam. - oldhick, on 03/04/2008, -12/+63I love that in your world, even when a Democrat (read the story) is guilty of gutter politics, you can completely ignore it and transform the issue somehow into Republicans being the problem...
***** people are the problem and they exist in both parties. - GreyICE, on 03/04/2008, -4/+52Thanks for the accurate analysis. Buried the article as innaccurate.
- bsegovia, on 03/04/2008, -18/+63This is what American presidential dialog has come to? Jeez... If only there were a candidate that focused on issues and fixing America... hrmm.. i wonder who... Dugg to help the rest of the world illustrate American stupidity.
- wild, on 03/04/2008, -7/+45Yea, this is grasping at straws.
The important info here is that the content of the commercial was wrong, not the tone of his skin. - inactive, on 03/04/2008, -20/+53This dailykos diary is *****. It;s like an aborted social studies assignment by a 12 year old.
I use to think dailykos was a place to admire with thoughtful insight and well written articles, and now this tripe is the most recommend ***** of the day.
What G A R B A G E - ModernDemagogue, on 03/04/2008, -0/+29Part of my point is that a huge portion of the visual difference could have occurred when porting the image from broadcast to YouTube. Actually watching the ad on your TV at home might look very different.
- Spoomeister, on 03/04/2008, -3/+29DailyKos? Going crazy over nothing? Really. That would be so out of character for them.
- eddy23170, on 03/04/2008, -2/+28don't worry, diebold will do it for you...
- inactive, on 03/04/2008, -10/+30I would vote for her, if she ran against Hitler.
- Sternkrone, on 03/04/2008, -2/+19I know this will be an unpopular view but…could it be possible that the ad was just darkened in the normal "this is bad" way that's common in political ads, infomercials, etc.? Would we complain if Obama made footage of Hillary darker, or would we take it as a standard advertising technique?
- PeteZaHutt, on 03/04/2008, -8/+24Hilarious -- Obama ads are being displayed on this page.
- PleaseJustDie, on 03/04/2008, -6/+22Hitler was pretty charismatic, I'd probably have ended up voting for him over Hillary.
- irvin666, on 03/04/2008, -2/+17Uhh, don't they always do this to make the opponent look like a 1920s villain?
I always love the negative effect and scary music. Ah, I love political ads. - inactive, on 03/04/2008, -3/+18Let's not look too much into things. I'm not a Hillary supporter, but this sorta reaffirms my position that many diggers get too caught up in the "digg effect".
- ModernDemagogue, on 03/04/2008, -1/+16AS posted above:
http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gammabk7. ...
Straight 2 pass gamma conversion of debate footage (debate encoded using tv gamma, then imported using PC gamma). Looks pretty close to me, though it's crappy youtube quality. If you add a slight color correct to the whole image itll match perfectly. If you were trying to make him look blacker, you'd just pull his skintones. QED.
Pixel-aspect correction is so obvious I don't even need to demonstrate. Whether the editor screwed up, or the uploader screwed up, is irrelevant, its an amateur hour mistake. - rawnzilla, on 03/04/2008, -2/+17OH SNAP!
- ModernDemagogue, on 03/04/2008, -1/+15While it appears this way to you, that analysis is actually incorrect. She appears TOO bright because she is the focal element in the scene, and there is not much white; her blacks are crunched as well, and the image is too punchy.
I seen this all the time, it's really a classic gamma problem; yes the image was probably somewhat desaturated, but thats more of a black and white effect, not a darkening skin-tone effect. Look at the white that is on the same frame as Obama, look at how sharp that vignette is and how it forms that harsh white halo on the background card. That is not intentional, and is a symptom of incorrect compression or conversion. It should be a much softer, more subtle gradient. You can't simply take a color corrected spot for broadcast, put it on a computer, and think its going to appear the same way....
The only difference, if any, is a mild saturation/desaturation shift globally applied to the image; that is hardly evidence of a racial motivation. It's like showing your candidate from a low angle, vs the opposition from a high angle... and, I didn't even notice much of that when I did my test render posted above...
I am an Obama supporter, and I do not have a problem with the visual portrayal - headzoo, on 03/04/2008, -4/+18(Note: I'm an Obama supporter)
Most political ads that I've seen always show the opposition in a darker light. The good guy is shown standing outside on a bright sunny day, shaking people's hands, and the bad guy is shown in some dark room looking all menacing.
That's all I see happening here. The fact that he looks "blacker" seems to be a side effect of a typical political tactic, and it was likely unintentional. - Chompy, on 03/04/2008, -0/+13Digg needs alot of things.
- PleaseJustDie, on 03/04/2008, -0/+13Rush is supporting Hillary because he thinks McCain has a better chance of beating Hillary than Obama.
- karel747, on 03/05/2008, -0/+13ModernDemagogue, you have incredible patience.
- orxor, on 03/04/2008, -23/+35Ron Paul?
I'm going to get dugg down aren't I? - Jordan117, on 03/04/2008, -13/+25We won't have to be hearing about crap like this for long. Obama's got a cavalry of fifty superdelegates waiting until just after the elections today to endorse en masse, wiping out any gains Hillary might make tonight.
The struggle is almost over, folks... time to focus on John McCain. - zarex, on 03/04/2008, -3/+15Well done.
- airburst, on 03/05/2008, -0/+11DailyKOS is ***** on Hillary and it's the work of the Right Wing Hate Machine? Partisans like you will be the death of this country. Will we ever come together or will it be Red vs Blue for ever and ever?
- qwerter, on 03/04/2008, -3/+14A lot of her attacks aren't just at Obama, but at his supporters, too. Beyond stuff like the "celestial choirs" speech, much of her campaign rhetoric revolves around the idea that Obama supports are incapable of thinking critically for themselves, and are simply moved by "empty speeches." Way to insult the intelligence of millions of potential voters, Hillary.
If she manages to become the candidate, she's going to have a LOT of making-up to do before I can justify voting for her. - madfrogurt, on 03/04/2008, -2/+12Thank you for giving a well reasoned, experienced response. Comments like this are why theres still hope for debate on the internet. I only can hope this gets dugg up higher than the "***** HILLARY" comments in this thread.
- kipmartin, on 03/04/2008, -3/+13funny and True, but Dugg down for Using the Term 'whacked Liberals'.
- ModernDemagogue, on 03/04/2008, -1/+11It did effect the Hillary Footage, because they used footage from a completely different setting, it is not quite as noticeable; yes, her footage is supposed to look softer and more vivid, and his is supposed to look slightly desaturated, but the effect is exacerbated in the footage of him, while she just looks "punchy."
I'm running the debate footage through compressor to show what ripping this off a broadcast without proper gamma correction would look like, I'll post a link when done; the preview looks pretty identical. - inactive, on 03/04/2008, -13/+23Fox news has now used this DailyKos story as a way to attack a Democratic candidate for president.
Congrats DailyKos, you have truly shown your true colors now. - CCB0x45, on 03/04/2008, -4/+13Not not noy.
- Chompy, on 03/04/2008, -9/+18Why?
I suppot Obama, but I'd still take Hillary over McCain. She shares most of the same positions as Obama. So why the vehemence? - semrocks, on 03/04/2008, -15/+24Buried for digging DailyKos.
Anything from that crap hole deserves to be buried... - Spartandog, on 03/04/2008, -0/+9Thanks for the professional analysis. I also work in film and video, and right away I spotted the common error of an amateur transfer. Makes it worse that we're watching it via craporama Youtube.
- harrypl0tter, on 03/04/2008, -1/+10are you ***** kidding me? SO if Obama's camp made a video and made Hillary whiter would people be bitching? I can't believe people get their panties in a bundle over stupid ***** like this.
- mal1964, on 03/04/2008, -4/+13Obama's Ad: Debate Footage Doctored To Make Obama whiter.
- wendelgee2, on 03/04/2008, -6/+14All of those things were done by Hillary, not by the Republicans. But, isn't that precisely the problem with her? You want to clean up Washington, she's the first piece of trash that needs sweeping.
- MikeFallopian, on 03/04/2008, -0/+8Great call. I mean, why vote for the lesser of evils?
- ModernDemagogue, on 03/04/2008, -0/+8You have to do two pass gamma in order to first, get rid of the original correction that was made in the conform/online for broadcast to get back to the "flat" image, and then do a proper gamma pass for a PC or a Mac, it comes much closer then; after that, in order to dead match I found a blanket desaturation of the midtones of about ~15% across the board works fine, though in actuality, they probably reduced the red channel slightly more, however, the shots of Hillary have the red channel reduced similarly as well, so I can't say that its specific to that shot.
Either way, they certainly didn't pull a matte of his skintones and just shift them, which is what "doctoring" the image would be. Also, the whole video is aspect ratio shifted, so the stretch is obviously just a web error. - GreyICE, on 03/05/2008, -0/+7Only way to mark the article as inaccurate so people don't think that this is actually true.
- inactive, on 03/04/2008, -10/+17It's racist to say anything bad about Obama. It's also racist not to vote for him..../s
- lebruf, on 03/04/2008, -0/+6Her defense: "If anything, I've helped him to better connect with that pocket of voters who didn't think he was black enough."
- Langford, on 03/04/2008, -5/+11The impression I get, is that Hillary has adopted an attitude of "If I can't have it, no one can".
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