Finally, a photo of Trumps White House as the rumors describe it

[mia]

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US president Donald Trump sat down for an interview with Reuters in the Oval Office on Wednesday (Jan 17). While the interview ended with takeaways of Trump’s plan ahead for this year’s midterm elections and tensions with North Korea, a truly remarkable exclusive was this photo of Trump and his communication staff engaged in tense tableau while Reuters journalists looked on. For those who have read the various stories depicting a White House coming apart at the seams, with a diminishing team of advisors, here is an intimate image that seems to illustrate that chaos.

We see Trump, sitting at the Resolute desk, a stern look on his face, finger pointed squarely at his communications director Hope Hicks. Hicks appears to be grabbing a notepad from the desk, and appears apologetic. On the right, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stands mouth agape, watching Trump and Hick’s interaction.

The photo’s comic composition is remarkable, with the three figures aligned horizontally as if onstage. One of the Trump administration’s greatest accomplishments in the past year might be its staff members’ past and present efforts to project a stable disposition, even as deeply sourced reporting from inside the White House says otherwise. But here, is the president berating his staff in front of press, while Sanders—the one responsible for explaining his behavior—reacts in dismay? Or is it just a fleeting moment in an undramatic encounter?

...Either way, just days away from the one-year anniversary of this improvisational administration, and in light of the excruciating details of dysfunction revealed in Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury, the photo is well-timed.

https://qz.com/1182382/donald-trump-hope-hicks-and-sarah-huckabee-sanders-finally-a-photo-as-the-rumors-describe-it/

[DURHAM D]

1. He is going to make Hope swallow. nt

[IluvPitties]

31. She frequently does...

[GaYellowDawg]

2. What the hell is up with Sanders' left hand?

Surely that's a trick of camera perspective. That hand looks HUGE. No wonder Trump respects her.

[DrDan]

5. lens tend to distort near the corners - and cheap lens' distort more

when processing images, easing the distortion based on the specific lens, is a normal step

it was probably a phone camera

[Bernardo de La Paz]

21. Yes and no.

What is seen there is perspective, which is not truly distortion. It is simply a fact of geometry. Her hand is closer to the camera. This can't be fixed.

You can prove this by using "View Image" and making the image the whole width of your monitor. Then place your eye close to the monitor, inches away, so that the edges are just within peripheral vision. This approximates the perspective that the camera sees with a super-wide or ultra-wide angle lens on it. It is the reason why IMax screens are so large and so close to the the audience because they are filmed at high resolution with ultra-wide lenses.

When you do this, perspective is restored because the angles and relative distances are restored. Perspective "distortion" is an artifact of the viewing distance not being at the same ratios of distance as the taking distance. Perspective (or "perspective distortion" ) cannot be corrected after the fact since the geometry is irreversibly baked in.

It looks like it is a proper DSLR camera image. It is presented at over 3500 pixels wide and is clearer and sharper at high enlargement than any pocket computer camera (with phone app) that I can remember seeing.

Secondly, there is a kind of lens optical distortion that cheaper smaller lenses like pocket computer lenses are prone to, which is barrel distortion where the edges bow out in a convex way like a barrel's sides. It's counterpart pincushion distortion is sometimes present instead. Inexpensive lenses might have 5-10% but a high quality DSLR lens should have less than 2%. It is true that kind of lens distortion can be corrected in post-production.

A third kind of "distortion" can also be corrected even though it is a different kind of perspective "distortion". That would be where vertical lines tilt back and horizontal lines narrow toward one side or the other. In the old days, photographers would swing and tilt the backs of view cameras to counteract the perspective resulting from tilting a lens a little bit up from perfect level. Makers like Canon still offer excellent lenses to do the same thing on DSLRs. It can be "corrected" in programs like PhotoShop and it may have been applied to this photograph to get the verticals vertical. There is a little in the photo that has not been corrected.

All post-production corrections degrade pixel quality a little or a lot, so making the photo as good as possible in the camera is important.


Her hand may well be larger than his. Both are a bit beefy but hers may be a bit bigger in all 3 dimensions.

[DrDan]

37. brarel distorion exists in my high-end Nikon - I see it correct every time I post-process and image

it is just not a "problem" with cheaper lens'

[Bernardo de La Paz]

42. Like my post said, it is present in almost all lenses even expensive ones though to a lesser extent.

[TheCowsCameHome]

8. Old football injury.

[imanamerican63]

9. I just saw that too!

In the medical work, that is an issues?!?!?!

[CurtEastPoint]

13. Man Hands

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

20. Somebody made her angry. "You wouldn't like her when she's angry...". Hell, you

wouldn't like her when she's happy either......

[left-of-center2012]

22. It's 'bulked up' ...

... from all the pie making she does.

[WestIndianArchie]

39. The hand

Looks like an Orc hand from the movie Warcraft

[DrDan]

3. this looks too staged - fall facing the camera and dressed alike in black with white shirts

he wants to look like a leader barking orders

[Bernardo de La Paz]

24. No. Trump manipulates media, but read the excerpt. It was not staged.

However, even tRump's people know to wear clothes that they can be photographed in because media ops might happen any time. Well, Huckabee Sanders sort-of kind-of knows vaguely how to dress and Steve Bannon never gave a damn.

[moose65]

33. That's true!

I often wondered why Trump, who is so image-conscious, would allow Bannon to walk around looking like he had slept in his clothes and like he'd never encountered a razor. Bannon always looks like he just woke up on the street corner surrounded by a pile of garbage bags!

[Poiuyt]

40. If Trump was that image conscious, he would get some ties that weren't 4 feet long

For that matter, he'd get a decent haircut.

[moose65]

41. Well, yeah....

Trump THINKS he looks good (all evidence to the contrary)!

Remember that story about how Trump ripped Don Jr. a new one cause Jr. wasn't wearing a suit to go to a sporting event? Trump has his own twisted idea about his image and about how he thinks things are supposed to look. I find him completely repulsive, but when he looks in the mirror, he apparently sees some kind of stud.

[dalton99a]

4. Just like a cheap reality TV show

[Trumpdumper]

6. If the reporters were still in the room, they could surely tell us what was being said.

[TexasTowelie]

7. Look at the hands.

Trump's hand appears to be smaller than Hope Hicks while Huckabee Sanders left wrist is wider across than her left hand. Th proportions seem odd in the photo.

[Ligyron]

10. That's not Sanders, it's Popeye.

[neeksgeek]

11. A snippet:

The photo’s comic composition is remarkable, with the three figures aligned horizontally as if onstage.

But they are on stage. Too bad this isn’t just a high school theater group doing a farce.

[barbtries]

12. it shows how abusive he is.

it seems that if it's trump being abusive it's okay. he can rape, cheat on every single one of his 3 wives, launder money, quit his debts, engage in felonious and perverted behaviors, and it's okay.

i'm supposed to be at the march. i can't find the energy. i wish i had someone to go with.

[marlakay]

29. I went alone last year and made a new friend

Don’t let being alone stop you!

[barbtries]

32. so I'm missing Raleigh as we speak.

but at 3pm there's another one in Orange County and I'll try to get my ass in gear by then.

i've done it before. i am so bereft of energy right now. sigh.

[yallerdawg]

14. "I told you short dresses, damn it!"

"Like on our news channel!"

[riversedge]

17. good one!!

[DFW]

15. One has to wonder if there was indeed any lens distortion

Sanders looks like the Hulk.

[nmgaucho]

16. Notice which one has the tiniest hand in the picture?

[link:|

[Historic NY]

18. No "big button"??

tiny little hands.

[Generic Brad]

19. He looks like a child having a tantrum

Tiny, spoiled Trump screaming at his nannies.

[Mr. Sparkle]

23. On a side note, Sarah looks like she put on a bit of weight.

possibly from an very unhappy work environment.

[Farmer-Rick]

25. He's doing that puckered lip thing....he must be lying.

[notKeith]

26. I'm anxiously awaiting the photoshopped version with speech bubbles. n/t

[VMA131Marine]

27. His hands are so tiny

They really are!

[Jarqui]

28. Maybe Wolff's allegation of an affair is with Sanders

Compared to Hicks and Trump, even allowing for camera distortion, she's big - maybe getting a lot of late night cheeseburgers in between spankings with Forbes magazine.

[Motley13]

30. She told him she has to tell the truth at her interview & he is warning her

not to do it

[mfcorey1]

34. Dang, Sarah's left hand is huge!!

[kimbutgar]

35. Hmm no pictures of his wife or children only his parents

That’s strange to me you’d think he’d at least have a picture of ivanka or his grandkids.

[Canoe52]

36. At least the women dont have blood coming out of wherever

[Plucketeer]

38. A spoon's-eye view

of what shit-stirring looks like!

[lady lib]

43. I would also note that his desk is empty

and the women seem to be the ones doing the work.

[Bayard]

44. The ghosts in that desk

Should jump up and smack him.

[LiberalFighter]

45. Geesh Sarah's hand is huge.