Roger Fenton photo comparison

(For context, see this post on my blog.)

Mouse over this detail of the cannonball-scattered road to see the same photographed section of the clear road.

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The theory that argues that the cannonball-strewn photo was staged claims that Fenton moved the cannonballs from the ditch onto the road. This would mean that the number of balls in the ditch would have to be lower in the ON photo (the one where the cannonballs appear on the road).

However, you can clearly see that there are actually more balls in the ditch in the ON photo, which fits with the opposing theory that the balls were merely taken away to be reused, and were picked up from from the road before the second photo (OFF) was taken.