Did you know that the image you linked to in post #1 is “rather curious” ?
It has no image metadata normally placed in the file by cameras. This is the extent of its metadata:
File
File Type JPEG
MIME Type image/jpeg
Comment CREATOR: gd-jpeg v1.0 (using IJG JPEG v62), quality = 90.
Image Width 650
Image Height 300
Encoding Process Baseline DCT, Huffman coding
Bits Per Sample 8
Color Components 3
Y Cb Cr Sub Sampling YCbCr4:2:0 (2 2)
JFIF
JFIF Version 1.01
Resolution Unit None
X Resolution 1
Y Resolution 1
Composite
Image Size 650x300
gd-jpeg is simply an open source image programming library.
I opened up the image in GIMP, and at 2:1 zoom, the area around the plane appears quite oddly digitized. At 8:1 and 16:1 zoom, it becomes very obvious that the sky right around the plane is vey digitally choppy compared to the rest of the sky.
Here’s a link to the image which I linked to in fotoforensics.com:
http://fotoforensics.com/analysis.php?id=4f1d08f2ba2e2e078314241ee6faf08cbeee6fb1.49287&show=ela
You can explore the image there and read up on the analysis.
Quite sketchy compared to digital photos I’ve seen, but I’m no expert.
Perhaps a FReeper with more image knowledge can offer more analysis.
I can clear exif data from any jpeg/img in my possession with a simple command line. It means nothing.