Has this parcel been added into photo?

[CharlotteE]

Hi all, this is of our shed and sent to our neighbour's house to prove they delivered her parcel. It looks far too precariously balanced on a tiny bike saddle to be real. Please could you help me out and see if you think the parcel has been edited in? Thanks everyone ☺

 

[thebestcpu]

Hi @CharlotteE
There is nothing obvious to me to indicate that he is a fake. The quality of the image is poor because it is a highly compressed JPEG format, so details are unclear.
To me, it does not look precariously balanced and items in boxes are not uniformly weighed through the box either. So that does not seem off to me either.

The scenario also seems unlikely (I know you did not ask for that feedback).
If they were so inclined, a UPS or FedEx driver could take a picture of the box in place and then take the box—no need to edit a box in. That does not make sense in this day and age of security cameras to risk losing one's job for an uncertain reward in a random box (they don't know the contents).
It is quite possible it was taken after delivery by someone else (e.g., porch pirate). In many areas,that is quite common (I don't know about your location).

Note that with FedEx and UPS, if they deliver to a location different than the one directed by the customer, they typically take responsibility and cover the cost (or if from Amazon, Amazon will cover the cost).

It's just more likely someone took it after it was delivered.

I hope that helps and empathies to your neighbor. It is a violation of someone and almost uniformly creates some pretty bad feelings.
John Wheeler

 

[Rich54]

In my opinion, this photo looks real.

• The box does not seem precariously balanced to me.
• In the first image below, at extreme magnification you can see a faint mosaic pattern of squares, which is called a JPEG artifact. The artifact pattern on the parcel exactly matches those on the bicycle seat and surrounding area.
• Also at extreme magnification, the blurriness of the box edges matches perfectly with the blurriness of the bicycle.
• In the second image, I isolated just the Hue component of the image. The shipping label on the box is probably white in real life, but has a blue tinge here that matches the reflected light from the bicycle frame, which is also what you might expect.
• If this box has been photoshopped, they've done an excellent job.