We must also keep in mind the elements that are often associated with the taking of a UFO. If you are all set up and looking for an unknown to film, using a tripod, and a UFO comes right into the center of your view finder, then you are all set. Just hit the record button. You should get a fairly clear photo or video.
But this rarely, if ever, happens. Usually, you are doing something else, and if you are lucky enough to have a loaded camera in hand, you are not expecting a UFO to come flying across the sky. If per chance it does, you would have to compose yourself, steady your hand, find the object in your view finder, and then start your recording.
Remember you probably won't be filming an object that is stationary. Have you tried to keep up with an athlete at a soccer game? Can you follow the action without getting out of focus, or losing the subject of your photo? Try filming a fast moving object in the sky. This is why many photos of unknowns are not portrait grade.
The New Enemy - Computer Graphics
The most important development that has caused concern among Ufologists is modern technology. With the advent and ever increasing sophistication of computers and computer software, it is very easy for one with a basic knowledge of graphics to create a very believable photo or video of a UFO, even employing mind bending maneuvers and other special effects.
The only restriction is the amount of money one is willing to pay for software. Several of the video upload sites, like Google and Youtube are full of these types of videos. Some of them are impossible to know if they are real or computer generated.
As far as investigative techniques go, the more information you can get from the photographer or videographer, the better. Normally, one who is reluctant to give any details of the UFO sighting, or gives very scanty information is a hoaxster.
Certainly this can be a fun hobby for some people, and there is certainly nothing illegal about it. It just makes the job of the UFO investigator more difficult.
Pre-Digital Photos
For many, the study of UFO photography is limited to the pre-digital era, when it was much more difficult, albeit, not impossible to fake UFO photographs.
There are those, of course, who are specifically looking for legitimate UFOs to photograph, and I have had some of them tell me that they camped out for days, and never saw a thing. And then there are those folks have been taking a family vacation picture, and captured a UFO unexpectedly. This is just a case of Murphy's Law.
