New Method To Help Photomatch Shirts - Super Cool!

[TriplexXxSports]

I use a variety of methods to obtain specific characteristics of a shirt in order to have a better knowledge of what to look for in photos and videos. Black & White, Negative Photos, Dark Room, etc.

I came across a very cool method today to help in photomatching shirts and I wanted to share it with all of you and maybe get some thoughts or pics of other GU shirts that might have hidden characteristics.

I was on vacation this past week and while I was laying in my beach chair sipping on Johnnie Walker a new method came to me - Ultraviolet/Blacklight. CSI uses this to see blood and stains that won't show to the naked eye, why not use it to check out a shirt?

I have been working on this Orton Bears shirt for about 6 months now (w/o any success) and I unveiled a whole new light on a possible photomatch/videomatch.

The jersey was tagged 05-44 with NO VISIBLE ALTERATIONS, and a couple of team repairs. I searched every '05 game Orton played in & I could not find a match. After running the blacklight over the jersey I saw the reminance of previous numbers - #87.

Since #87 was used in 2005 by Mushid Muhhamed, I knew it could not be his. After a little research I found that prior to '05 #87 was worn by Justin Gage. (Gage had changed his number to #12 after the '04 season)

It seems as though Orton & Gage were the same size so instead of ordering up jerseys for Orton, they altered an existing jersey with his numbers/name.

Now hopefully I can find a match using pis-n-flicks of Justin Gage and see if I can't match up the team repairs!

I know recycling jerseys is a common practice among professional teams. However, in all my experience (until now) there has always been indications of alterations. This one had NONE that were visible to the naked eye.

Without this new technique, I would have never seen this. I just think this is cool, and a very neat way to get another outlook on shirt characteristics to help aide in the photomatch process.

Anyone have any input? Has anyone else ever tried this? Try it on some of your shirts and post some pics! I am eager to see what others may find that they never knew were there.

HERE'S THE PICS!!!

[sportscentury]

Triple - interesting post. Without being able to "ultraviolet/blacklight" the jerseys shown in the players' in-action shots, I'm unclear as to how this approach would be helpful except in pretty unusual scenarios (such as your Orton shirt). There aren't going to be too many jerseys with alterations that are invisible to the naked eye. As for other markings (bodily fluids), any evidence that this approach would reveal could not be matched to the in-action photos (if it is invisible to the naked eye when the jersey is in hand, it's certainly not going to be observable in the in-action photos). Maybe you could help me to understand a bit better ... perhaps I'm missing something.

With this said, I enjoyed reading your post and I wish you the best of luck with photomatching your jersey (to either player who wore it).

[gwh11]

Matt,
I've used a hand-held UV light to look for things on occasion, but they seem to be a bit more useful for flannel baseball jerseys.

Dave Grob at MEARS wrote an article a few years ago titled "The Use of UV or Black Light". If you are a subscriber it could be referenced in their news article archive.

Guy

[TriplexXxSports]

Triple - interesting post. Without being able to "ultraviolet/blacklight" the jerseys shown in the players' in-action shots, I'm unclear as to how this approach would be helpful except in pretty unusual scenarios (such as your Orton shirt). There aren't going to be too many jerseys with alterations that are invisible to the naked eye. As for other markings (bodily fluids), any evidence that this approach would reveal could not be matched to the in-action photos (if it is invisible to the naked eye when the jersey is in hand, it's certainly not going to be observable in the in-action photos). Maybe you could help me to understand a bit better ... perhaps I'm missing something.

With this said, I enjoyed reading your post and I wish you the best of luck with photomatching your jersey (to either player who wore it).

I don't think you are missing anything. But what if the shirt is laundered? Stains will not be as pronounced, if seen at all. Seeing shirts in different light can help highlight lighter, or laundered, stains such as dirty sweat marks or the remains of another stain.

Blood, for example, can wash out without leaving any real visual discoloration and in normal light, seem invisible. Yet, under a blacklight you can see the remains of the blood in its entirety.

In my case it revealed the pre-existing #87, which was 100% nonexistent to the naked eye, so it worked in this case.

Will it work on other characteristics, such as imbedded or laundered stains? I have no idea. That's why I was asking if anyone else has ever done this, or to try it out and if it is successful post some pics.

I have yet to try other shirts, but I will be sure to stay updated.

[sox83cubs84]

Matt,
I've used a hand-held UV light to look for things on occasion, but they seem to be a bit more useful for flannel baseball jerseys.

Dave Grob at MEARS wrote an article a few years ago titled "The Use of UV or Black Light". If you are a subscriber it could be referenced in their news article archive.

Guy

MEARS also has one at our HQ that gets plenty of use on items submitted for examination.

Dave M.
Chicago area

[sportscentury]

I don't think you are missing anything. But what if the shirt is laundered? Stains will not be as pronounced, if seen at all. Seeing shirts in different light can help highlight lighter, or laundered, stains such as dirty sweat marks or the remains of another stain.

Blood, for example, can wash out without leaving any real visual discoloration and in normal light, seem invisible. Yet, under a blacklight you can see the remains of the blood in its entirety.

In my case it revealed the pre-existing #87, which was 100% nonexistent to the naked eye, so it worked in this case.

Will it work on other characteristics, such as imbedded or laundered stains? I have no idea. That's why I was asking if anyone else has ever done this, or to try it out and if it is successful post some pics.

I have yet to try other shirts, but I will be sure to stay updated.

Triple - okay, I'm on board. This makes great sense (and see, I was missing something). Excellent posts ... thanks for starting what should be a very useful thread as time passes. My favorite threads on GUU are those that have to do with photomatching, and this thread certainly makes a contribution to this "e-literature."

Dave and Guy - can you point me (and all of us) to the articles about this technique?

Thanks.

[34swtns]

Wow, what a cool idea, TXS. Makes me want to pull out all my gamers and hit 'em with the blacklight to see what tales they could tell.

On an Orton note, I have an '04 season Orton home gamer that was most likely used in Kyle's very first pre-season home game, (based on the fact that I've only been able to style-match it to that particular game), but it has almost no visible use so it'll be interesting to see what the UV light shows, if anything. BTW, my Orton is a size 46.

[TriplexXxSports]

Wow, what a cool idea, TXS. Makes me want to pull out all my gamers and hit 'em with the blacklight to see what tales they could tell.

On an Orton note, I have an '04 season Orton home gamer that was most likely used in Kyle's very first pre-season home game, (based on the fact that I've only been able to style-match it to that particular game), but it has almost no visible use so it'll be interesting to see what the UV light shows, if anything. BTW, my Orton is a size 46.

LOL......Orton was at Perdue in '04......;)

[Neely8]

That's definitely a different research method. My concern now would be now that the jersey has had a number and obviously a name change too the value of the jersey is affected in my opinion.

[34swtns]

LOL......Orton was at Perdue in '04......;)

My mistake....it's very definitely an '05 jersey.

Hey mods, how about that edit function they invented in the 80's? It's really GREAT!

[TriplexXxSports]

That's definitely a different research method. My concern now would be now that the jersey has had a number and obviously a name change too the value of the jersey is affected in my opinion.

I would agree. IMO I would think that it would up the value of this piece seeing as though it was obviously worn by 2 players, and saw at least 2 professional games.

Like I stated before, I know that recycling jerseys is a common practice but to have actual, concrete evidence as to each player that wore the particular jersey is just fabulous! Most people never know which players may have possibly suited up in their gamers prior to the player in which they bought it for.

I'm still working on my other gamers, and I am dying to see if anyone else has any success using UV light.

[skinsfan0521]

I would agree. IMO I would think that it would up the value of this piece seeing as though it was obviously worn by 2 players, and saw at least 2 professional games.

Like I stated before, I know that recycling jerseys is a common practice but to have actual, concrete evidence as to each player that wore the particular jersey is just fabulous! Most people never know which players may have possibly suited up in their gamers prior to the player in which they bought it for.

I'm still working on my other gamers, and I am dying to see if anyone else has any success using UV light.
I'd just like to throw out there that it's not necessarily "actual, concrete evidence" that more than one person wore the jersey. I'd actually guess that when the jersey belonged to Muhammad, it was probably Game Issued, rather than game worn. Just because if it were game issued, there would be no problems with wear or stains or anything like that when giving it to Orton to wear.

Just my opinion, but I wouldn't call it "actual, concrete evidence" that 2 players wore it.

-Brian

[TriplexXxSports]

I love this!!!!!!

Here's a Devin Hester 2005 Orange Canes jersey. Once again - NO VISIBLE ALTERATIONS - take a look at the pics and you can see the old #19! AWESOME!!!!!

[TriplexXxSports]

....Just my opinion, but I wouldn't call it "actual, concrete evidence" that 2 players wore it.

-Brian

Here's why I say it's 'concrete'. I have looked at every possible photo that I can find of Orton from '05 AND '06 in which he had the elastic sleeves on the road, as well as the videos from each of those games.

There is a very predominant repair right next to the nameplate from a tear that measures 3-4 inches. That type of damage is hard to miss, especially in game footage.

This is what leads me to believe that it happened before Orton wore the jersey.

[skinsfan0521]

Here's why I say it's 'concrete'. I have looked at every possible photo that I can find of Orton from '05 AND '06 in which he had the elastic sleeves on the road, as well as the videos from each of those games.

There is a very predominant repair right next to the nameplate from a tear that measures 3-4 inches. That type of damage is hard to miss, especially in game footage.

This is what leads me to believe that it happened before Orton wore the jersey.
Well I didn't know that when I made my comment before! haha

I guess if that tear is there from the beginning of the first game he wore that style jersey, you should be able to find that tear on the Gage jersey from the year before, right?

-Brian

[34swtns]

Well I didn't know that when I made my comment before! haha

I guess if that tear is there from the beginning of the first game he wore that style jersey, you should be able to find that tear on the Gage jersey from the year before, right?

Stands to reason. Now you just have to start looking for footage of Gage from the previous year.
And the Hester re-attribution discovery is awesome. It's so easy to spot under the UV light that it's hard to imagine there's no sign of it to the naked eye. Amazing.