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| 11 | [[quoteright:204:[[WesternAnimation/WordGirl https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wordgirlphoto_2.png]]]] |
| 12 | [[caption-width-right:204:[[Music/{{Nickelback}} Look at this photograph]], it's got a superheroine's transformation gaffe.]] |
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| 17 | |
| 18 | Something happened or someone did something they don't want a detective (or pseudo-detective) to know about. They may be BeneathSuspicion. Well, too bad for them, because it just ''happened'' to get caught in a photograph that reveals their guilt or implicates them in whatever happened. This can be a common reason for having a CameraFiend among the cast. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | A photographic counterpart to CaughtOnTape, although frequently less damning due to the still nature of photographs. It may also be a ''literal'' MeaningfulBackgroundEvent and can demand extensive use of the EnhanceButton. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | This ''may'' be the opposite of PhotosLie, but not always, as it may be a RedHerring. Or it may be that the photograph implausibly tells the truth, just revealing the information the protagonist needs, or the photograph gives the protagonist a piece of very specific information that actually misleads them or leads them to suspect the wrong person. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Compare SurveillanceAsThePlotDemands, which is also about characters improbably having cameras everywhere, but the effect is usually very different. In supernatural works, expect a lot of overlap with SpookyPhotographs. FamilyPortraitOfCharacterization is one very specific subtrope. Compare with RemovedFromThePicture, with which it is technically an inverse (because it's specifically about what's ''not'' in the photograph), but often exploits the same principle (that there's a very clear, important piece of information in the photograph). |
| 25 | |
| 26 | ---- |
| 27 | !!Examples: |
| 28 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 29 | |
| 30 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 31 | * In ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'', Mai's case of GrewASpine comes from the background of a photograph she took three months before, during [[ClubStub Earth Sciences Club]]'s summer camp. The picture is of Mikage (which Mai has a bit of crush on and unknowingly been Mai's LivingEmotionalCrutch at school) standing in front of a showcase in the Geological Museum, but when she reviewed it while she's been freaking out about having the club presidency {{pass|ingthetorch}}ed to [[ExtremeDoormat her]] half a year early, what she noticed is, instead, the content of the showcase--mineral samples used in past Japanese qualifiers of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Earth_Science_Olympiad International Earth Science Olympiad]]. This inspires her to take steps to become a more independent leader--by participating in ''this'' year's qualifiers. |
| 32 | * In the ''Manga/ACertainScientificRailgun'' short novel "Code Game", while on a school field trip at Anti-Skill, Saten Ruiko takes a picture of some wanted posters of suspects that Anti-Skill was tracking down. This triggers her smartphone's photo facial-recognition auto-categorization feature, which reveals that one of the suspects was in the background of one of her selfies, fleeing on a bike. The photo conveniently had the license number of the bike, allowing Anti-Skill to track down the suspect. |
| 33 | * ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistBrotherhood'': Colonel Mustang's mother Madame Christmas manages dig up a picture of 8 year old Selim Bradley attending a rather important government event... that took place some hundred years previous. This serves as proof that the Fuhrer's beloved son is in fact a homunculus, specifically the evil Pride. |
| 34 | * ''Anime/OddTaxi'': One of the plotlines gets kickstarted when Kabasawa, who wants to go viral online, decides to take a selfie with Odokawa while riding his taxi and accidentally catches Dob, the prime suspect in a missing teenager case, in the background. |
| 35 | * ''Anime/ZombieLandSaga'': DownplayedTrope. [[spoiler:Okoba]] finds photos of all of [[Characters/ZombieLandSagaFranchouchou Franchouhcou]]'s members when they were alive, piecing together that they must have all been revived somehow. It's not until he catches [[spoiler:video of Tae's head coming off that he suspects they're zombies]]. |
| 36 | [[/folder]] |
| 37 | |
| 38 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 39 | * ''Fanfic/FalseHeaven'': Basil has photographic evidence of how Mari [[spoiler:molested her little brother]], which he angrily confronts his estranged friends with |
| 40 | * In ''Fanfic/TheKakashiWay'', Sasuke ''accidentally'' pulls a PeggySue and finds himself back in Konoha as an adult on the very day that Team Seven was formed. Fortunately, he happens to have a photograph of himself with his teammates as adults, which goes a long way towards convincing others of his identity once he decides to start letting them in on it. Hiruzen suggests that it's an awfully ContrivedCoincidence, wondering if he makes a habit of carrying around things that would ''destroy'' any alibi on an undercover mission; Sasuke just snorts and retorts that nobody would be dumb enough to send ''him'' on any such assignment in the first place. |
| 41 | * ''Fanfic/ANewHopeDanganronpa'': [[spoiler:Mahiru]], who was merely wandering around the school taking pictures, accidently takes several depicting the location of a later story and Killing Game. Namely the ''House of Horrors''. In a rare use of this trope, [[spoiler:not only is this quickly found out by the villains, the photos are also destroyed by Mahiru's killer]]. |
| 42 | * ''Fanfic/TheUndying'': After he's nearly killed by Flowey, Sans is taken to Asgore's house and brought to the room that used to belong to the latter's children to rest up. Sans spots an old family photo on the dresser and recognizes Chara's face as something he's seen Flowey mimic, allowing him to figure out that Flowey is Asgore's son Asriel reincarnated. |
| 43 | [[/folder]] |
| 44 | |
| 45 | [[folder:Film -- Animated]] |
| 46 | * ''WesternAnimation/BatmanMaskOfThePhantasm'': Bruce finds a photo of a crime mob fronted by Salvatore Valestra and notices a man that looked vaguely familiar. Doctoring it with a red felt pen, he discovers it's the Joker and learns of his ties with councilman Arthur Reeves. |
| 47 | * In ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'', the ''ofrenda'' photo of Mama Imelda also has her husband, [[RemovedFromThePicture minus a head]]. Miguel discovers a hidden portion of the photo that shows the man holding the SignatureInstrument of Ernesto de la Cruz, which kicks off the main plot. |
| 48 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'', Hogarth tries to get a photograph of the Giant, but the only photo he takes is of himself by accident. Later, Kent Mansley is developing the roll of film on Hogarth's camera looking for evidence and finds the photo of Hogarth... with the Giant visible in the background. |
| 49 | * In ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc1'', when Randall asks Mike about the human, Boo, that was spotted in the sushi restaurant, Mike lies that he was nowhere near the restaurant and throws suspicion at a coworker, so that he and Sully can get Boo back home before the authorities bust them for illegally harboring a human. As they walk towards the scare floor to get Boo's door, Celia, Mike's girlfriend angrily berates him for running away [[ConeOfShame and leaving her to get processed]] when the authorities burst into the restaurant. Hearing the scolding, Randall then notices that the newspaper has picture taken inside the restaurant that shows Mike making a break for it. |
| 50 | * In ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'', King Candy convinces Ralph to stop Vanellope from entering the race in ''Sugar Rush'' by pointing out she's a glitch that could get the game shut down. Afterwards, Ralph goes back to his game to sulk and looks out at the arcade. He sees the cabinet for ''Sugar Rush'' with Vanellope's picture in the artwork, and realizes she was always meant to be a part of the game. |
| 51 | * In ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'' the last photo sighting of Emmit Otterton is one where he happens to be eating a popsicle, which Judy recognises as the kind sold by conman (confox?) Nick Wilde. Sure enough, when she looks closer, she sees that Nick is partially in the photo too, giving Judy her first lead. |
| 52 | [[/folder]] |
| 53 | |
| 54 | [[folder:Film -- Live-Action]] |
| 55 | * Near the beginning of ''Film/TwelveMonkeys'', Dr. Kathryn Railly is giving a lecture on the psychology of doomsday predictions, and pulls up a photograph of a delirious man in a World War One field hospital who claimed to be a time traveler from the future, trying to prevent an apocalypse. Then Dr. Railly meets James Cole, who similarly claims to be from the future, on a mission to prevent TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. She initially dismisses this as a delusion, but the consistent details of Cole's story make her start to think he might be right. Eventually she reexamines the materials from her lecture--and recognizes Cole as a background figure in photograph of the World War One patient, convincing her that he really is a time traveller. |
| 56 | * ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'': A random picture in the newspaper archives of the BadPresent 1985 shows Biff with Gray's Sports Almanac from 2015 visible in his pocket, which clues Doc and Marty in on how and when the timeline went wrong and how they can fix it. |
| 57 | * In ''Film/BlowUp'', a trendy London photographer in [[TheSixties the Swinging Sixties]] is taking pictures of a model in a park. Developing them, he becomes obsessed with what might be a crime, un-noticed at the time, taking place in the background. |
| 58 | * ''Film/FinalDestination3'': The photographs that Wendy took of the survivors before getting on (and off) the rollercoaster have eerie blocks on them to give clues to how they're going to die. She uses them as her main ammunition to figure out how to try and save them again. |
| 59 | * ''Film/GetOut2017'': An entire box of them, no less. [[spoiler:[[CreepySouvenir Rose keeps photographs of all her victims]], which also reveals that she dated and seduced all of them]]. However, Chris finds this out too late for it to be much use to him. |
| 60 | * ''Film/TheGrudge'': Played with. Kayako has a picture of Peter Kirk and his girlfriend in her belongings but the important part is torn away and not revealed until later: that she's in the background (because she was stalking him). |
| 61 | * In ''Film/AHauntingInVenice'', there is a pair of photographs that help Poirot realize [[spoiler:the change in the garden's contents]]. |
| 62 | ** The first was a photo of Maxine and Alicia during their engagement. The night of the breakup, Alicia torn the photo in two. Alicia kept the half featuring Maxine in her room while likewise Maxine kept his half of Alicia in his pocket, a hint that despite being engaged to a wealthy woman, he was still in love with the dead Alicia. Put together, it can be seen in the background that [[spoiler:the garden is planted entirely of rhododendrons, placed after Rowena tore up the garden and concocted a plan to keep Alicia ill and under her control]]. |
| 63 | ** The second is a photo of Alicia when she was a young child. At first glance, it seems to identify the child that Poirot had hallucinated who matches Alicia's appearance. [[spoiler:But it's actually visual proof that there used to be a garden of different wildflowers when it was ''actually'' used to make honey, suggesting the change to a single plant is far more sinister.]] |
| 64 | * ''Film/HighAnxiety'': Dr. Thorndyke is framed for murder by an assassin disguised as him. Thorndyke insists he was in the elevator when the murder occurred, and his assistant Brophy, who took a photo of the event, examines it for proof. In a parody of ''Film/BlowUp'', Brophy keeps enlarging the photograph until it's as big as the wall in his studio. |
| 65 | * ''Film/ItFollows'': Hugh aka Jeff just happens to leave a photograph in a porn magazine that shows him with Annie (who [[RewatchBonus the audience may recognize]] as the opening victim). The part important to Jay and her friends is that Jeff happens to be wearing a letterman jacket in the photograph, allowing them to track him down from the school's information. |
| 66 | * ''Film/LakeMungo'': Downplayed, subverted, and played straight multiple times. First the family thinks they can see Alice's ghost in Matthew's photography, so they set up a camera to go off on timer. Then subverted when it turns out that [[spoiler:Matthew planted Alice there.]] Then played straight when June realizes the photographs actually capture someone breaking into Alice's room. ''Then'' played straight a final time over the credits, where photographs are shown that reveal [[spoiler: Alice's ghost is still there all along and never left.]] |
| 67 | * ''Film/TheLastOfSheila'': Invoked in the photograph of the murder victim and all the suspects. [[spoiler:Which is set up ''by'' the victim to clue them in on the identity of the murderer.]] |
| 68 | * ''Film/LastSentinel2023''. The photo Cassidy keeps looking at is assumed to be her family back home, Cassidy tells Sully that the person who looks like her is actually her mother; it's a photo of her parents and brother who were killed during the war. [[spoiler:It's also a CoverIdentityAnomaly when Sully realises it's raining in the photo, when all he remembers from his childhood is the [[GlobalWarming constant heat from the lack of rain]]. That's because Cassidy grew up on the enemy continent.]] |
| 69 | * ''Film/MrBrooks'': |
| 70 | ** Invoked by Mr Smith when he tells Mr Brooks that he knew who he was because Mr Brooks' picture was in the newspaper. |
| 71 | ** Mr Smith also takes a photograph that shows Mr Brooks killing the couple. |
| 72 | * ''Film/TheNightHouse'': If Owen hadn't photographed [[spoiler:all the women he was stalking]], Beth may never have gone looking for his secrets and found the other house. |
| 73 | * ''Film/TheOldGuard'' try their best to avoid this, since the proliferation of cameras makes it harder for them to remain undetected. |
| 74 | * ''Film/TheOmen'': PlayedForHorror in Keith's photographs of Father Brennan, where he notices the spike going through his body and inspires him to figure out the photograph clue. The more obvious "convenient" example occurs when Keith happens to catch himself in the mirror of one of his photographs, which shows him with his head severed. |
| 75 | * ''Film/ThePinkPanther2006'': Near the end, Clouseau reveals that he uncovered whereabouts of the Pink Panther diamond after looking at a newspaper photo of himself getting arrested at the airport. He noticed, in the background, the diamond visible on an x-ray monitor as Xania's purse was being screened. |
| 76 | * In ''Film/TheRageCarrie2'', Rachel finds out that Eric was the boyfriend who seduced Lisa and then caused her suicide when she develops the photograph that Rachel gave her, showing the two of them with their arms around each other. It becomes a {{Macguffin}} as the only solid proof of Lisa's victimization by Eric's scheme, so they are determined to get it back. |
| 77 | * In ''Film/ReadyPlayerOne'', the heroes are caught in the ''Film/TheShining'' when one spots a large framed photograph of a group of people in the Ballroom. This comes in handy later when they examine the photo after putting it back together and recognizing a woman who is a clue to their treasure hunt. |
| 78 | * ''Film/RearWindow'': L.B. Jeffries just happens to have a photograph taken across the apartment courtyard, revealing that [[spoiler: the shrubs in Thorwald's garden have been disturbed, another indication Thorwald may have murdered his wife]]. |
| 79 | * Rachel knows something happened at the cabin when she finds the photographs of Katie and her friends with their faces suddenly messed up in ''Literature/TheRing''. She later invokes it when trying to get Noah to believe her, by making him take a picture that shows ''her'' messed-up face in order to get him on board. |
| 80 | * ''Film/{{Searching}}'': |
| 81 | ** David just happens to see a photograph that captures Margot in the background EatingLunchAlone. |
| 82 | ** Less so the photograph, more the placement. [[spoiler:David sees the same stock photograph as the one used by [=fishnchips=] in [=MemorialOne=], which causes him to realize it's a catfish.]] |
| 83 | ** The newspaper photograph that David finds of Vick [[spoiler:also has her beside [[FrameUp the guy she frames]], which is how he figures out her involvement.]] |
| 84 | * In ''Film/{{Se7en}}'', a crime scene photo of a painting in the "Greed" victim's office becomes a major clue, since the victim's wife recognizes that the painting had been turned upside down. This discovery provides more evidence that leads to the next victim. However, there's no clear reason why the painting would have been photographed in the first place, since none of the police or forensics team would have known about the repositioning. |
| 85 | * ''Film/SummerOf84'': Played with in the pictures on Mackey's wall. [[spoiler:Davey figures out that it's not important what's on them, but that they are there at all.]] |
| 86 | * Invoked in ''Film/SympathyForLadyVengeance''. After identifying the real child murderer, [[spoiler:the vengeance murderers take a photograph of all of them together and bury it as a backup to ensure that nobody can backstab each other.]] |
| 87 | * ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'': Eddie Valiant is hired to take candid photos of Roger Rabbit's wife, Jessica, to prove that she's cheating on him with gag mogul Marvin Acme. When Acme is found murdered the next morning and it's believed that Roger did it out of jealousy, Roger's friend Baby Herman insists that he's innocent and that Acme got killed for his last will and testament, which granted ownership of Toontown to its Toon populace. Eddie doesn't believe it at first, but he then takes a closer look at one of his incriminating photos and notices the will in Acme's coat pocket. |
| 88 | * ''Film/{{Witness}}'': Samuel would have had no clue who [=McFee=] was, how to identify him, and nobody else would have ever known that [[TheBadGuysAreCops the police are involved]] if there wasn't a photograph of him on the noticeboard of the police station in his plain view. |
| 89 | [[/folder]] |
| 90 | |
| 91 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 92 | * ''Literature/AndThenSheVanished'': Searching for clues as to his sister Amy's decades-earlier disappearance, Joseph tracks down a photograph from that night with the photographer's girlfriend in the foreground and Amy in the background. After [[TimeTravel an unsuccessful rescue attempt]], he finds himself in a timeline where the counterpart of that picture is already well-known evidence in the case, since its owner realized he'd also captured the prime suspect in Amy's kidnapping (i.e., Joseph). |
| 93 | * ''Literature/TheDarkestCorners'': Callie tries to avert this and fails. She disguises ''herself'' in the picture she takes to attempt to snare the Ohio River Monster, but she forgets about her phone case, which allows him to recognize and kidnap her. |
| 94 | * One case in the ''Literature/EncyclopediaBrown'' series has a friend of Encyclopedia's trying to win a local photo contest. The contest instead is won by another contender who snapped a picture of his sister lighting a candle at night in their apartment, but also just happened to catch through the apartment window the image of a woman who lived above them falling from her balcony. ([[spoiler:In the solution to the case, Encyclopedia knows the photo is a fake because the apartment window would've reflected the flash of the camera, preventing anything outside the window from being seen, which makes this example something of an aversion.]]) |
| 95 | * ''Literature/MillenniumSeries'': In ''The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'', and [[Film/TheGirlWithTheDragonTattoo2011 the adaptations]], Mikael manages to find a photograph of Harriet taken at the Children's Day parade. He then just so happens to find someone with a camera on the other side of the street who just so happened to keep the photograph that showed who she saw. |
| 96 | * ''Literature/MurderForTheModernGirl'': [[spoiler:After Ruby kills Rex Blanchot in self-defense, a photo of her in Rex's room is found in Rex's camera, which will expose her as the Angel Killer. The camera ends up at the morgue, and Peter has the photo on hand but doesn't turn it in as he doesn't want to see Ruby executed. However, Albert has his own copy of the photo and planned to send it to newspaper editors to imprison Ruby but is thwarted by Peter.]] |
| 97 | * In Creator/DickFrancis's novel ''Reflex'', the protagonist finds a trove of "ruined" photographs and negatives in the house of a recently murdered master photographer. The photographs turn out to be skillfully hidden blackmail materials, photos taken at various times and places that happen to show illegal activities by several different people. |
| 98 | * ''Literature/SolarPons'': In "The Adventure of the Perplexed Photographer", a photographer taking photos of the facade of a mansion for a real estate agent happens to catch the murderer standing at the window. [[spoiler:The lace curtains make the figure unidentifiable, but Pons is able to use the photo's existence--and that the killer does not know what it shows--in BluffingTheMurderer into confessing.]] |
| 99 | * ''Literature/TheSouthernBookClubsGuideToSlayingVampires'': The Alzheimer's-ridden Mary [[InfallibleBabble tells Patricia]] that there was a man in a white suit in Charlestown in the 1920s who convinced the townspeople to lynch a black man for killing a host of kids. Patricia manages to find a photograph of him in Mary's belongings that confirms this is James. |
| 100 | * In ''Literature/WhereTheresAWill'', Wolfe notices a detail in a photo taken by Sara that leads him to the identity of the murderer. |
| 101 | * ''Literature/TheWordIsMurder'': Apparently subverted before being played straight. Horowitz is suspicious of Amanda Leigh from RADA and Grace Lovell's father and goes there to track down the photographs of the final performance of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' (where both were in attendance). He's surprised to identify [[spoiler:the funeral director]] as Dan, one of the other students, which is how he figures out the murderer. |
| 102 | [[/folder]] |
| 103 | |
| 104 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 105 | * ''Series/{{Baptiste}}'': When Zsofia was talking to the Gomorrah recruit (expecting him to identify [[spoiler:Kamilla]] as Gomorrah), she's lucky that she happens to show him a picture with [[spoiler:her husband Michael]] in the background, who he identifies as the real Gomorrah. |
| 106 | * There's a ''Series/TheBradyBunch'' episode with two cases. Greg gets a disputed football play on camera while taking pictures of the cheerleaders, and Bobby, who's trying to be like his big brother, has been taking surprise photos of others in the family. He happens to get the chalkboard with Alice's accidentally erased recipe in the background of the one he took of her, and she's thrilled. |
| 107 | * ''Series/Criminal2019'': Sandeep [[spoiler:gets caught for not one, but two, murders]] because he'd had his photograph taken with a missing woman. |
| 108 | * ''Series/{{Damages}}'': Ellen makes the connection between Tessa, Louis's illegitimate daughter -- or, as the end of the season reveals, [[spoiler:Joe's]] -- and the Tobins as the person money laundering for them when Tessa is caught in the background of a photograph taken at their house on Thanksgiving. |
| 109 | * ''Series/DeviousMaids'': Marisol finds out about the mysterious first wife, the long-dead Dahlia, being Evelyn's friend after finding a photograph of Evelyn and Dahlia sitting together in an album. |
| 110 | * Series 2 of ''Series/InnocentUK'': |
| 111 | ** Literally kicks off the plot when somebody happens to find a picture that shows Sally in the background walking through a park at the same time she was supposed to be murdering Matty. Downplayed, though, in that it took a couple of years for it to be found, resulting in her being jailed for murder before being retried. |
| 112 | ** Sally realizes that her husband's new fiancé Karen is more like a StalkerWithACrush when she looks through old photographs of them on their first date in Blackpool and realizes that Karen is in the background of one. |
| 113 | ** Played with by Matty's photograph in the school memorial. [[spoiler:It doesn't show anybody else in the photograph itself, but in a ContrivedCoincidence, Sam happened to be leaning on it while he wrote a message to Matty about their sexual relationship.]] |
| 114 | * ''Series/InsideNo9'': |
| 115 | ** In [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/InsideNo9S3E3TheRiddleOfTheSphinx "The Riddle of the Sphinx"]], Squires has a blurry picture of himself and his wife at the crossword competition with a partially cut off figure of a young man. That is Nina's, aka Charlotte's, brother Simon, ''and'' it was taken at the crossword competition where Squires pushed Simon to commit suicide and set off the events of the plot. |
| 116 | ** In [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/InsideNo9S6E4HurryUpAndWait "Hurry Up and Wait"]], Oona and Stan just happen to have a photograph of Stan wearing a red tracksuit after Adam reads in his script that baby Ryan was kidnapped by a man wearing a red tracksuit. |
| 117 | ** Feigned in [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/InsideNo9S6E5HowDoYouPlead "How Do You Plead?"]]. Webster managed to find a photograph of one of his clients at a party at the same time he was supposed to be murdering his wife. It turned out that he murdered his wife, and that photograph came from The Devil. |
| 118 | * In one episode of ''Series/JoanOfArcadia'', God tasks Joan with helping a nerd with his campaign for school president. When another candidate, a BigManOnCampus and JerkJock, reveals that the nerd's father is currently in prison, Joan decides to dig up some dirt on him in retaliation. She and her friend Judith grab a camera and tail the athlete to the football field, where he heads for another guy who's a notorious drug dealer. They're ready to catch him on film--but things take a turn when the two boys [[StraightGay start kissing instead]], and Judith takes a picture in shock. Joan is then faced with the moral dilemma of exposing the jock's secret and destroying his reputation or not using the photo, which would make the nerd lose. |
| 119 | * ''Series/TheKilling'': |
| 120 | ** Subverted by the picture of Rosie and Richmond. It's discussed a lot and thrusts Richmond into most people's suspicions, but it really is completely innocent. |
| 121 | ** Played straight by a picture that Linden finds in a victim's house in Season 4. It shows her in a picture with the Pied Piper, a.k.a. [[spoiler:Linden's ex and now-superior Skinner]]. |
| 122 | * ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': In [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS3E5Tangled "Tangled"]], the detectives only figure out that Vincent is important because he was caught lurking in the background of a picture of Lara and Max. |
| 123 | * ''Series/TheMentalist'': In the pilot, Jane is looking at a photograph of a guy whose teenage daughter is sitting on his lap in a pretty clear sign of IncestSubtext, and as Jane suspected, her father killed his daughter to stop her from telling anybody about the abuse. |
| 124 | * An episode of ''Series/{{Monk}}'' has a guy murder his wife and a thief he hired so that the scene could be framed that the thief killed his wife while he killed him in "self-defense". Later on, he sees that Julie Teegar owns a picture shirt with her boyfriend and noticed in the background it captured him and the thief meeting one another before the murder took place. |
| 125 | * ''Series/NewTricks'': In "The Wolf of Wallbrook", UCOS reopen the case of 32-year-old Charlie Hayes, a stock market trader, who fell to his death, a presumed suicide, from his office building near Tower Bridge in 1989 when a blow-up photograph in a retrospective art exhibition reveals a background figure who pushed him. |
| 126 | * ''Series/OnlyMurdersInTheBuilding'': |
| 127 | ** The FormerFriendsPhoto of the Hardy Boys taken at the fateful night of Zoe's death reveals a clue. Zoe was wearing a ring that disappeared by the time her body was found. |
| 128 | ** [[SurveillanceAsThePlotDemands A capture from the building's security camera emerges]] in episode 8. It places Teddy and his son outside the building at the time of Kono's murder rendering them innocent of committing the crime. |
| 129 | * ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': |
| 130 | ** A related phenomenon occurs in the episode "Identity Crisis". For some reason, the only mission we've ever seen with an on-site cameraman recording it is the one time the recording proves essential. And it's not like the mission was anticipated to have historical significance or anything, they were looking for missing colonists. |
| 131 | ** In [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E9TheVengeanceFactor "The Vengeance Factor"]], Riker and the crew use this trope and EnhanceButton on a decades old photo of a Gatherer's trial. [[spoiler: They discover that the GirlOfTheWeek was there because she's OlderThanTheyLook]]. |
| 132 | * Reconstructed in ''Series/{{Unforgotten}}''. All of the suspects in the murders in Series 2 manage to find photographs that prove they were elsewhere during the murders of their abusers. Cassie finds it suspicious that they were all able to find such conclusive proof they ''didn't'' do it, which is how she figures out that [[spoiler:they were all in it together and [[StrangersOnATrainPlotMurder killed each other's victims]].]] |
| 133 | * ''Series/TheWildWildWest'': Forms the resolution of "The Night of The Hangman", during a celebration held by [[CattleBaron Amos Rawlins]], local farmer Lucius Brand seeming attempts to snipe [[MorallyBankruptBanker Roger Creed]], who foreclosed his farm, from a ledge only to accidentally hit Rawlins. Artie manages to find the evidence that conclusively exonerates Brand, proves that Rawlins was the real target and that both were the victim of a conspiracy, by carefully examining two photos taken minutes apart during the festival. As he presents to the court at the end, whilst on the surface neither photo seems to show anything out of the ordinary after Artie blows them up, then subdivides the images using a chessboard and marks out the key figures, the first photo shows the real assassin moving towards the ledge and second shows Creed looking straight at him before the shot is fired. |
| 134 | * ''Series/TheWire'': When investigating the Greeks, the team photograph Spiros walking out a hotel with a lawyer who they think is the top man of the organization. Only by dumb luck, in one photo they happen to also capture an old man in a trilby, that Nick Sobotka is able to finger as The Greek, but that being all the info to go by, this never leads anywhere. |
| 135 | * ''Series/TheWomanInTheHouseAcrossTheStreetFromTheGirlInTheWindow'': |
| 136 | ** Anna figures out where Meredith's sister lives because she Instagrammed a picture of People magazine, with her address in plain view. |
| 137 | ** Anna finds out that Neil was chaperoning the field trip because she finds a picture of him and Emma at the lighthouse. [[spoiler:Although this turns out to be a RedHerring; Emma killed her teacher, not Neil.]] |
| 138 | [[/folder]] |
| 139 | |
| 140 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 141 | * ''VideoGame/AceAttorney'': It is taken to an art form to hide clues in photos. This tends to lead to clues being HiddenInPlainSight. |
| 142 | ** This is the entire point of the recurring witness Lotta Hart; she's a CameraFiend who goes through a lot of photography centered jobs and constantly snaps photos, most of which completely blow open the case, after you can figure out the connections in the seemingly unconnected pictures. |
| 143 | * ''VideoGame/BackToTheFutureTheGame'': In Episode Three, Marty has to convince Doc's AlternateSelf, Citizen Brown, that he's telling the truth about their time travel adventures. When Citizen Brown brings out a photograph of the night they captured Kid Tannen, Marty is able to spot something in the background: Doc and Marty themselves, which shocks Citizen Brown into starting to take him seriously. |
| 144 | * ''VideoGame/Persona5'': The way that [[GreatDetective Akechi]] [[spoiler:discovered who the Phantom Thieves were was by taking pictures of them in the middle of escaping Okumura's Palace]]. He later [[spoiler:used this evidence to force them into helping him change Sae Niijima's heart, threatening to hand the pictures over to the police]]. |
| 145 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Scratches}}'', the Blackwoods' maid, Eva Mariani caught James Blackwood burying the body of his dead wife Catherine and gave a photo of it to the police who arrested James for murder. Late in the game, the player can also find this photo to locate Catherine Blackwood's grave. |
| 146 | [[/folder]] |
| 147 | |
| 148 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 149 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleRascals'' second-season short "Horse Sense", Alfalfa uses a photograph that Buckwheat had taken of the racehorse's owner to make the horse go faster in a race against Waldo's horse. |
| 150 | * This happened in a few instances on ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'': |
| 151 | ** In the episode "Never Ape an Ape Man", Shaggy is playing with a camera when he sees the ape man unmasked. Shaggy photographs the ape man, revealing his true identity. |
| 152 | ** In "Jeepers, It's the Creeper," the gang is driving when they discovered an injured bank guard lying near his truck, which was attacked by the titular villain, a green ghoul. He hands the kids a blank sheet of paper and mutters, "The flame will tell..." before passing out. At the episode's end, it's revealed that the guard caught the bank's president on camera robbing his own cash supply; the supposedly blank paper is the photographic proof and needs to be exposed to an open fire to be developed. |
| 153 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' short "Tom's Photo Finish", Tom is almost caught raiding the fridge, but quickly incriminates Spike and gets the dog kicked out. Jerry, however, has taken a photo of Tom caught in the act and has distributed copies all over the house, and Tom races to destroy all the incriminating photographs before his owners find out. |
| 154 | * The ''WesternAnimation/WordGirl'' finale, "Rhyme and Reason", has Becky's friend Violet tell her about the cameras she has set up in her backyard to periodically take pictures as part of an art photography project. Becky forgets them, leading to Violet seeing pictures of her [[spoiler:transforming into [=WordGirl=]]] and setting half of the plot into motion. |
| 155 | [[/folder]] |
| 156 | |
| 157 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 158 | * The murder of 10-year-old girl Engla Höglund in Sweden in 2008 was solved after a photographer, testing out his new digital camera, took a photo of Engla riding her bicycle and a photo of a car following her. The driver of the car was identified as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Eklund_(murderer) Anders Eklund]], who was arrested and interrogated, leading to him confessing to the murder (he also confessed to another murder eight years earlier after DNA found at the crime scene was matched with him). |
| 159 | * In 2016, an accident on the Rollo Coaster at Idlewild theme park saw a 3 year old child be flung from the ride on a sharp turn; thankfully the boy would make a full recovery. A crucial piece of evidence for what happened turned out to be the on-ride photo. Originally built in 1938, the relatively low-intensity ride lacked any restraints[[note]]many similar rides from the same era had later installed seatbelts, but Rollo Coaster had not done this at the time[[/note]] and instead asked riders to hold on to a grab bar in front of them. The ride photo showed that the victim was noticeably struggling to do so, the foam padding around the bar being too wide for a small child to hold without leaning forward out of the seat to wrap their arms around it. When the ride reopened with brand new trains, it did so with seatbelts along with a grab bar that doubled as a lap restraint, along with a new height requirement. |
| 160 | [[/folder]] |
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