I used every trick I know to suss what any numbers were, and unfortunately I have no information to add.
I’m seeing something like “164” after some contrast bumps.
I’ll repeat a question several people have asked already. Have you gone to the police with this?
Another question- isn’t it probable they were using a stolen car for their getaway? Tracing the number plate probably won’t help, it’ll just give the original owner, not the thief.
Look at the left-hand side of the car. See the side mirror? It’s clearly reflecting off the driver’s side window, which is then reflecting the windshield. The VIN is clearly reflected there (duh), and all you need to do is enhance that, adjust for the varying curvature of the three pieces of glass, then re-reverse (since it’s reflected off three surfaces).
But as said upthread, getting the vehicle details is a waste of time, since it will only get you the owner, not necessarily the perps. That will take a bit of extra time, but by adjusting the reflection path you trace, you can easily see that the standing person has braces, which, by checking “the database” shows that they are only manufactured by one braces-manufacturer, and retailed only through this one particular dentist (who is also in “the database”). Though only six of the eleven-digit serial number are visible, that should be enough to jog the orthodontist’s memory (though if that’s not enough, threatening with a search warrant should get you full access to his records).
This is all possible because the friendly neighbor who took the picture was incredibly hot and happened to be wearing a ridiculously low-cut top and was bending over when she took the picture. If she wasn’t, well, you’re screwed.
keturah, I tried enlarging it by about a factor of 4 using Easy Thumbnails (Freeware, easy to use) using the Lanczos3 algorithm. I’ve had good luck in the past making enlargements using without the result getting all pixelated. It just doesn’t look like there’s enough information there. It might give you a decent enlarged picture of the man there.
I’ll take a shot at it as well. Couple of questions, I notice the resolution is 72. Is that what it was on her camera? I ask because the default on most cameras is higher. Also, what state is this in, it could help comparing it to other similar plates.
Hmm, in that case you might be out of luck. Either the camera records the magnification factor incorrectly, or the camera was set to a lower resolution setting. Although… the manufacturer doesn’t show that as a possible resolution. Could Photobucket have resized the picture upon upload? Maybe the file you have on disk has a slightly higher resolution.
As much as I can tell, the uploaded image contains only this much data about the plates. I agree that Photobucket may have resized the pic.
I analyzed it and after I read the reflected retina of the person taking the picture, I concluded it was an inside job.
Any chance that the photographer got a video of the car? There was a thread a while back about how motion video of something can actually be sharpened much more than you would expect.
I would bet money on this being the case.
Am I the only person who thinks the License plate is from Florida?
I don’t think I’m seeing anything that you can’t find.
In the OP’s profile, he lists an email that is Florida.
I was thinking the same thing !
I also think there IS just enough digital info there to get the tag number, but you really need someone who KNOWS how eeek out that sort of info. If you know what the first number/letter is and which state it is, you can JUST do it in my opinion.
Sorry I cant provide more real help here.
Yeah, I saw that after I posted this. But in the image, you can’t really see anything that really indicates it’s a Florida plate, but when I zoom out, I see a Florida plate. I’m seeing green numbers with something orange in the center. Not that I can see what the numbers are or what the orange thing is.
Anyway, when I opened the image in Photoshop, and did “Sharpen Edges” a couple of times, it looks like the plate starts with IF… That’s about all I can see.
I think Photobucket dumbed the image down for web viewing. Maybe if the OP posted it on Flickr, it’d come out better. You can usually click on “View full size” and see the picture at the original resolution.
Could it be a vanity plate? The last part doesn’t look that “numbery”
The orange thing is most likely an orange 
Orange center with green text is almost certainly a Florida plate, especially given that it in in Florida. This is what a Florida plate looks like.
I’ve always assumed this was the basis of the “enhance” cliche on tv shows, since with a video there actually is more data available than just what shows in a single frame. But it’s really painful to watch when they do it with a single image.
I probably knew that.
When I wrote that post, I was thinking that the orange thing was the outline of the state of Florida. You can’t really tell from the picture…just something orange behind green characters that might start with “IF”.
(I’m pretty sure that at one point, they did have an orange outline of Florida on the plates and later switched to the orange)
If we’re gonna use “movie magic”, why not rotate the photo 180 degrees to get a view of the front license plate? :rolleyes:
Dude, you missed your chance to use this example instead. 