OK, I'm stepping from the absurd into the ridiculous, but.....
As someone who uses Photoshop a lot (and takes lots of pictures of painted metal vehicles), my theory would be that the picture looks unnatural because someone photoshopped the nose to remove reflected sunlight coming off the windshield. Look at how long the shadows of the two supposed "real" guys are. It's virtually impossible to take a picture of something that shiny in direct sunlight coming at that low angle without some glare. There is absolutely none in the shot.
You can see areas of the windshield that look quite unnatural. The lower right hand window has an odd area that looks like a Photoshop selection was used. That may be why the two "fake" guys look a bit unnatural - the photoshopper likely selected around them and tweaked the windshield and nose. The body mechanics of the guys on each side match, and as I said, they all have slush on their boots. And those two long shadows would take a long time to draw in PS. It's the red of the nose, rather than the people, that looks unnatural.
I'm guessing BBD demanded something - anything - as a picture, but conditions weren't helpful. So you take the best shot you can, and clean it up in post processing. Maybe the top area was reflecting, or maybe the number wasn't there and someone thought it was a smart addition.
Anyways, the car exists. It is here, really. And Bombardier did meet their commitment. The number of cars they turned out since November can't be a fluke. So I'm hopeful that 2017 will be better. But we need to ratchet back our scrutiny a touch. Check in when 3 or 4 more cars have arrived, and see what the pace is.
- Paul
