zoobyshoe said:
The fifth girl from the left seems to be looking right at the camera, while the first girl on the left is looking off to the left. The fifth is not a repetition of the first, therefore, but is the reflection of the fourth.
That's a dead giveaway that we
cannot simply conclude that there are more than two actual girls.
Multiple reflections of the same girl looking at the camera would be an indication that her "reflections" are not reflections after all, but rather they are different girls, each of them looking at the camera, or that something was photoshoped. I don't see that here, regarding girl #1.
What I see is consistent with all her "reflections." In other words,
if of all of the girl #1-like images were identical, it would be a dead giveaway that something was photoshoped, or there being more than one girl #1.
I see "girl #9" looking at the camera, which is really girl #1 looking at the reflection of the reflection of the reflection of the reflection of the camera. It only stands to reason that girl #1 would be looking to her right to see this fourth reflection of the camera.
Let's look at it one of girl #1's perspective. She is in a hall of mirrors and sees many reflections of the camera. She can stare at one of the camera reflections (or the actual camera itself). I think she is looking at the third leftmost camera that she sees, which is really just the reflection of the reflection of the reflection of the reflection of the actual camera.
- Leftmost camera is the actual camera (from her perspective).
- Second leftmost camera is the reflection of the refection of the actual camera (from her perspective).
- Third leftmost camera -- the one she is looking at -- is the reflection of the reflection of the reflection of the reflection of the actual camera (from her perspective).
zoobyshoe said:
Notice that Girl #3 seems to be looking at the camera every time she repeats. That means both #2 and #3 were looking at the camera; #2 at a reflection of it, and #3 directly at it. However, girl #1 was looking to the left while girl #4 (her twin) was looking directly at a reflection of the camera.
That normally would be a dead giveaway that there are more than just two girls: if, for a given girl, more than one reflection were both looking directly at the camera. But if you look carefully, there's more going on. Girl #2 has a very mild condition of esotropia, where one eye points inwards (this particular girl's right eye).
Girl #2's right eye is pointing slightly inwards. You can't see that directly from girl# 2 because her head is pointed away from the camera. But you can see it her reflection from "girl #3," which is really just the mirror image of girl #2.
In other words, I believe girl #2 is looking at the very first reflection of the camera. But her right eye is directed slightly inward, which we can see in girl #3, which is really the mirror image of girl#2. In subsequent reflections we cannot see her left eye (blocked by head of reflections of girl #1). So it may appear that girl #7 is looking at the camera, but I contend that it is merely a result of girl #2's esotropia (and girl #7 is merely a multiple reflection of girl #2).
-- By the way, for what it's worth, one of my foremost role-models throughout my life (since childhood even) has this condition. It is not unfamiliar to me.
zoobyshoe said:
Girl #6 has a cleft in her hair (look carefully) that can only be explained as a reflection of the back of the head of girl #3. The same cleft does not appear in the hair of girl #2.
Mmm, I don't see it. Perhaps this is really "girl #5"'s hair being confused with a tuft of hair from "girl #6"'s as the result of the different angle/perspective. (I'm not saying there is really a girl beyond girl #2; the rest are merely reflections that start to overlap each other more due to the change in perspective of reflections). I'll qualify that by I'm not sure what you are referring to in this cleft. But from what I see, I attribute what I think you might be referring to as simply being a result of the different angle/perspective enjoyed by the different reflection of the two girls.
So for now, I'm sticking with just two girls, and a couple of mirrors.