Same Person?

[JWR]

I have a collection of 1930/40s photos by my grandfather. I am trying to identify if the man in the left 2 photos is the same as in the third.

 

[Sirius Glass]

The nose and eyes are the same or similar. The problem is that the first to photographs do not show the man's hair. I believe that is your stumbling block. Ask the first two to remove their hats.

 

[lxdude]

Well the one on the left is obviously a young Karl Malden..
I don't think the third is the same man.

 

[Dusty Negative]

The shape of the nose, the placement and shapes of the eyes, and the slant of the left ear suggest to me (FWIW) that the person in pic 1 & 3 is the same.

 

[gone]

Probably going to just have to guess at it. If they were taken w/ different focal length lenses as well as different format cameras, that will make the nose smaller or bigger as the case may be. It will affect other areas of the rest of the face, neck, and more. Different ambient light will trick you too.

Back in my GAS days I took portraits of my wife over the course of roughly 10 years using different lenses, different films and developers, etc. Not sure what time period is covered in the photos above, but all of her photos looked very, very different. Some you would swear were of someone else.

 

[jay moussy]

Minor detail: the shirt collar and tie style are the same, but it my just be the going style at the time?
How about the background?
Man 2 and Man 3 have different cheek "folds" angles?

 

[Sirius Glass]

I have a collection of 1930/40s photos by my grandfather. I am trying to identify if the man in the left 2 photos is the same as in the third. View attachment 325569

Welcome to APUG Photrio!!​

 

[grahamp]

If I had to guess (and I have to...) I'd put No.3 as at best a relative. I don't know why people don't shoot profiles - ear shape is so much easier for people looking at them 80 years later!

You could look into the ratio of distances between facial features that are used for automated facial recognition. You would have to measure distances rather than use pixel separations, but it does make the math much simpler. But if you only have three images, which may or may not be one person, the results may still be ambiguous.

 

[Truzi]

Very difficult to tell - they are very similar.

Minor detail: the shirt collar and tie style are the same, but it my just be the going style at the time?
How about the background?
Man 2 and Man 3 have different cheek "folds" angles?

I agree on the cheek bones, with 1 & 2 seeming more similar. The angle of the crease wouldn't change much if the smiles were more similar
Also, it appears as if #3 has different colored eyebrows, and his ears seem a bit different.

On the other hand, they all seem to have the same squint - with their right eyes slightly more closed than the left.

 

[Dusty Negative]

Man 2 and Man 3 have different cheek "folds" angles?

I believe that is a factor of the lips pulling up in a smile and bringing those folds up with it. Just my thoughts.

 

[koraks]

if the man in the left 2 photos is the same as in the third.

Doesn't look like it based on the mouth and chin. I suspect that Mr 1&2 also sports a darker hair color than #3 and that the difference cannot be attributed just to grey hair, looking at the eyebrows which usually lag behind.

On the other hand, they all seem to have the same squint - with their right eyes slightly more closed than the left

Yup, that's an interesting similarity. Not sure if it's significant though, as I think many people squint asymmetrically.

 

[JWR]

Thanks for all the replies! This is the only other photo I can find of him, which is definitely the same guy as the 3rd photo.

 

[BrianShaw]

My wife had a similar question about some photos found in her parents belongings after they died... the same man (including a few photos in which we thought were the same man) in WWII army uniform and civilian clothing). We thought that he, surely, must be a member of the family since there were so many photos of him. The location was rather obvious as a place where her mother once lived as a child. After trying to figure it out who he might be my wife asked the last remaining family elder. She laughed histerically as she told us that he was just a cute guy who lived up the street from them. And in the boxes and boxes of photos are other similar mysteries. Another was identified as "your father's first girlfriend before he met your mother". LOL... so many things we learned.

 

[JWR]

The reason for my question is that the last two photographs are of Frederick G. Miles, aircraft designer of Miles Aircraft. I have borrowed them from google. The first two photos are of a Miles M.2 Hawk which has had a crash. This would have been one of the first few aircraft Miles ever produced, so the similarities in the squint and the nose caught my attention.
These are the two complete images:

 

[BrianShaw]

Wow... great photos! Thanks for "the rest of the story"!

My inclination from the beginning is that the two guys in caps are same/related, but the third is someone else... due to the diference in lips primarily.

 

[DareFail]

Wow... great photos! Thanks for "the rest of the story"!

My inclination from the beginning is that the two guys in caps are same/related, but the third is someone else... due to the diference in lips primarily.

That was my first thought.. The lips..

 

[runswithsizzers]

It looks to me like the hatless fellow on the right has a more squarish or "U" shaped chin compared to the guy in the hat whose chin looks a little more "V" shaped. However, the differences are small, and I could easily be mistaken.

But isn't there facial recognition software trained by artificial intelligence to do this sort of thing far better than we pitiful humans?

I'm pretty sure a substantial amount of your tax dollars (sorry, pounds) has been spent indeveloping this facial recognition software. So, I suggest you take the photos to your local police station (sorry, constabulary) and ask them to help identify this man. You are entitled to a return on your investment. ;-)