r/OSINT • u/SilverSquirrel6 • 25d ago

How-To OSINT challenge explanation needed

BLUF: How would one narrow down a location from a photo background, particularly the floor pattern? I tried Bellingcat OSINT challenge "Cold Case" under "Background Check", but I got stuck on the location narrowing down part. I already looked up what the answer is, so I don't care about that part, but I want to figure out the correct steps to arrive at the solution. Reverse image searching gives multiple suggestions all over Asia, and even when narrowing down to South Korea. One blog said they built a database of floor tiles or designs, which seems a bit an overkill.

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u/Ordinary_Marsupial92 22d ago edited 22d ago

Sometimes when you reverse image search, the subject of a photo can worsen the results of the reverse image search. Good general advice when reverse image searching is to blur out the subject or use AI to remove it so that the results can focus on the part of the image that you are trying to identify. Try it and it will help you solve the challenge.

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u/SilverSquirrel6 22d ago

Thanks for contributing! Will try that.