Why an Atheist Thinks the Shroud of Turin is the Real Deal

Caused by a Lengthy Exposure in the Sun?

Picknett and Prince should have stopped while they were ahead. Even lighting, “caused by a lengthy exposure in the sun” has nothing to do with creating the sort of data contained in a height-field, data that represents distance. As the sun journeys across the sky, its rays strike the body being photographed from different angles. It softens harsh shadows. Every professional photographer knows the problem of harsh shadows caused by the sun. If you have ever witnessed an advertising photo shoot, you have certainly seem the large white reflectors, sometimes held aloft by assistants, used to spread out the sun’s light and make it strike models from different angles. But even lighting does not make for spatial information any more so than does uneven lighting.

If the sun perhaps rose in east and travelled about in a pinwheel fashion casting at different times of days light from every part of the sky, we might get a enough softening to elicit a simulation of 3D for the gross shape of the head and body but not for discrete features. But a sun travelling from East to West, even with an arc, will not do what Picknett and Prince imply. To suggest, that the 3-D information to a degree does not exist and that yet it supports rather than undermines their hypothesis that the image on the shroud is medieval photograph by Leonardo is curious double speak. An experiment, a simple experiment would have shown how wrong they were.