Lee Harvey Oswald photo real: Computer expert

A photograph of accused John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, which for many years was thought by conspiracy theorists to be forged by authorities, is real, says an American computer scientist.

Hany Farid, an expert in digital forensics at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, has found a new way to analyze photos using 3D imaging and discovered the shadows in the photograph are consistent with a single light source.

"If this photograph is fake, then it would almost certainly point to a broader conspiracy because it means the police doctored a photograph to try to spin a story," said Farid, in a Dartmouth College video posted on YouTube.

The problem people have had since the photo was made public in the 1960s is that they were concerned the shadow from Oswald's nose didn't match the shadows on the ground, suggesting the picture was a fake.

Farid said the shadow cast by his body goes back and to the right which suggests the light is low and the shadow on his nose suggests the light is much higher.

"And I thought this is weird. How did that happen? I thought this is really a fake image," said Farid, director of the Neukom Institute for Computational Science at Dartmouth, in the video.

On Friday, Farid told Canwest News Service his team is working on new forensic tools to look at other iconic photographs that have come into question over the years, for example the famous moon landing in 1969.

"Similarly with the Oswald photograph some people have found inconsistencies with light and shadow in the (moon landing) photographs," he said.

Farid used the new forensic technology to create 3D models of Oswald's head and body and scene around him. He determined the photo was genuine.

"Everything in this photo is exactly consistent," he said. "If this was a fake it would almost unimaginable how they could have done this in 1963 because the light and the shadows from the person, from the beam would have been exactly right which even today would have been extremely hard to do."

From his 3D models, Farid concluded all the shadows could be explained by the direction of the sun. His study will appear an upcoming issue of the journal Perception.

"The science for all of this is very cool but some of it is for fun," he said. For example, Farid said he would like to determine whether some viral videos on YouTube, such as 100-metre basketball shots, are for real.

"The trajectory has to follow the laws of physics," he said.

The video of Farid explaining how he analyzed the photo can be viewed on YouTube.

The video of Farid explaining how he analyzed the photo can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4gw_3nA5G4

Dartmouth Professor finds that iconic Oswald photo was not faked