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From: Jasper
Date: 6/12/03
Time: 6:55:46 PM
Remote Name: 68.73.201.206
Jean,
No I haven't. You can’t do it unless both photos are taken at the same time of day on the same plane and the same angle to the camera. You also need a “ruler,” something in the photo of known length.
You might be able to come reasonably close if you have a full-sized picture of O.J. and the shoes in profile. Assuming that O.J. is standing erect in both photos and you know what time of the day it is in both photos (people get shorter as the day progresses because their vertebrae compress) you can use O.J.’s height as a ruler. Otherwise, any measurement you try to make from a photo can be way off because of lens distortions, perspective shifts and foreshortening.
Notice how big Fuhrman’s head appears to be and how comparatively small his hand and foot appears to be in the pointing finger photo. That’s because of perspective (closer objects appear bigger) and lens distortion (depending on what kind of camera lens is used and how close it is to the subject, the normal perspective can be exaggerated and distorted). You can use the envelope as a ruler to measure his foot because it lies next to his foot on the same plane. Ideally, the edge of the envelope would be dead parallel to the shoe. There is a 5-degree angle between them so the shoe is slightly foreshortened – but only VERY slightly because of the angle of the shot. Because the shoe and envelope are on the same plane and the deviation is so slight you don’t even have to compensate for the deviation. You can do it, but it doesn’t make enough difference to matter. The size of the shoe fits the size of the shoeprints.
The comparison you suggest is far more difficult. I don’t think that it can prove anything, anyway. The nature of technical expertise is that the expert has an unbeatable advantage over the non-expert. He knows what other experts in his field know and makes his adjustments accordingly. That’s why you need armature photos of the shoes. Anything you get from a professional can be faked well enough to fool anyone, including other experts. –Jasper