I Spent 100+ Hours Investigating a "Miracle Photo of the Sun" | Our Lady of Fatima

Published on 2026-08-11 | Archived on 2026-08-18

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A Catholic priest (Fr Philippe Dalleur) and youtuber (Ethan Muse) have argued that shadows in photographs taken at Fatima in 1917 provide scientific evidence for extraordinary sources of light in the sky. So I spent more than 100 hours investigating the claim, since my entire job revolves around working with cameras and lighting as a cinematographer.

00:00 - A "Miraculous" Photo?
01:03 - How the Science Should Work
02:32 - What Was Our Lady of Fatima?
03:34 - Series Overview (Skip This)
05:08 - Lenses Loose a Dimension
08:56 - Reason #1: Can't Really Calculate a Lost Dimension
11:27 - How to Actually Calibrate Lenses
14:14 - Reason #2: Vintage Lenses Make It Even Harder
16:17 - The Third Dimension
18:10 - Reason #3: They Didn't Validate Their Methods
19:13 - Reason #4: Shadows Can't Really Be Measured
22:13 - Example Optics of Similar Scene
22:52 - Preview of Part 2: Lies in Development

This is a three part series. Part 1 (this video) covers why lenses make these calculations almost impossible without calibration. Part 2 will cover their terrible development process and post-production deception. And then Part 3 will recreate the lighting effect they're talking about.

Source #1: "Fatima Pictures and Testimonials: in-depth Analysis" published on March 8, 2021in Scientia et Fides (keep in mind, this is not a peer reviewed science journal, they claim it's 'peer reviewed' but the peers are humanities people)
Source #2: "Fatima's Miracle Photo D115 - Sun Height Estimation" published on Sep 24, 2021 on the YouTube channel "BioPhilo" (I confirmed with Ethan that this is Dalleur's channel)
Source #3: "Sun Elevation Evaluation Technique + HUD" published on Aug 10, 2022 on the YouTube channel "BioPhilo"
Source #4: "Our Lady of Fatima" published on Sep 5, 2025 by Ethan Muse on his substack.
Source #5: "It Wasn't the Sun!" published on Oct 10, 2025 by Ethan Muse on his substack.
Source #6: "Catholic vs. Atheist: Was Fatima Miraculous?" of Ethan Muse and James Fodor on Jul 18, 2026 on the "Capturing Christianity" YouTube channel hosted by Cameron Burtuzzi