New images in Da Vinci's Last Supper

There's a news story circulating across MSM about a computer analyst who found new images in The Last Supper. He claims to have taken a reverse image and superimposed it onto the original. From news.com.au:

When doing so, Pesci said the two figures on either end of the long table, for example, appear to become knights and another appears to hold an infant.

Two knights at the ends of the table, and one figure holding an infant, the guy says. I made the same reverse in Photoshop, and after about 10 minutes of fiddling, I found the three new figures. The guy is right; they are there. I believe it's a nonsensical coincidence, sort of like listening to old rock songs backwards and picking out pro-drug messages, but it is very interesting. Certain to fuel the interest will be Da Vinci's intellect. He was probably capable of doing something like this on purpose.

Below are my results, and following that is how I did it. Try it yourself. When you slide the images together to see the new characters, you'll smile. I guarantee it.

Left side figures, original and reverse image.


Reverse image on top of original.


Same, with outlines drawn around new figures.


And the right side knight.


Here's the whole thing. Tough to see anything at the width of this blog column (400 pixels).

Here's how to do it with Photoshop:

1. Fetch a decent image of the painting here.

2. Make a duplicate of the image, then drag-n-drop the duplicate onto the original, making a new layer. I realize there is at least one better way to do this, such as dragging a marquee around the original and using Layer via Copy.

3. Make a reverse image by flipping the new layer horizontally by using Image, Rotate Canvas, Flip Canvas Horizontal. This makes the "reverse" image.

4. Turn off Snap using the View menu.

5. Set the opacity of the new layer (it should be on top) to 57%, then slide it almost centered, using the central figure as a guide (Jeebus?).

I did my work at about 37% zoom, and after I had lined it up centered, horizontally, and perfectly in line vertically, I could sort of see the knights. It wasn't until I zoomed to 100% and looked at the far left of the image that I could fine tune the infant while keeping the knights in view.

And it is true: the figures at each end of the table look like armored knights, and the figure second from the left appears to be holding a baby, which is facing towards the right, or center of the table. The infant is cradled in the arms of the second figure from the left.