Anyone here expert in understanding shadows cast from flash photography? From my layman's perspective,...if an object such as a heat shield or other panel were placed next to the tank, and a photo was captured at the angle we see, my best explanation for why the lower portion of the shadow looks a bit elongated on the lower aft end nearest the actuator cover, and appears darker at the bottom with a seemingly straight looking break line ,is because the light from the flash had a smaller channel ( from panel to fuselage, than from tank to fuselage), in which to reflect ,and the panel being closer to the fuselage wall than the tank itself, it created a bit of an elongated shadow near the bottom.....but, that is no expert opinion, just guessing, I could be totally wrong.
As far as what appears to be a break line , between dark shadow and darker shadow, I don't know if one could determine the panel height using it's position on the fuselage wall, it may be taller/shorter than actual, due to the angle of capture....Only the shadow knows.