[ksymph]

Nitpick: the photos are labeled as "Colorized images of the surface of Venus taken by a Soviet Venera lander in 1981", but

1. those photos are from Venera 13 and 14, which were taken in color

2. the photos were taken in 1982 (though the probes launched in 1981)

and 3. those aren't the original photos, they're 'enhanced' ones that have been upscaled and extended to show more of the horizon and sky than the originals. The bottom 1/4 or so is the actual original, give or take a few details that have been changed/added in the upscale process, but the rest is artistic interpretation

You can look at the actual photos here: https://www.planetary.org/articles/every-picture-from-venus-...

[bcraven]

This site suggests it's just a remap:

The Venera panoramas are spherical projections. They can be remapped to perspective projections and overlayed (using Adobe Photoshop CS2) to produce views that give a better subjective impression of the Venusian surface

http://mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm

[ksymph]

That does seem to be what the page is implying at first glance; though the images clearly show features not visible in the raw photos, so it can't be the case. I'm guessing that paragraph is actually referring to the 'overhead' image [0] next to the one in question, since it mentions how the remapped perspective makes the uniform shadows apparent.

[0] http://mentallandscape.com/C_Venera13_Overview.jpg