A system and method for visualizing data obtained by performing a three-dimensional scan with penetrating radiation. Raw density arrays are formed from the scan, each raw density array being a three-dimensional array. A processed density array is formed by one or more operations, such as taking the difference between two raw density arrays, rotating the processed density array, multiplying the processed density array by a front-lighting array, and projecting the processed density array onto a plane to form an image, the projecting including calculating one or more of a plurality of statistics for each of a set of vectors each corresponding to a pixel of the image, the plurality of statistics including a vector mean, a vector maximum, and a vector standard deviation.