Erin Murphy

Abstract

A testing procedure for characterizing both the color and spatial image quality of trichromatic digital cameras, which are used to photograph paintings in cultural heritage institutions, is described. This testing procedure is target-based, thus providing objective measures of quality. The majority of the testing procedure followed current standards from national and international organizations such as ANSI, ISO, and IEC. The procedure was developed in an academic research laboratory and used to benchmark four representative American museum’s digital-camera systems and workflows. The quality parameters tested included system spatial uniformity, tone reproduction, color reproduction accuracy, noise, dynamic range, spatial cross-talk, spatial frequency response, color-channel registration, and depth of field. In addition, two paintings were imaged and processed through each museum’s normal digital workflow. The results of the four case studies showed many dissimilarities among the digital-camera systems and workflows of American museums, which causes a significant range in the archival quality of their digital masters.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Digital cameras--Evaluation; Imaging systems--Image quality; Color printing--Digital techniques; Colorimetric analysis; Archival materials--Digitization; Art--Reproduction

Publication Date

2-1-2005

Document Type

Thesis

Department, Program, or Center

Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science (COS)

Advisor

Berns, Roy

Advisor/Committee Member

Rosen, Mitchell

Comments

Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to RIT Scholar Works. Physical copy available through RIT's The Wallace Library at: TR267 .M87 2005

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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