Re: Multi-Spectral Imagery to Detect Deterioration

["Dave King" <kingphoto@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Expanding on your "more confirmation than revelation" comment, unless we
reproduce physical reality exactly in three dimensions, which may not even
be possible, and certainly isn't possible within the context of a coffee
table book of painting reproductions, we are still left with (often massive)
reductive distortions of compression.  As a result, one cannot expect
accurate reproductions of color and tone to automatically engender aesthetic
satisfaction in a viewer.  For a reproduction to be brought to that level of
success one does well to begin with accurate measurements of every tractable
parameter (certainly color), then use subjective judgment to introduce
"compensation" in the form of distortions of "expansion".  Tractable
distortions are used to compensate intractable distortions in a sort of
"rose colored glasses" effect.



The Times article was primarily about Dr. Berns exciting work in precisely
identifying original color in faded works of art, but it did also imply he
is unaware of the broader range of compressions occurring in reproductions
of "reality".  Since this is an article in a newspaper we do not know that
is in fact the case, but on the other hand it's conceivable, since
subjectivity is de facto anathema to the scientist.  It certainly would be
"objective" however to take note of the fact accurate measurements of a
single parameter will not be automatically sufficient to raise subjective
responses to the level of aesthetic satisfaction, and the only way to
"measure" aesthetic response is subjective.



Dave



----- Original Message -----
From: "East75th" <east75th@worldnet.att.net>
To: <scan@leben.com>
Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 2:49 PM
Subject: Re: Multi-Spectral Imagery to Detect Deterioration


> Bill:
> I hope you noticed the other theme of the story: that a truly objective
> method would result in images that are deemed to be flat and unappealing
> and thus unlikely to attract widespread commercial application.  His
> methods are likely to remain an academic pursuit.  The implication of the
> article is that current color reproductive processes are largely
normative,
> perhaps unconsciously so, in that technicians produce images as they think
> they should appear, generally with boosted contrast and saturation, rather
> than how they actually appear.  To many of us, this is more confirmation
> than revelation.
>
> It seems to me that digital cameras could omit these subjective biases,
but
> I wonder if the designers deliberately program them into the software to
> make the results more acceptable if less accurate?
>
> Dane
>
> At 11:14 PM 4/11/2002 -0600, you wrote:
> >Dane--
> >
> >Interesting article.  About a month ago during an exchange regarding
> >profiling with IT8 targets I wrote: "When scanners are spectrophotometers
> >and are able to measure the intensities of hundereds of different
> >wavelengths across the visible spectrum (rather than three bands in the
> >reddish, greenish and bluish portions of the spectrum) things will be
> >different..."  This is what Dr. Berns is doing with his "multispectral
> >imaging", albeit using 30 color bands rather than hundreds.
> >
> >--Bill
> >
> >At 5:05 PM -0400 11-4-02, East75th wrote:
> >>There is an article in today's NY Times concerning the use of
> >>multi-spectral imagery to track the deterioration of reproductions of
> >>original art:
> >>http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/11/technology/circuits/11NEXT.html
> >>
> >>This has a lot to do with color reproduction, which I thought might be
of
> >>interest to the group.
>
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