I recently checked the progress of
Operation Night Watch at Amsterdam's wonderful Rijksmuseum. Operation Night Watch is the Rijksmuseum's comprehensive multi-year
research and conservation project devoted to restoration of Rembrandt’s
massive masterpiece (about 12 x 14.5 feet framed), created in 1642, known as
The Night Watch. As part of the project, the museum utilized a copy of the original unaltered painting, their newly detailed imaging, and artificial neural networks to analyze and
recreate the missing pieces which were cut from the painting in 1715 to fit the huge work in the Amsterdam Town Hall.
The project, which began in 2019, is being carried out in a
specially designed glass room inside the museum to allow visitor's to view the process.
Imaging of the painting has included: a high resolution 44.8 gigapixel visible-light photograph (20 µm) in May 2020, UV photography (20 µm), macro X-ray fluorescence (500 µm & 250 µm), reflectance imaging spectroscopy of visible and near-infrared (VNIR) and
short-wave infrared (SWIR)(168 µm), optical coherence tomography, 3D scanning (15 µm), and finally in 2022 an
ultra-high resolution 717 gigapixel visible-light photograph (5 µm). The various scientific and visible-light images are layered to allow researchers to use a custom made
"curtain viewer" to browse image sections in multiple imaging forms simultaneously.
Rijksmuseum
Senior Scientist Robert Erdmann has directed the imaging. For the high and ultra-high resolution photographs, the museum used a
Hasselblad H6D-400c in its 100 megapixel 4-shot mode to capture full color data without interpolation. 97 rows and 87 columns of image captures were stitched to create the 925,000 x 775,000 pixel 5.6TB final image. While the camera and lens were the same Hasselblad camera, HC Macro 120 mm II f/4 lens, and Phocus software used by photographers and museums for art repro around the world; most of what was needed to capture the image, including hardware and software for maintaining focus and moving the camera, was created specifically for the project.
For anyone interested in more information on the project and the imaging, here's a link...
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/operation-night-watch/story/Ultra-High Resolution Image of The Night WatchThere is also a YouTube video with Robert Erdmann explaining the image capture system and process in detail below. *
A special shout-out to Graeme Gill — ArgyllCMS is the basis for color profiling and management for this major project.
https://www.youtube.com/Keynote - Robert Erdmann - The Night Watch Ultra-High Resolution Photography
