Visualization of Subsurface Features in Oil Paintings Using High-Resolution Visible and Near Infrared Scanned Images

High-resolution imaging is on the rise in the field of digital archiving of cultural heritage. Conventionally, this is accomplished by capturing images in the visible region. However, the visible region has a very narrow spectrum. In this study, around 100 oil paintings belonging to the Bridgestone Museum of Art in Tokyo, Japan have been digitized at both visible and near infrared region (i.e. ~400–700 nm and ~850 nm respectively) at 1000 dpi scanning resolution. Since materials behave differently when irradiated by a source with different wavelengths, the resulting images from visible and near infrared scans could reveal some under-drawings which are not visible from the naked eye. By applying false color image composition, it was possible to visualize subsurface features more easily. Different false color images were investigated by substituting the individual RGB channels of the visible images with NIR image to increase the optical contrast. Promenade (1926) by George Grosz was selected as a test case.

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