 Digital cameras save artworks. Digital imaging is revolutionising the way classical works of art are being preserved for future generations.
The National Gallery in London, UK, is leading the way in the use of this technology to make high quality digital reproductions of paintings.
For the past 10 years, it has been developing a system to monitor tiny changes in the artworks and build up a precise record of the colour of paintings to see if there are any changes over time.
The job has fallen to Vasari (Visual Art System for Archiving and Retrieval of Images), which uses what is called a colourimetric imaging system.
A special digital camera is used to capture each square metre of a painting's surface with a resolution of at least 10,000 by 10,000 pixels
"The kind of camera you would buy in a shop measures just red, green and blue," said Dr Saunders. "But this doesn't really provide us with enough information. So the present system uses seven colour bands, like the seven colours of the rainbow."
Source: BBC News
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