Developments in the recovery of colour in fine art prints through spatial image processing methods

Parraman, Carinna; Rizzi, A

Abstract

Printmakers have at their disposal a wide range of colour printing processes. The majority of artists will utilise high quality materials with the expectation that the best materials and pigments will ensure image permanence. However, as many artists have experienced, this
is not always the case. Inks, papers and materials can deteriorate over time. For artists and conservators who need to restore colour or tone to a print could benefit from the assistance of spatial colour enhancement tools. This paper studies two collections from the same edition of
fine art prints that were made in 1991. The first edition has been kept in an archive and not exposed to light. The second edition has been framed and exposed to light for about 18 years. Previous experiments using colour enhancement methods [9,10] have involved a series of
photographs that had been taken under poor or extreme lighting conditions, fine art works, scanned works. Test images were subjected to a range of spatial colour enhancement methods:
Retinex, RSR, ACE, Histogram Equalisation, Auto Levels. These different methods will be explained in the full paper. An evaluation of these methods will be described here.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: 4th International Conference on: Preservation and Conservation Issues in Digital Printing and Digital Photography
• Start Date: May 27, 2010
• End Date: May 28, 2010
• Publication Date: May 1, 2010
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: image permanence, deterioation of inks, papers and materials, spatial colour enhancement tools
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/979486
• Related Public URLs: http://ppp10.iopconfs.org/activity/programme/file_41084.pdf