eprintid: 1519
rev_number: 9
eprint_status: archive
userid: 35
dir: disk0/00/00/15/19
datestamp: 2013-03-06 13:57:58
lastmod: 2014-06-16 10:27:39
status_changed: 2013-03-06 13:57:58
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Tsaftaris, Sotirios A.
creators_name: Casadio, Francesca
creators_name: Andral, J.L.
creators_name: Katsaggelos, Aggelos K.
creators_id: sotirios.tsaftaris@imtlucca.it
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
title: A novel visualization tool for art history and conservation: automated colorization of black and white archival photographs of works of art
ispublished: pub
subjects: NX
subjects: QA75
divisions: CSA
full_text_status: none
keywords: Colorization algorithm, Pablo Picasso, Historical photographs, Image processing, Cultural heritage 
abstract: This paper describes the use of a customized algorithm for the colorization of historical black and white photographs documenting earlier states of paintings. This study specifically focuses on Pablo Picasso's mid-century Mediterranean masterpiece La Joie de Vivre, 1946 (Musée Picasso, Antibes, France). The custom-designed algorithm allows computer-controlled spreading of color information on a digital image of black and white historical photographs to obtain accurate color renditions. Expert observation of the present state of the painting, coupled with stratigraphic information from cross sections allows the attribution of color information to selected pixels in the digitized images. The algorithm uses the localized color information and the grayscale intensities of the black and white historical photographs to formulate a set of equations for the missing color values of the remaining pixels. The computational resolution of such equations allows an accurate colorization that preserves brushwork and shading. This new method is proposed as a valuable alternative to the use of commercial software to apply flat areas of color, which is currently the most common practice for colorization efforts in the conservation community. Availability of such colorized images enhances the art-historical understanding of the works and might lead to better-informed treatment.
date: 2014-05
date_type: published
publication: Studies in Conservation
volume: 59
number: 3
publisher: International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works
pagerange: 125-135
id_number: 10.1179/2047058413Y.0000000104
refereed: TRUE
issn: 0039-3630
official_url: http://www.maneyonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/2047058413Y.0000000104
citation:   Tsaftaris, Sotirios A. and Casadio, Francesca and Andral, J.L. and Katsaggelos, Aggelos K.  A novel visualization tool for art history and conservation: automated colorization of black and white archival photographs of works of art.  Studies in Conservation, 59 (3).  pp. 125-135.  ISSN 0039-3630      (2014)