Art in the right light

Technology being developed by a

(RIT) scientist could allow art lovers to enjoy exhibits exactly as their displaying gallery or museum intended.

RIT and colour scientist Roy Berns have been awarded $855,000 by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to develop a practical approach that museum photographers can use to eliminate subjective lighting decisions when imaging artwork.

Museum photographers try to capture the complex interplay between lighting, a painting and an observer in images of a museum’s collections. Reducing the experience of viewing artwork in real life to a two-dimensional representation such as a poster or an image in a book or on a website relies on subjective and aesthetic decision-making.

“Ultimately, there are decisions made in lighting and where you would stand. Realistic rendering is often limited by a lack of information about the object’s shape and how incidental light is absorbed and scattered at each position on the object,” said Berns, Professor of Color Science, Appearance and Technology in RIT’s Munsell Color Science Laboratory.