Bridging Multi-light & Multi-Spectral images to study, preserve and disseminate archival documents

Producing relevant photographic records in collections with unique and often fragile heritage objects is a serious challenge. Combining both visual and analytic information into such images is a major asset. Over the last decade the development of the Leuven University Portable Light Dome (PLD) has produced numerous such complex datasets. Its outcome enables different visualizations and analyses on one and the same multi-light and/or multi-spectral dataset. These interactive images support various types of research questions and contain many facets of information (reflectance characteristics, surface orientations, multi-spectral). Compared to normal photography they contain much more layered information on the archived objects. Compared to other multi-light reflectance imaging solutions such as RTI, the imaging protocol of the PLD system is able to disseminate its outcome in a multi-modal manner, beyond the visual aspects of the imaged surface.status: publishe