REFLECTANCE TRANSFORMATION IMAGING. ABOUT A PHOTOGRAPHIC METHOD FOR DOCUMENTATION AND ANALISIS OF HISTORICAL ARTEFACTS

• Main Authors: Paweł Lech Polkowski, Piotr Witkowski
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: Index Copernicus International S.A. 2018-01-01
• Series: Muzealnictwo
• Subjects: Reflectance Transformation Imaging method – RTI; photographic documentation; iconography; digitalisation; multimedia
• Online Access: http://muzealnictworocznik.com/gicid/01.3001.0012.0619

The modern technology has been offering more and more tools for digitalisation of historical artefacts or works of art. Especially popular is a 3D visualisation, which allows to obtain a very realistic image of the subject. However, for many culture and science institutions, including museums, these tools are not easily available due to financial reasons. The discussed herein method of Reflectance Transformation Imaging (further RTI) seems to be a solution, which – being relatively inexpensive – offers a whole range of possibilities as far as documentation of historical artefacts is concerned. It allows – without the need of using a high-tech equipment – to create 2.5D images out of regular digital photographs. The way how the RTI method works has been shorty characterised in this article, at the same time presenting subsequent stages within the procedure of obtaining images. In order to show the results of this method, authors referred also to their own experience in RTI. They described images by themselves of three boulders with petroglyphs, which are in the possession of the Archaeological Museum in Poznań. The authors presented their own assessment of the RTI method – based on their achievements and the source literature – identifying its both positive and negative aspects.