Blog 7 (Art History Project)

 Our team is helping the UNH art department create digital archives of a collection of Japanese wood prints. Our team's plan is to manually take photos of the prints in the CAT lab in the Paul Creative Arts Center. The basic process looks like a card that has custom frames perfectly holding the camera. Inside the room the lighting is from a controlled source to ensure continuity between all the paintings. Our group split up the work as 5 prints for each group member. After taking the photos of each print, they must be color graded using a realistic pallet. Since cameras alter the colors of photos it is important to change it back when you are dealing with art that must be very realistic. Once the scans have been made of the art, they will be uploaded to the JSTOR with given descriptions. The project is quite easy because such little research is required to make the uploads. The primary goals of our client are to itemize and photograph a whole list of prints made by a particular artist. Our client needs people to photograph the artifacts without damaging them in any way. We learned every step of the way with our client. Not only did they break down the general history of the prints we are going to be scanning. They also broke down the technical process of how the photographs are taken. The only questions that are left are about the specific process of color grading. Also, where you adjust the camera. Is it adjusted on the computer, or the camera itself? The audience that would be viewing these prints is primarily students in the future. Our clients showed us examples of their own prints using the same method. Clearly the art department uses these prints as an example for education. Therefore, we will be helping our client create a way to view these works of art without risking damage to them. Most of the prints come from the 1800’s so they are very delicate, even if they are prints, they are still incredibly old. This whole project can be categorized as data visualizations and curation. Our group must act professionally and create the highest quality photographs, since they will be public. It would also be disrespectful to the original artist, hence why color grading must take place. The multitude of steps in the process show that our client's primary goal is realism. It is extremely important to make sure the artifacts do not get damaged, and they look exactly how they are viewed by the naked eye. Our group will struggle to ensure all the photographs look the same. Any slight changes can drastically change how a photograph will look.