This is a groundbreaking method for proving authorship in art photography. In the era of digital photography, it is difficult to prove that you have a genuine copyright print because anyone can print a photo on whatever printer they want. But it will also have a significant impact on the archival sector and wherever the print quality of documents intended for long-term archiving is important.
How to prevent archival print from becoming faded paper over time
Fine art photography, paper documents and other pieces of print that want to retain their value over time are looking for reliable techniques and media suitable for long-term archiving purposes.
"Light and UV resistant pigment-based inks are mainly used for archival prints. However, very often, for financial reasons, they are replaced or counterfeited with inks that have a lower, on average one-quarter fade resistance and are unsuitable for archiving. However, it is often difficult for an expert to distinguish with the naked eye the difference between a pigment-based print and its cheaper dye-based variant; our method is a simple tool for their unambiguous recognition," said Prof. Petr Páta, researcher at the Department of Radioelectronics and Dean of the faculty.
In view of the significant potential for the application of copyright printing, research is being conducted at the FEL CTU in Prague in cooperation with FOMEI, a company that is involved also in the field of photoprinting. The company cooperates with professional photographers and gallerists who would appreciate the possibility of unambiguous detection of forgeries. This would have a very positive impact on this segment of the art graphics and photography market.
"Photography and graphic arts are becoming bigger and bigger investments. Art collectors are expanding their collections with digitally printed photographs and demanding a certificate confirming authorship, the uniqueness or limitation of the series and confirmation of long-term image permanence. The absence of such a certificate of authenticity is the first signal for caution. The proposed method may reveal the use of papers and inks with low archiving potential or, on the contrary, confirm long-term permanence, i.e. very slow ageing, for both the author of the image and the owner of the photograph," said Ing. Jan Kaiser, Ph.D., product manager at FOMEI, which is collaborating on the research with Faculty of Electrical Engineering.
The method can also influence other scientific disciplines
The hyperspectral imaging method has all the prerequisites to be applied, in addition to preservation of artistic heritage and archiving, for example in biology for monitoring plants under stress. The hyperspectral camera is able to distinguish between healthy plants and those that are infested with pests, suffering from water or nutrient deficiencies. Their stress is manifested by changes in physical properties such as spectral reflectance, which the camera can record. At the same time, researchers from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at CTU are verifying further possibilities of applying their method in other scientific and industrial fields.
