A Study on Digital Color Reproduction for Recording Color Appearance of Cultural Heritage

Abstract

The color appearance of cultural heritage are essential factors for manufacturing technique interpretation, conservation treatment usage, and condition monitoring. Therefore, this study systematically established color reproduction procedures based on the digital color management system for the portrait of Gwon Eungsu. Moreover, various application strategies for recording and conserving the cultural heritage were proposed. Overall color reproduction processes were conducted in the following order: photography condition setting, standard color measurements, digital photography, color correction, and color space creation. Therefore, compared with the color appearance, the digital image applied to a camera maker profile indicated an average color difference of Δ10.1. However, the digital reproduction result based on the color management system exhibits an average color difference of Δ1.1, which is close to the color appearance. This means that although digital photography conditions are optimized, recording the color appearance is difficult when relying on the correction algorithm developed by the camera maker. Therefore, the digital color reproduction of cultural heritage is required through color correction and color space creation based on the raw digital image, which is a crucial process for documenting the color appearance. Additionally, the recording of color appearance through digital color reproduction is important for condition evaluation, conservation treatment, and restoration of cultural heritage. Furthermore, standard data of imaging analysis are available for discoloration monitoring.