Stitching it all Together, an example
The final stage in this process, of course, was the mammoth task of stitching together and finalizing all of the object images taken over the course of the project. With some oversized objects requiring more than 20 individual images that needed to be stitched together, and just over 400 textiles photographed, the sheer scope of photo editing required on the back end of this project staggers! Juan has been a champion, powering through this daunting mountain of files to create the object record images you see throughout this exhibition, in addition to the many others now attached to object records in our collections management system, MuseumPlus.
During this stitching process, Juan discovered some unique challenges that some textiles presented. As Juan mentioned in his page about textile photography, stitching images together requires anchor points to give the software something to link the images. The computer is then able to overlap and merge the images, paying attention to fine detail in the process. As Juan discovered, sometimes the software's attention to detail was too fine; despite the presence of anchor points, the software would get hung up on changes in the weave or texture of the textile, forcing him to stitch images manually. Another step in stitching is ultimately removing these anchor points from the final image, as an object record image would look odd with color check squares scattered all over its surface. This can be done in photoshop, but it is another step in the process to creating the final object image.
Another difficulty (quirk?) presented by this endeavor lay in marrying the shapes of the object to the medium of photography. As an example, take this Indonesian Temple hanging. This dragon banner, one of a pair photographed during this project, is over 30 feet long, and its tapering shape leading to a heart cut from sheet tin created challenges throughout the photography process. It required multiple images to be stitched together, and for much of its surface, the flaming pearl motifs in the design could serve as the anchor points. Additionally, that shiny heart posed plenty of problems in creating an image that wasn't all reflected light! When it came to combining the photos together, however, we are left with this final image, which the team is affectionately calling 'the toothbrush.' In order to view all of the pieces of this skinny, loooong banner into a single image, we are left with a rather unimpressive strip on a grey field when in reality this textile is larger than life in so many ways.
This banner and the object image for it, which we are thrilled to have, remind us of the privilege we have to work with and steward these collections. We are fortunate to care for and work with collections from cultures around the world every day. In creating this virtual exhibition, we aim to share both those collections and a small part of the work we do to care for them, but we realize that sometimes the objects can best speak for themselves. We hope you enjoyed Off the Roll and that you will visit the museum in person, and see what we have on exhibit in our gallery.
This page has paths:
- Textiles Photography Project Jessica Nelson