The article describes the implementation of a digital processing program to improve and restore images of museum and archival objects obtained using non-invasive research methods. The practical meaning of this work is to reduce the influence of the human factor on the results of the study, automate the process of diagnosis and obtaining information through numerical processing: improvement, restoration and detailing of image fragments.

A.V. Korchilava, S.P. Elkin, D.S. Prokuratov. Application of digital image correction methods for the analysis of historical objects and cultural heritage // Petersburg Historical Journal, no. 4, 2022, pp. 145–163

Abstract:
The article describes the implementation of a digital processing program to improve and restore images of museum and archival objects obtained using non-invasive research methods. Each object stores a lot of information, and before the introduction of a laboratory approach to the study of historical objects, it could only be obtained by attribution, that is, stylistic analysis, where the examination is carried out by a qualified art historian “by eye”. This method has many disadvantages, such as the human factor, since the main research tool for attribution is the eye, and the database is a complex of knowledge and information, theoretical and practical training of a particular specialist. Efforts to solve such problems have led to the need to develop and improve laboratory methods of analysis for further research, restoration and preservation of museum objects for future generations. In this work, an X-ray study of a private painting by an unknown artist was carried out on the basis of the laboratory of scientific restoration of the State Hermitage Museum. The images obtained during such studies allow you to look into the internal structure of the sample and view the stratigraphic picture layer by layer: to detect internal defects requiring restoration, previous sketches of the author or hidden inscriptions and sketches. The analysis of the obtained images after laboratory scanning has the same disadvantages as attribution — a human factor that can affect the quality of the search for the features of the work of art and defects in the image. The practical meaning of this work is to reduce the influence of the human factor on the results of the study, automate the process of diagnosis and obtaining information through numerical processing: improvement, restoration and detailing of image fragments.

Keywords:
radiography, digital processing, contrast, brightness, equalization, filtering, image enhancement, image restoratio.

Author:
Korchilava, Alina Vadimovna — Junior Research Assistant, St. Petersburg Institute of History, Russian Academy of Sciences.
E-mail: kor4ilava@itmo.ru

Author:
Elkin, Sergey Pavlovich — Master Degree Student, ITMO University.
E-mail: sip28@mail.ru

Author:
Prokuratov, Denis Sergeevich — Junior Research Assistant, State Hermitage Museum.
E-mail: denis.prokuratov@gmail.com

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