Re: SUBSCRIBE INFRARED-PHOTOGRAPHY SCOTT DONKIN

[Scott Donkin <photos@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At 03:54 PM 22/10/96 +0100, you wrote:
>On Tue, 22 Oct 1996 14:38:12 +0100, you wrote:
>
>|What is the purpose of using IR for paintings? Isn't that how they are
>|able to see if anything is painted underneath? I always thought that was
>|funny. Having painted for a number of years I painted over a few things
>|occasionally, but, believe me they weren't anything I would have wanted
>|anyone to see. Isn't IR supposed to be good for copying old documents? I
>
>Kodak's old _Applied Infrared Photography_ booklet, if you can find a
>copy, provides some interesting uses of IR in "reading" writing that
>has been covered over, is on a discolored surface (blackened Dead Sea
>scrolls, for instance), or has faded at the surface so that it is
>invisible to pan film but readily discernible to IR.  There also is a
>repaired painting examined under pan, UV, UV florescence, IR, and IR
>luminescence conditions.  The emphasis is entirely on detecting the
>repairs, and IR luminescence is shown to be the most effective at
>doing that.

Hi Bob

Yeah, good book that one.  The pics you refer to are a very good
illustration of what can be found.

A lot of people wanting to photograph paintings under IR for the first time
expect to find a Rembrandt - or at least, my first-time clients think that's
what they'll get.

The one thing to keep in mind, for the beginner, is:

Providing there really is something under the surface paint (of a painting),
then the underlying work must be less transparent to IR than the top layers.
Ie, it is not good having a painting whose top layers are bullet-proof!  8-)

In essence, you are often playing with blind luck.  Then again, it is often
a lot of fun.   8-)


Cya...

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Topic No. 26