Panoramic Composite Photography is a 2D non-contact method for capturing the color surface of objects such as works of art. A specialist version of the technique can capture accurate and high-resolution color of flat or gently curved surfaces like paintings or murals.
This involves using a static telephoto lens to shoot several portions of the same work, creating overlapping high-resolution images of the surface and color. In post-production, the photographs are merged with free software PTGui to create one large image file. PTGui corrects geometric distortions resulting from the camera’s position in the center of the painting, whose corners are further away from the lens than the center. Specific lighting and tricks such as polarized filters, together with the ‘mosaic’ shooting technique, allow for as much data as possible to be recorded, canceling out reflections and ensuring faithful color to the original.