Reproducing Raphael with a Phase One IQ4 camera

10 March 20205 min readTripont Heritage editorial team

Renaissance portrait of a woman in a turban in a gilded frame

The Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, as part of the Humanities Section of the Max Planck Society, is one of the world’s best-known art-history research institutes, dedicated to research into Italian and global art history and architecture. The institution was founded by Henriette Hertz (1846–1913) in 1913 as a private foundation, as a research centre of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft. It is one of the Max Planck institutes that is not located in Germany.

“This is a fantastic picture!” says Enrico Fontolan of the Fotothek, the photo library of the Bibliotheca Hertziana, pointing at the computer screen showing the reproduction of a painting. “‘La Fornarina’, or ‘The Baker’s Daughter’, is one of Raphael’s best-known portraits. The woman depicted is assumed to have been the lover of the famous Renaissance artist,” Mr Fontolan tells us about the painting, made around 1519. “The richness of detail, the vivid, almost three-dimensional rendering is simply stunning!” he adds. He made the reproduction of the painting with the Phase One XF IQ4 150MP camera at the National Gallery of Ancient Art in the Palazzo Barberini, in the centre of Rome.

Image quality that supports research

The Phase One XF IQ4 150MP offers higher resolution than any other full-frame or medium-format camera. “We bought this camera about a year ago, because we wanted to work with the best solution available on the market,” says the Fotothek staff member. Since the physical size of the sensor is also significantly larger than that of the system they had used before, they expected a significant improvement in image quality from the Phase One IQ4, and this was borne out in practice. “But it is not only the higher resolution that matters,” the Fotothek specialist continues, “colour reproduction and the extremely high dynamic range of up to 15 stops are also important. These images with a huge tonal range are much richer in detail, which greatly helps scientific research. This becomes especially evident when we shoot with available light on location, or take backlit images, for example when photographing historic buildings or outdoor statues. When I expose for the shadows, the brightest details are still preserved.”

Cutting-edge technology for researchers

The aim of the Bibliotheca Hertziana is to research Italian art and architecture from the age of early Christianity to the present day, with particular attention to the architecture and monuments of the city of Rome. Photographic documentation is one of the main tasks of the Max Planck Society. “The photograph collection of the Bibliotheca Hertziana is one of the world’s leading art-history photo archives,” says art historian Dr Johannes Röll, head of the Fotothek. “Our task is to document the history of Italian art and culture in as much detail and as up to date as possible.” Their work ranges from the photographic documentation of works of art to the detailed study of buildings, frescoes and paintings that are controversially discussed in current research or have recently been restored. They also run photographic campaigns lasting months, in which they photograph entire galleries, museums or palaces for research purposes.

According to the Fotothek staff, the key to success is producing images with the maximum data and information content. “The more detail a photograph contains, the greater its value for art-history research,” says Röll. “Colour reproduction, richness of detail and resolution are all of particular importance, since we often make images for the study of objects on which, for practical or conservation reasons, this cannot be done on the originals.” High-resolution images make the comparative analysis of details possible, which may even lead to a reassessment of works of art or architectural monuments. “The extremely high image quality of the Phase One camera system truly supports scientific research, and thereby scientific progress,” says Röll.

Minimal post-processing thanks to Capture One Inside

But what is it like to work with the Phase One camera system? “I was particularly surprised by the camera’s flexibility during shoots on location outdoors,” answers Enrico Fontolan. “One reason is the touchscreen and the built-in RAW processing algorithm. So it is not necessarily required to shoot controlled from a computer, because I can check the image directly on the display of the digital back.” The specialist stresses that the whole workflow has become more flexible and, above all, faster, and that the need for post-processing has dropped drastically compared with their earlier way of working. “The main reason is that the camera already does a significant part of the RAW processing. In post-processing only the fine-tuning remains to be done.”

The innovation Fontolan refers to is Capture One Inside. “This name covers the image-processing algorithm integrated into the IQ4, which is based on the built-in software framework, the Infinity Platform, and offers previously unimaginable RAW file handling options,” explains Gerald Schnittger, Phase One’s regional director, who supported the team at the Roman research institute in using the new camera system. “The first phase of image editing and processing, which was previously possible only with the Capture One software running on a computer connected to the camera, can now be done within the IQ4 as well.”

Uncovering the secrets of art history with multispectral imaging

But the Phase One system is capable of even more. “There is no infrared filter in front of the sensor of our back, so for general photography tasks we put an IR filter on our lenses,” says Fontolan. “So to capture multispectral images, we only need to remove this filter, so that we can also shoot with illumination outside the range of visible light, using the same digital back. We use the multispectral photography technique to uncover the hidden secrets of works of art.”

Dr Johannes Röll, head of the Fotothek, explains: “Thanks to this procedure, we can gain insight into the history of works of art. We can reveal preparatory drawings beneath oil paintings, or find indications that a painting was not made by the given artist but, say, by a member of his workshop, in his name and style. In addition, the camera system also helps to detect forgeries. The Phase One XF IQ4 can reveal information that is invisible to the human eye, and can therefore contribute to the reinterpretation of a work.”