16. The LML Method

Описание: Damon Crockett, Lead Scientist, LML

The Lens Media Lab has spent the past six years developing and refining a suite of methods for characterizing and analyzing the material properties of gelatin silver photographic paper. These methods include a unique measurement protocol designed to capture the native material variability in photographic paper samples; a compact model of the “expressive” dimensions of photographic paper (thickness, color, gloss, and texture); a custom iconographic representation of expressiveness we call the “glyph”; a proprietary method of capturing paper texture using a “texturescope”, a lab invention that produces raking light micrographs; a novel method of processing texture micrographs that has been validated by direct surface measurements using an optical profilometer; a clustering algorithm designed specifically for grouping art photographs against a reference background; a custom algorithm for visualizing high-dimensional clusters; novel computer vision algorithms for measuring fading and yellowing in photographic prints; a unique method for quantifying UV fluorescence using spectral color data; and a number of specialized communication formats, including both static reports and interactive data applications. The lab’s methods are informed by an interpretive framework that privileges fast, inexpensive forms of measurement that scale easily, require little training, and are validated by comparisons with slower, more expensive “gold standard” methods; repeatable measurement standards that encourage cross-collection comparability; machine perception, for its precision and lack of susceptibility to human perceptual biases; and the inclusion of a reference collection as an interpretive standard.