Painting characterization using photometric stereo and spectral unmixing

Abstract

In this study, we apply two non-invasive techniques to obtain surface and spectral characteristics of oil on canvas paintings. Photometric stereo was applied on a framed painting revealing 3D structure of the canvas weave. Independent Component Analysis (ICA) was applied on spectral reflectance of 5 paint patches which are mixtures of different proportions of Cadmium Yellow and Cobalt Blue pigments. The reflectance of each original pigment were sufficiently recovered .