The new high-resolution image of The Night Watch represents a major advance in the state of the art for imaging paintings, setting records for both the resolution and the total size of the image. The sampling resolution is 5 µm (0.005 mm), meaning that each pixel covers an area of the painting that is smaller than a human red blood cell. Given the large size of The Night Watch, this results in a truly enormous image: it’s 925,000 by 775,000 pixels – 717 gigapixels – with a file size of 5.6 TB!
Grid
To create this huge image, the painting was photographed in a grid with 97 rows and 87 columns with our 100-megapixel Hasselblad H6D 400 MS camera. Each of these 8,439 separate photos was captured using a sophisticated laser-guided five-axis camera positioning system that can sense the precise location of the painting so that every photo is sharp – an error of even 1/8 mm in the placement of the camera would result in a useless image.
New technology
New technology allowed the previously-released 20 µm resolution image of The Night Watch to serve as the guide for lining up these much higher-resolution images during the process of fusing the individual captures into a single monolithic image. The technology allows each of the other types of images collected during Operation Night Watch to be precisely aligned with each other, thereby allowing all of our data to be seen in context.
Physical state of the painting
Why create such an incredibly huge image? With this resolution, we can very clearly see the precise physical state of the painting. Lead soap protrusions, tiny cracks, the shapes of individual paint pigment particles, past retouches, and the beautiful details of Rembrandt’s painting technique are all extraordinarily clear. This enables researchers to understand the painting’s condition in order to make the best plan for future conservation treatments. It helps us to better understand how Rembrandt painted, and it creates an exquisite 'snapshot’ of The Night Watch at this moment in its history.
