Digitising cultural artefacts is crucial for preserving and sharing heritage with future generations. From October 7th to 18th, 2024, I had the privilege of contributing to a two-week project at Chiddingstone Castle in Kent as part of the Ishibashi Digital Futures initiative. This project focused on developing best practices for digitising Japanese lacquerware and metalwork, under the guidance of Dr Ryoko Matsuba, Lecturer in Japanese Digital Arts and Humanities at the Sainsbury Institute. Alongside two research assistants, I worked to document and digitise the Japanese art collection at Chiddingstone Castle.
Team Workflow
Our team was divided into two working stations to optimise the workflow: A and B. Dr Matsuba led station A where the objects were being photographed from fixed viewpoints while the objects themselves were rotated every 45 degrees if the pattern on the object appeared different from each angle, so there would be eight photos taken per round, ensuring comprehensive visual documentation. The only requirement was to either adjust the angle and positioning of the fixed camera on top of the stand or adjust the light beam (including the intensity, direction, and height). Adjustments to the camera’s positioning, light intensity, height, and angles were meticulously made to accommodate each object’s unique features.
At Station B, my partner and I worked with an overhead camera mounted on a copy stand. This setup allowed us to photograph objects from both top and bottom perspectives. The height of the camera can be adjusted by pulling the clamp up and down. We placed a mirror in the centre of the photo studio light box and adjusted the camera angle so that it was in the centre. Our third teammate, Chao Chi, managed the post-processing tasks, including renaming the image files with correct accession numbers, sorting them into appropriate folders, and cataloguing the objects, which involved translating Japanese inscriptions found on the artefacts.
Challenges and Solutions
At the start, my partner and I focused on smaller objects, such as small Japanese lacquered sake cups, to refine our technique before working our way up. These items posed significant challenges due to their highly reflective surfaces, often resulting in white glare or shadows obscuring the intricate patterns. Achieving accurate colour representation of the objects was another hurdle because, with a longer shutter speed, we could minimise the shadow on the object. However, the image would appear more washed out, resulting in an inauthentic representation of the object’s colours. As we took photographs of each object twice – one top and one bottom view – we discovered that the objects’ convex and concave shapes required different light and background settings.
Because of that, we devised strategies to address these issues through constant experimentation. When we took a picture of the object’s bottom view, we would also take out another object with similar size and shape to capture the bottom view again to minimise lighting adjustments, before flipping over to take pictures of the top views. This required close communication with our teammate managing the cataloguing process to ensure he grouped the right images in a folder and maintained consistency across the workflow.
As we progressed, we eventually moved on to larger and more complex objects made of various materials (like lacquerware, metalwork, and wood), such as rectangular boxes, shallow trays with intricate patterns, and multi-layered three-dimensional objects. To achieve the most authentic representation of these artefacts, my partner and I experimented with different shutter speeds; apertures (ranging from 140 to 180); and using white colour balance to check whether the colours were rendered correctly or not. Using black background cards helped us to reduce glare and white cards to soften shadows, ensuring the details of the patterns were captured without obstructions. Tracing paper also proved invaluable throughout the digitisation process because it diffused the light evenly to avoid overexposure while highlighting the subtle textures of the objects to enhance their three-dimensionality.
Reflection
While I had limited experience working with three-dimensional objects before joining this project, it had certainly been a challenging but rewarding experience. I gained various hands-on experiences in manoeuvring the camera, adjusting the light angles, and adjusting every possible piece of equipment to see how the objects could be captured more faithfully in photographs. The process reinforced the importance of flexibility, problem-solving, and effective communication with my partners (Eleonora, Merry, Jaime). I appreciated that each object was unique and that no solution can be applied universally to all objects.
The most satisfying moments came when we successfully captured an object in a way that faithfully represented its form, texture, and colour, although compromises were sometimes necessary due to technical limitations. This experience has also deepened my appreciation for the complexities of cultural heritage digitisation, where traditional craftsmanship meets modern technology. I hope to continue contributing to similar projects that ensure the accessibility and preservation of such invaluable collections as we move forward with 3D digitisation.
You can read about past digitisation workshops, that have taken place at Chiddingstone here and here.
Charlotte Mang
(MA Digital Humanities Graduate, University College London)