GOOD PICTURE 2016 – “Facets of Imaging”

GP2016 Publicity Image 2

On Saturday 10 December 2016, the Imaging Science Group of the Royal Photographic Society held another in its series of Good Picture tutorial seminars. This was the 14th in our series of annual Good Picture symposia. The aim of these lectures and discussions is to provide imaging practitioners, keen amateurs and students with insights into Digital Imaging and provide some tools and guidelines for assessing cameras and output.

The programme is detailed below.

Programme

Gary Evans FRAS ASIS FRPS: Smartphone Science
RPS Science Exhibition Coordinator
While the ubiquitous smartphone populates the pages of Snapchat and Instagram, few realise that with a bit of modification they can also be used to do science. Here we will see what can be done with a regular smartphone and a few accessories.

Dr. Martin Dury CPhys: Industrial Applications Of 3D Scanning
National Physical Laboratory
Fringe projectors, articulating arm coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) incorporating laser scanners and other types of portable 3D optical scanners are quickly being taken up onto manufacturing production lines and replacing Cartesian-based tactile probing CMMs because of their advanced metrology benefits, such as massively increased measurement speeds, equipment portability and relative ease when measuring freeform surfaces. Having been developed in the 1950s, Cartesian CMMs are well understood and trusted, while methods of verifying their performance are well established. In contrast, optical scanners, whose development has accelerated with increasing access to low cost, powerful computers and cheaper optics, are relatively new and still being developed. This presentation explains the evolution of dimensional measurement in industry from CMMs to optical scanners and describes the issues in transferring the latest technology from the laboratory to the factory floor and beyond.

Graham Relf FRAS: Astrophotography From Suburbia With An Unmodified DSLR
Freelance Photographer
I have experimented with narrow band filters in front of my DSLR to take deep-sky astrophotographs from light-polluted suburbia. The results far exceeded my expectations and, contrary to common wisdom, I was able to photograph H-alpha emissions without modifying the camera. I will show some results and explain how I obtained them.

Dr. Graeme Awcock Photographing Phoebe: A Case Study In Planetary Remote Sensing
School of Environment & Technology, University of Brighton
Phoebe is an enigmatic moon of Saturn with a retrograde orbit in an unusual plane, so it is an intriguing object with uncertain origins. Until the targeted flyby as part of the Cassini-Solstice mission to Saturn in June 2004 the best available image of this heavenly body had been captured by the Voyager mission, with a spatial resolution of approximately 2km /pixel. The Cassini spacecraft flew within 2000 km of Phoebe and brought its ISS and VIMS instruments to bear, achieving images with 30m spatial resolution and spectral information about surface composition, respectively. The presentation will review this case study of planetary remote sensing and shed some light on the Phoebe’s origins.

Matt Cass ABIPP ARPS MCSFS MIMI: Forensic Photography And Image Analysis
Acuity Forensics Ltd.
An introduction to aspects of working with imagery in Forensic investigation, from crime scene photography through to Image analysis in serious crime and civil cases. I will use a couple of case studies to illustrate some of the issues and also discuss the ‘CSI’ effect; that is what can and can’t actually be done in the way of image enhancement for a court of law.

Prof. Lindsay MacDonald ASIS FRPS: Using Transmission Filters for Multispectral
Research Fellow, University College London, Imaging, Visiting Professor, University of Westminster
A seemingly easy way to make a multispectral image set is to mount a camera on a copy-stand with white-light illumination and use a series of narrow-band transmission filters to capture the monochrome image in each waveband. There are various practical issues, however, that limit the quality achievable by this technique, such as the colour filter array and white balance processing in the camera, and the spectral power distribution of the illumination.

Dr. Alan Hodgson ASIS FRPS: Pinhole Camera Testing In The Digital Age
Alan Hodgson Consulting Ltd.
Pinhole cameras are well known, even in the digital age. But illuminated pinholes also make great test objects for camera systems. This presentation will show you how to make and use these yourself, and generate some interesting images into the bargain.