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‘Girl With A Pearl Earring’ Gets Captured At An Incredible 10 Billion Pixels
By Mikelle Leow, 21 Jan 2021
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Image by Geheugen van Nederland via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
You can now gaze at that coveted earring down to the last detail.
Johannes Vermeer’s celebrated Girl with a Pearl Earring painting has been photographed to remarkable detail—at 4.4 microns per pixel, to be exact.
The 17th-century masterpiece was extensively captured by Emilien Leonhardt and Vincent Sabatier of 3D digital microscope company Hirox Europe in order to better comprehend its surface condition, observe changes from previous restorations, and look out for cracks.
PetaPixel reported that 9,100 photos were automatically taken overnight by the Hirox 3D microscope and were pieced together to create a giant panorama. The picture is the first-ever 10 billion pixel panorama, the team describes. It spans 93,205 x 108,565 pixels, amounting to some 10,118 megapixels.
While most pixels in the painting measure at 4.4 microns each, Leonhardt and Sabatier focused on 10 specific areas and squeezed out more detail from those. The 10 features were captured at 1.1 microns per pixel, allowing the team to form an elaborate 3D image detailing the painting’s topography, which would offer insight on repair work and restorations made in the past.
To explore the immaculate panorama image, check out the dedicated website set up by Leonhardt and Sabatier.
Discover the girl: https://t.co/SjtfmU8D1q
— Hirox-Europe (@HiroxEurope) April 28, 2020
[via PetaPixel, cover image by Geheugen van Nederland via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)]
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