Advanced photographic methods in studying ship graffiti from medieval churches in Nessebar

Abstract

This article discusses the application of advanced computational photographic techniques in recording and surveying graffiti from medieval and post-medieval churches in the historical town of Nessebar on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), Close-range photogrammetry, and Gigapixel panorama photography were used in a project for the documentation and research of historical graffiti in four churches in Nessebar. The project aims to create a complete record and database of these important historical monuments accord- ing to modern standards making the most of advanced technical opportunities for scientific documentation. The authors demonstrate the advantages of these techniques in the recording and the study of the graffiti in greater detail than was possible before, as well as in the assess- ment of their state of preservation and the opportunities for their publication and presentation at high standards. In order to evaluate the performance of the methods during the analysis process, the novel dataset of ship graffiti was compared to earlier research studies.