Second day data

Thursday was the second day of scanning and photography (pictures of the scanning work can be found here). On Wednesday, we finished the top 1.5 metres or so of the cross from the 2 metre lift. On Thursday morning, the team from Solway construction came and removed the top level of scaffolding and we scanned and photographed the next metre or so (roughly equivalent to the Magdalen panel on the South face). After lunch the team from Solway came back and removed the rest of scaffolding and we began working on the lower half of the cross from the church floor and pit.

Today, we’re finishing scanning in the pit: the crew did a first pass on the lowest 2 metres or so yesterday afternoon. The area is quite tight and difficult to work in however (there’s less than a metre between the North side of the cross and the wall of the pit and, at the narrowest point the space is further constrained by a donation box that sticks out into the pit at head height). Reviewing the results last night, they determined that they’ll need to redo part of that work. Then they’ll finish the scanning by capturing the remaining three sides (which actually means doing five sets of scans, since the crew progress round the monument in 45° intervals). This should go more quickly, because there is a fair bit more space on the other sides of the cross.

We returned to the church last night and completed all the night photography between 10 and midnight. By now we’ve worked out a fairly smooth procedure, especially for the flat-light photography that will provide textures for the 3D model: Heather and Roberto use hand held LED (cool) lights at roughly the height of the camera from angles approaching 90° on the each side of the photographer (James). Then they move down 20 cm or so and do it again (Although we’d initially brought tripods for both lights and camera, in the end we found this to be the best method).

The raked-light photography was more difficult last night. For the top raked photography, we needed to work from the church floor, which meant on all but the North side of the cross, we were too far away to use hand-held lights. With the tripods and careful spotting, we were able to get some raked light above the photographer, though the angles are certainly not as sharp as with our work on the top part of the cross the night before. Fortunately, however, the bottom 2 metres are the easiest to see and photograph and so the part people are most familiar with. Bottom raked lighting was as effective as the previous night, since access was not a problem and Roberto and Heather we able to get the lights easily and safely into position.

In addition to the scanning and photography of the cross, James spent the afternoon acquiring textures and panoramic shots of the church and church yard for our proposed model of the church itself (while we expect our interface to develop in conjunction with our work with the data, one of the ideas we are considering is editing the cross in the context of the church and church yard: initially this might involve simply recreating the modern presentation; but given how closely the details of the reconstruction are tied to the history and geography of the kirk (and Kirk), we are also coming round to the idea that our edition will need to present the cross both synchronically and diachronically).