Increased Resolution in Black and White Film Digitization Utilizing a Narrow Bandpass Light Source

Abstract

In an effort to preserve and to provide access to their collections of black and white film negatives, many institutions (museums, libraries, archives, etc) are digitizing these collections. Several international committees were formed to define the needed image quality and created digitization guidelines with specifics for different material types to ensure that collection materials are properly documented and digitally preserved. Current practices for digitizing black and white negatives involve many different technologies, most of which incorporate broad-band "white" light sources. To assist with black and white film digitization image quality improvement efforts and standardizations, the author explores the benefits of utilizing a camera sensor without a color filter array and differing narrow-band light sources to mitigate image degradation caused by diffraction and chromatic change of focus. This thesis demonstrates that utilizing this technique enhances the optical resolution, or modulation transfer function, of the imaging setup with minimal drawbacks as is discussed in this thesis.