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<\/a>Holocaust memorial in the sunlight. Image by M. Heizer February 2017.<\/p>\nFast forward two years, and I am still working on this project. This past summer I returned to the cemetery to volunteer with the class, and came up with the brilliant idea (if I do say so myself) to apply for a Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Award<\/a>, allowing me to continue working in the cemetery outside of this class. I received the JCURA<\/a>, meaning that I received a scholarship and had 8 months to work through my proposed research project, before presenting it with the other award recipients from all over campus and a range of departments.<\/p>\n A basic overview of the project:<\/strong><\/p>\n To perform burial monument photography, looking at lost inscriptions using RTI and photogrammetry. These records are to be added to the in progress database of burial records being compiled for the Emanu-El congregation, and the greater community.<\/p>\n RTI Photography<\/strong> \u2013 By using an external flash, we were able to take images of the chosen burial monuments. The camera is set up above or in front of the stone, depending on its placement in the cemetery. Using a remote shutter release, we then take a series of photographs with the flash being moved for each image, highlighting the stone from different angles and positions. This part of the process could take up to an hour and a half, depending on the weather, the flash\u2019s willingness to cooperate, and our technical abilities. We would take between 50 and 120 images, give or take.<\/p>\n Melanie Heizer pictured setting up RTI. Image by Myriam Desgroseillers February 21st 2017.<\/p><\/div>\n The next stage of this technique was marginally faster than the image capture portion. This part was the image processing. If we shot in RAW image format, there was a long process of converting the files to JPEGs. Next, the images get run through software called RTIbuilder, provided by the Cultural Heritage Imaging<\/a> group. After the images were rendered into one large file, called a Polynomial Texture Map (.ptm), we could manipulate the angle from which the light came from, highlighting different parts of the stone and illuminating the inscriptions to varying degrees. In total, this process, from start to finish, took me upto 3-4 hours per monument. This does not including the image type conversion, one evening I spent 4 hours converting each image manually. Needles to say, I was not using the most efficient program, and later figured out how to do a batch change of all the images at once.<\/p>\n Wolf Casper – RTI. Before (L) and after (R). RTI surface normals abnormal, but workable. Images by Zoe Deneault, Melanie Heizer and Kim Kuffner, June 2015.<\/p><\/div>\n Photogrammetry \u2013 <\/strong>As you will quickly see, this is my personal favorite photographic technique for this particular project. Compared to RTI, photogrammetry was far less time consuming and less complicated. Camera calibration is necessary before beginning the photographic process. To do this we chose a surface to photograph that was textured, had depth, and was long enough for us to take photographs from three depths in a triangular format.<\/p>\n<\/a>Melanie Heizer Presenting Jamie Cassels\u00a0Undergraduate Research Award. Image by Dr. Erin McGuire\u00a0March 8th 2017<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>