Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum has released what it calls the highest resolution photograph of artwork ever recorded. It is reported that the photo has a total of 8439 individual 100 million pixel exposures stitched together, thus forming this 717 billion pixel rembrandt famous painting image.
This is a magnificent work, measuring 363 cm × 437 cm, and it perfectly demonstrates Rembrandt's legendary mastery of light and shadow.
To create this monster-like digital twin, the Rijksmuseum's "Operation Night Watch" research team had to do it meticulously. Mounted on a special boom, the Hasselblad H6D accomplished the job. Because each photo has a depth of field of only 125 microns or about 1/8 millimeter (0.005 inch), the team used lasers to scan the surface of the painting, fine-tune the focus before each shot, and use a neural network to ensure optimal color and sharpness for each exposure.
The distance between the pixels is only 5 microns, and each pixel itself represents a space smaller than a human red blood cell, and now there are tons of detail for The Night Watch researchers and other art historians to explore — as well as a neural network that can help compare pigment particles and lead soap usage for drawing entire paintings.
In addition to being able to conduct various studies, track deterioration over time and preserve the work before it begins restoration and re-stretching later this month, this is an opportunity to get close to Rembrandt's work.
It is reported that people can also see some other details on it, such as the slight scars left by the painting after being cut with a knife in 1975 and repaired.