International Symposium on Technologies for Digital Photo Fulfillment (TDPF) 2019
Wednesday 2 October 2019
JOINT Print4Fab / TDPF Session
Quality and Longevity Testing for Photographic Output
Session Chairs: Joe LaBarca, Pixel Preservation International (US) and Nobuyuki Nakayama, Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. (Japan)
11:45 – 12:45
11:45 Subjective Image Quality Assessment Digitally Printed Images, Gaurav Sheth and Susan Farnand, Rochester Institute of Technology (US)
Smartphones have become ingrained in our daily activities, driving their cameras to become better with every generation. As more and more images are being taken by smartphones it has become increasingly important to assess the quality of the images taken by different phones. While many smartphone images are only viewed electronically, many images also get transformed into printed images, especially photobooks, as digital printing gets better and cheaper compared to traditional printing processes. The gap between electronic image and printed image is shrinking rapidly and it becomes important to study the transition of images from screen to paper. The main goal of this research was to perform a rank order experiment for assessing how smartphone image capture quality translates to printed images via several different digital printers. It was of interest to investigate whether the overall image quality on displays correlates well with printed image quality. The important aspect was to study was to observe if there is a loss of image quality depending on different digital printers,
12:05 Image Permanence of Photographic Prints under LED Lighting, Hiroshi Ishizuka1, Evert Groen2, Nobuhiko Uchino1, Yoshi Shibahara1, and Shin Soejima1; 1FUJIFILM Corporation (Japan) and 2FUJIFILM Europe B.V. (the Netherlands)
LED (Light Emitting Diode) lighting has been widely used as a major light source to illuminate photographic prints. However, the effects of LED lighting on image stability of prints are not clear. Light stability tests were carried out using some commercially available white LED lamps, and the fading behaviour was compared to the standardised Xe light testing, which simulates indirect sunlight indoors. It was clarified that fading under LED lighting is less than under Xe lighting, but it correlates well with Xe testing regarding the order of print materials in light stability. The effects of the correlated colour temperature (CCT) and the excitation wavelength of LED lamps were also studied. As a result, it has been confirmed that the dependence on the CCT is not significant, but LED lamps with shorter excitation wavelengths are more harmful to the light stability of photographic prints. Based on these results, a guideline for determining the standard test condition for LED light stability of photographic prints will be proposed.
12:25 Endpoint Criteria for Evaluation of Image Permanence of Photographic Prints, Hiroshi Ishizuka1, Evert Groen2, Nobuhiko Uchino1, Yoshi Shibahara1, Shin Soejima1, and Wil der Kinderen2; 1FUJIFILM Corporation (Japan) and 2FUJIFILM Europe B.V. (the Netherlands)
Light-fading tests were conducted for the several consumer and commercial photographic prints which were available in the current market. The print life of those photographic prints was evaluated subjectively using some sets of endpoint criteria, and also assessed visually by observers. It was confirmed that the evaluation based on the colour difference produced results that correlated well with those of the visual assessment.
Interactive Paper Session/ Demonstrations/Exhibits/ Lunch Provided
13:30 – 15:15
Materials and Technologies Enabling Quality Photo Products
Session Chair: Joseph LaBarca, Pixel Preservation International (US)
15:15 – 18:00
15:15 How AI is Actually Supporting the Photo Products Ordering, Reiner Fageth, CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA (Germany)
Finding the best images on the mobile phone between all the food porn and convenience photos makes the selection process even more time consuming than it was while changing from analogue to digital cameras.
In this paper we will describe how AI based evaluations such as object detection, face recognition, finding near duplicates and convenience images can be combined also with classical algorithms and heuristics to prove the user a compelling suggestion that he or she then can easily modify. The implementation is shown on mobile phones as well in desktop and online based photo ordering solutions. Also, a search function including these tasks will be presented in order to combine these features for finding relevant images or events to be placed, e.g. in a photobook for compelling story telling. The relevance of object and person detection will be proven while re-presenting (presented on Electronic Imaging 2019 in Burlingame) a manually made evaluation of images placed in CEWE photobooks but the first time brought into this AI based feature extraction context.
The paper will also address the demand for resolution enhancement for images downscaled by social apps such as Facebook or WhatsApp. Image samples will be evaluated and shown while being processed by GAN networks.
Finally we will present first attempts to combine these results with speech recognition in order to offer beside the keyboard, mouse and touchscreen another interaction possibility with digital systems while using spoken messages such as: “Present me a photobook with images from Lara and Nadine from the last holidays on Kos in Greece”. The near product-based usage of this technology is the CEWE Photo diary which will be presented as the actual use case. Text spoken will be analyzed and keywords are automatically extracted and images on linked online platforms are therefore analyzed and linked to a document containing the text and the images in a nice (of course printable) layout.
15:45 The Importance of Dark Keeping Factors in Determining Overall Image Permanence of Photographs—2019 Update with Pigment Inkjet, Patrick W. Webber, Kodak Alaris Inc. (US)
Traditional reporting of the image permanence of photographs has tended to primarily focus on light stability. The reality of how consumers use and store prints is that the vast majority of the print life is stored in the dark. The dark stability of traditional silver halide photographic paper was primarily driven by thermal affects. However many of the newer digital material used for photographic prints are susceptible to additional dark factors including humidity, and atmospheric pollutants can result in predicted life times being significantly shorter than reported by light stability data alone. This paper will review these additional dark factors and provide comparisons to traditional silver halide photographic paper and provide an update to the 2018 paper. Additionally the paper will include the dark factor impact on pigment inkjet on porous media photographic products.
16:15 Recent History of Kodak EKATCOLOR Papers—Enabling the Photo Fulfillment Industry, Joseph E. LaBarca, Pixel Preservation International (US)
The past 40 years of product development in Kodak EKATCOLOR papers has been a very interesting one. Many changes to the emulsion and imaging technologies were related to image quality, image permanence, and product performance for the photographic processing labs. Several required major changes to the processing chemistry to enable product improvements. Enabling the revolution of photographic printing technology from analog to digital was also a key driver of product changes over the past 20 years, seeing EKTACOLOR papers evolve from analog capability only, to both analog and digital capabilities. While changes to the emulsion and processing technologies may not be directly relevant to the professional finishing lab or the end consumer, their indirect benefits of production efficiencies and reduced costs are certainly beneficial. Changes to other technologies, including imaging and paper base technologies, have a direct impact. All together these improvements have enabled silver halide photographic paper in general, and EKTACOLOR papers in particular, to provide a high volume, high quality, and low cost printing solution in the digital photography age. Additionally, improvements leading to high longevity provide the end consumer with an optimal means for long term preservation of important events in their lives. This paper will review the product history of EKTACOLOR papers from 1975 to the present, and will include technology changes and the benefits they provided to both the photo fulfillment industry and end users. Full paper available on IS&T Digital Library.
16:45 – 17:00 Coffee Break
Stimulation of Printing via Instant Print Technologies
Session Chair: Joseph LaBarca, Pixel Preservation International (US)
17:00 – 17:45
Group Discussion: Stimulation of Printing via Instant Print Technologies
With the advent of digital photography, hardcopy output has dropped precipitously as it is no longer required to view images. A focused effort of TDPF has been to promote the value of hardcopy as a supplement to viewing images on screen. Now, with the growth of “portable pocket printers”, millennials are being exposed to hardcopy output, many for the first time. This discussion will focus on ways of leveraging these new printing technologies to expand output into premium, larger format, higher