9:09 a.m., March 9, 2010----The University of Delaware Division of Professional and Continuing Studies is partnering with the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works to offer a four-day workshop called “Digital Imaging for Conservators and Museum Professionals” to be held April 19-22 at UD's Downtown Center in Wilmington.

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“Digital Imaging for Conservators and Museum Professionals” teaches how to use digital photography to document the conservation process, and how to create photographic images to document objects and collections. Participants will learn to produce and archive conservation documentation images as well as operate a digital SLR (dSLR) camera. The emphasis will be on creating images using dSLR cameras, image processing in Adobe Photoshop, and image archiving using best practices.

Instructors Dawn Heller and Tim Vitale are seasoned educators in the conservation field who also practice in the private sector. They bring many years of real-world professional experience from careers in both private practice and within prominent institutions. They are co-authors of the book on which this workshop is based, the award winning AIC Guide to Digital Photography and Conservation Documentation (2008), published by the American Institute of Conservation (AIC).

Heller is teaching basic imaging procedures to conservation graduate students in the University of Delaware/Winterthur program. Several years ago she worked with faculty members to move the program to digital based documentation, completing a technology upgrade and networking of their imaging system as well as developing documentation photography workflows and teaching curriculum.

Vitale is a conservator of works on paper, photographs and electronic media practicing in Emeryville, Calif. He received a master of science degree in art conservation from the University of Delaware's Winterthur Program in American Material Culture in 1977.

Vitale has decades of conservation experience with over 40 years of photography experience. For 11 years he equipped and managed a film-based conservation photography studio at one of the Smithsonian's research laboratories. Fifteen years ago, he began to adopt a digital workflow and today half his practice is making digital surrogates from artworks, wallpaper and photographic negative originals.

Workshops will be a combination of one-on-one direction, small group collaboration, classroom instruction, and computer lab work. The focus will be on extensive hands-on camera work and image processing fundamentals, including color management. Participant interest will also drive the activity, and will help determine course emphasis.

The photography component of the course will take place in a classroom equipped with two of the most common conservation studio photography set-ups -- a copy stand and the typical tripod-based system -- as well as a range of lighting devices used in private practice and by museum professionals. Image development and processing, application of metadata, and file archiving will be practiced in a newly upgraded 20-station computer lab.

For more information, see the workshop Web page.