Whereas the VASARI system built a customized skeleton that would hold both the digital camera and the painting in a fixed position, we had no such luxury. Instead, we used the camera mount to fix our digital camera and the spectroradiometer in a constant position while taking images of the subject, our painting.

            The digital camera was placed 13.75 inches above the plane of the painting. In order to ensure that the camera was level, we measured equal distances from the top of the camera to the top of the mounting board at both ends of the camera.

            To the base of the camera mount we affixed a blank white sheet of paper. This paper covered up the registration grid on the camera mount. While the grid would have been useful, its pattern prevented our sub-image stitching software from working properly. Replacing the grid, we drew small tick marks on the white paper around the perimeter of the painting. These marks ensured that when we repositioned the painting to take a sub-image from a different section, the alignment of the new image would agree with our previous images.