Please see the following description for a pre-conference workshop on multiband imaging that will be held at the 2026 AIC CAC Annual Meeting in Montreal on Wednesday, April 29.
Multiband Imaging: Getting started and ramping up
Wednesday, April 29, 2026, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
$165 registration fee; maximum 16 participants
Multiband imaging is an important tool for recording condition, informing the care and treatment, and increasing our understanding of manufacture and materials of heritage objects. However, it can be challenging to know where to start and how to increase capabilities. Multiband imaging offers a lot of flexibility for equipment and setups from low barrier to more complex, higher-end options. This workshop aims to provide participants with additional information and resources to help get started with multiband imaging and also expand capabilities based on equipment and setup.
Multiband imaging is a set of photographic techniques that use broadband wavelength ranges from longwave UV to near infrared, including visible light, to provide the visualization and spatial distribution of materials under different illumination. This can include but is not limited to reflected UV, UV-induced visible luminescence, reflected infrared, and visible-induced infrared luminescence imaging.
The first part of the workshop will include a panel representing different institutions and media specialties to share their multiband experiences and setups. Panelists will provide short presentations focused on how they got started with multiband imaging, where they are now, and where they want to go with their multiband imaging set-up. They will share current and past equipment uses and the limitations and goals that drove those choices. These short presentations will examine the various goals around imaging and how set-ups can morph and develop over time depending on goals, funding and the resources of the institution. Following the presentations there will be facilitated discussion and participant Q&A.
The second part of the workshop will include a hands-on component with demonstrations and an opportunity for participants to examine and test out cameras, filters, lenses, targets, and radiation sources. This will also allow for a deeper examination into how to choose equipment and build on existing set-ups. This section will aim to answer the following questions when choosing equipment: What are the limitations of some of the less expensive equipment? How can you evaluate the filters and radiation sources you have? What are the different targets and how are they used?
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E. Keats Webb
Imaging Scientist
Museum Conservation Institute
Smithsonian Institution
Suitland, MD
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