British readers will be familiar with the BBC’s test image of a young girl with a clown which was a staple of British TV for many years. Within the image processing and science communities a standard test image, called Lena, or Lenna, of a young female model has been seen in tens of thousands of academic papers and at conferences since 1973. The original, taken from a Playboy centrefold, was to hand in a University of Southern California lab, and could be easily scanned.
Such images are designed to provide a familiar subject that can be used to test, for example, how new algorithms might impact the appearance of the image with a ‘real’ world subject.
Since the 1970s Lena has also been the subject of some complaint. The original is of Lena Söderberg by photographer Dwight Hooker and was cropped from a Playboy magazine centrefold. It has been criticised for reinforcing gender stereotypes within science and in having a detrimental impact on female science students. Today, the use of a centrefold image is simply inappropriate.
The Society’s Science Committee, under the chair of Mark Richardson ASIS FRPS, feels that it is time to update the original Lena image with fresh subjects which will also address the criticisms at a time when gender equality is firmly on the agenda. The Committee is launching a call to RPS members to provide a new standard image which can be made available under a Creative Commons licence to researchers and scientists in the image processing and scientific worlds.
If you would like to submit images, they should be uncompressed TIFFs, in Adobe RGB colour space, and the subject should show a wide dynamic range and colours, ideally with areas of flat colour and textures, and with no significant processing. After that the subject matters is open.
A small committee, including the chair of the Science Committee, the Society’s Imaging Science Journal publisher and RPS President, will select 10 images which will be made freely available for international use as a standard test image.
Submit up to three images via email at: [email protected]. If you’re chosen we will need high res versions and you will be asked to sign an agreement to make the image available under a CC licence. If you are photographing a model you will also need a signed release form.
Submission deadline: 14th September 2018
See more here: www.rps.org/lena.