[imagesource:here]

We’re all sick to death of Zoom (“Can you hear me now? What about now? Sorry, there’s a bit of a lag, what did you say?”), but this is something different.

Also, hello to all the Johannes Vermeer fans out there.

In case you don’t know, ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ is a famous oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter, believed to have been completed in around 1665.

Vermeer only produced 36 known works in his lifetime. ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’, one of his most famous, resides permanently in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, which has temporarily closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.

No bother, reports PetaPixel, because Emilien Leonhardt and Vincent Sabatier have created a rather high-res scan to get you through:

…they photographed Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” at an incredible resolution to allow anyone to see the painting down to the level of 4.4-microns per pixel.

The project was undertaken in order to evaluate the surface condition of the painting, measure cracks, and see the topography of various key areas while assessing past restorations.

With their specialized equipment, the duo made what Leonhardt describes as the first 10 billion pixel panorama (93,205 x 108,565). That equates to about 10,118 megapixels.

10 billion pixels – let that soak in.

Here’s a little video detailing how the project came about:

Alright, I have feigned interest long enough.

If you want to dabble in some extreme, 10 billion pixel zooming, you can do so here.

It’s your Friday afternoon, you spend it how you please.

[source:petapixel]