Zoom and Enhance
If you’ve ever seen a crime-themed film or television show, you have no doubt heard a character–generally a detective or investigator–instruct a lowly technician to “zoom and enhance” some bit of surveillance video. No matter how distant or grainy the footage, the technician merely turns a few knobs on a console, and, ta da!, perfect high-definition video quality. It’s ridiculous. Or so I thought.
Tonight the History Channel is broadcasting a special entitled Stealing Lincoln’s Body. “Outstanding”, I thought when I saw the listing, since not only is the Rays vs. Red Sox game currently on a rain delay in the ninth inning, but I am a passionate Lincoln fan, and am presently reading David Herbert Donald’s wonderful biography of the greatest of all Americans. History Channel productions, however, have frequently failed to impress me, commonly employing silly reenactments, and generally lacking the authoritative scholarship associated with PBS efforts. Stealing Lincoln’s Body has some slightly silly reenactments, sure, but it is much better than average for a History Channel project. And it has something else that struck me as revolutionary.
Describing Lincoln’s funeral procession through New York City, a famous image of a young Theodore Roosevelt observing Lincoln’s coffin passing beneath his window is shown. But, like magic, the image appears to come to life, and from the apparent distance at which the photo was taken, the camera zooms in on the two figures in the window, and, lo, there is the boy Roosevelt. They zoomed and enhanced! They did it with a couple other historic photos, too, and each time the effect was startling.
I’m sorry I ever doubted you, television detectives.
Filed under: History, Technology, Television on April 16th, 2010
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