The goal is not to map an entire museum. It is to preserve one encounter well enough that its claims can be checked.
00—05 / Name the room
Record museum, date, gallery or floor where known, entry point and current section title. Check the official map instead of inventing a room name.
05—10 / Mark your spot
Choose a permitted standing point clear of traffic. Note direction faced and a stable architectural reference. Your image begins here, not at the object.
10—18 / Make the whole frame
Include threshold, floor, cases and anchor. Keep enough environment to recover distance. This is the parent image for every later detail.
18—26 / Draw the sightline
Sketch the nearest interruption, central axis and far anchor. Record overlaps as viewpoint effects rather than physical or historical relationships.
26—34 / Map eye level
List objects and labels above, near and below your line of sight. Mark glass, glare and surfaces that remain unavailable.
34—42 / Record neighbors
Identify the museum’s stated grouping and match labels through inventory numbers. Keep current adjacency separate from provenance.
42—48 / Follow the light
Name visible light sources, brightest plane, shadowed surface and reflection. Do not identify color or material from the photograph alone.
48—54 / Make the return view
Look back from the far safe position. Note which object disappears and which becomes legible. Give the reverse frame its own direction.
54—60 / State limits
List blocked zones, unread labels, crowd conditions and unanswered questions. Connect identity, dimensions and material to exact responsible records.
Afterward / Link the files
Store whole view, details, notes, inventory number, creator, rights, capture date and edits in one manifest. A detached image should be able to find its room again.
Afterward / Check the claim ladder
Read every sentence from visible condition through identification to interpretation. Confirm that certainty increases only when an exact source supports it. Replace broad claims with what the image truly shows, and retain unresolved questions instead of completing them from familiarity.
Afterward / Test the responsive crop
Inspect the chosen image at narrow phone, tablet and wide desktop sizes. A crop that removes the doorway, neighbor or case edge may destroy the spatial evidence. Adjust the focal treatment or choose a different frame, while keeping the uncropped master and all processing notes.
Afterward / Version corrections
If a museum updates terminology, attribution or display location, add a dated correction linked to the responsible record. Do not silently overwrite the earlier observation. A coordinate sheet is most useful when readers can distinguish a changed interpretation from a changed installation and from an earlier editorial error.