Photo Enhancement/restoration

[Doug 周]

Some ideas on photo archiving:

click=>Taking Care of Your Personal Archives from 'the Atlantic' with original references in the link.

One bullet point which struck my newbie mind is to scan photos as TIFF instead of jpeg. I have the space on my hard drive.

I am looking forward to comments from our resident photo expert Carol about these points.

Hopefully this link will be a good resource.

Doug

[chak]

Hi Doug,

I’m no photo expert but I agree with you about scanning photos and saving them as TIFF, vs jpeg, files. Every time you save a jpeg file, it gets compressed and data is lost. If you do a lot of editing and make frequent saves, the image file loses integrity. It’s not the same, but I think of it like VHS vs digital. With the old VHS tapes, every time we made a copy, the image quality got worse and worse.

Maybe it’s overkill, but I usually save my scans as TIFF files . I scan, like Lynda suggests, at a minimum resolution of 600 dpi but usually increase it until the target file size is 10 MB. Without doing anything to the photo, I save it as a TIFF. Then, I adjust the black and white levels if needed, change the dpi to 72 dpi and the constrained width to 800 pixels, apply unsharp masking and then save it as a jpeg. These small jpeg files are usually what I use for emailing and reference. I keep the name the same as the corresponding TIFF file - with the exception of the ending extension. I like to write the TIFF files to a cd and then delete it from my hard drive which never seems to have enough space. If I have to print the photo or do something with it, I go back to the TIFF version.

I would like to hear how others organize their photos, “real” and digital, and am sure there are as many ways to do it as there is advice on the proper way to start a fire in your fireplace! I’m sure there is no one best system – what’s important is that you do have some kind of system in place and that you follow through with it!

[tyuti1668]

Nov 19, 2010 17:25:22 GMT -5 chak said:

... I like to write the TIFF files to a cd and then delete it from my hard drive which never seems to have enough space. ...

Invest another backup hard drive is safer option compare to CD ONLY
1TB www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822186260

[chak]

oh yeah - i have that too - but, did I hear right?
1 TB? For that price?! Amazing!

[Doug 周]

I am so irritated that all these years I archived many photos NOT as TIFF. I did not know any better. Several lost opportunities!

As a tangent to this thread for those who display portraits of deceased individuals in their profiles on software or paper family trees: I recommend using photos at about the time your ancestor was getting married, ie youthful photos, rather than in their matured age when you yourself might remember them best. Besides trying to be timeless, part of my reason for maintaining my family history is to interest younger relatives to genealogy. Showing their ancestor when they were 'hot' or in their 'prime' is always helpful.


compared to:


The value of using software is that many genealogy programs have photo albums associated with each profile. In order not to be perceived as disrespectful to elders, you can display as many photos as your computer memory will hold.

Doug

[chak]

Doug, if you’re not going to be editing/resizing your photos, the jpg files will be fine. You are lucky to have years of photos to archive! Until this year, I only had one “baby” picture of my dad. At the suggestion of this forum, to speak with other family members, I now have many more childhood photos of my father. Some of them are only 72 dpi and very low resolution. They won’t print well but look good on the monitor and I treasure them all the same!
Good idea to use younger photos for profile pictures. It is fascinating to see how the hairstyles and manner of dress have changed over the years. If I have them, I like to use the wedding photos as that's usually when a new branch on the tree is started.
Carol

[ziqing]

If you are fuzzy like me in getting a clear and steady shot, in additional to using a tripod, you can set the digital camera on timer up to 1 minute delay with intervals. This will give you enough time to focus on the object and avoid the accidental shakiness.

Ziqing

[ziqing]

When working with TIFF, it's best to save a copy and work on the copy only!

I've learned the lesson too many times before it finally sinks in: my fingers are faster than my brain.

I should have clicked "save as" and gave a new file name instead of habitually clicking "save" on the original. Sometimes you may end up with many master copies but if you included the date you will appreciate the extra typing at the end.

[Doug 周]

I am hijacking this thread (slightly) because I wanted to share how I name photo-files for genealogy software. I have been waiting in vain for someone to ask this question on my Software Sub-Forum, so I now will use this thread as a teachable moment.

Confirmed by the interest in this thread, photos are an integral part of genealogy. They make the connections come alive, help cement relationships, and rekindle memories. With software, you are presented with a dilemma of how to label or name your photos for archiving (backing up your files) on your own computer hard drive.

Lets say you have a photo of a person whose profile name is Gung Gung (Chinese for grandfather). After initially naming the photo Gung Gung.jpg, you later might change the program’s profile name to Wong Man Sing. Another relative might convince you to again rename the profile Wang Mun Shing. The nice thing about a computerized genealogy program is the ability to make changes easily.

However, re-accessing the portrait already archived on your hard drive becomes difficult because of the ease of changing the software’s profile name, especially if you can have over 1000 portraits. You may also have photos labeled as Suzie Wong.jpg, where the surname is the last word. ¿Do you search by first name or last name? Finally, you might only have the Chinese characters as the profile name 周晚成. Western computers have difficulty with Chinese characters as file names 周晚成.jpg (even after configuration<=click)

The GEDCOM is the DNA of your genealogy information and it should be an important additional backup to whatever internal back up system within your software. Eventually you will want to reproduce the specific portrait of an individual profile, especially if you are transferring the GEDCOM information into another genealogy software program. I have advocated newbies start with Geni to build their family tree. Here is my recommended naming scheme for your archival photo on your own computer hard drive before you upload the portrait into Geni’s server.

1. Each individual profile in Geni will have a unique RFN number in the URL box at the top of the profile. See below red box. It is all the numbers between the '/' and '#' sign



2. That unique RFN number is exported into the GEDCOM. See below red boxed example of the exported text within the GEDCOM of the above Geni profile:



3. The RFN number is similar to the RIN number used in the GEDCOM by the Church of Latter Day Saints. Rename the photo associated with that profile with that RFN number. Append additional words at the end of the number to identify the file to yourself. eg. 6000000000483872645-Gung Gung.jpg. You can probably parse out several of the leading zero’s in front of the number ‘4’. Please study the URL box of your other Geni profiles.

When you then need to reconnect that portrait to the correct profile in your new computer genealogy program, you can search for that photo stored on your hard drive by typing in ‘6000000000483872645’ into the search box.

4. Remember that media is NOT stored in the GEDCOM. Instead the GEDCOM will ‘point’ to the location where the photo is stored. See blue boxes above for two examples of URL 'pointing'.

5. This assumes that (a) the RFN number in the GEDCOM will be transferred into the new genealogy program and (b) you can view it easily from within your new program. Geni does not allow you to easily view the GEDCOM from within the program. The URL at the top however denotes what the RFN would be. Most other computers programs , either on-line or on-premise, which use the browser for an interface, will display a similar identity number in the URL box. I use a slightly different method of photo file naming with PhpGedView/Webtrees, which I can discuss later if others are interested.

Doug

To correctly view Chinese characters please select <View>, <Encoding>, and <Unicode> option from the browser menu.

[Ah Gin]

Chak,

I have sent you a PM. Help on Photo Restoration please.

Regards, Ah Gin