PHOTOGRAPHIC RESTORATION & PRESERVATION

Transcription

1 David J. Wardell October 13, 2012 Baltimore Family History & Genealogy Workshop 2012 PHOTOGRAPHIC RESTORATION & PRESERVATION

2 Your Speaker David Wardell Technology Specialist Professional Photographer & Media Williamsburg Family History Center Cynic and gadfly

3 Agenda Why Preserve and Restore? Project Planning Planning for Preservation Tools of the Trade Tips and Tricks and Things We Didn t Know What I Wish I d Known In Bygone Years Questions

4 What is Digital Imaging? Representation of visual material in electronic forms Digital images are different from physical images not necessarily better (or worse). Properly planned, produced, and preserved physical images may be better for some purposes. Most current physical images involve some digital steps or transitions. The Photographic Art is passing away. Digital images are editable and easily transferred. Reasonable and modest tools can produce extraordinary results.

5 Planning For Preservation How Long Does It Last? Paper copies Until someone loses them or cleans out. Paper deteriorates, some at a fairly quick rate. Laser and especially inkjet output are not permanent. Photographs Drug store prints can last years without noticeable deterioration many do not last that long. Quality and archival prints indefinitely if properly stored. Most photographic prints are poorly made; older quality prints tend to be better than modern ones. Quality slide images are superior to paper prints.

6 Project Planning Focus upon the tools you have available or can reasonably acquire don t wait for Christmas. Decide what you can and are willing to do and what result you will expect. Understand that superior results are complex and expensive. Plan to work on projects continually. Start today all media have a finite life.

7 Planning For Preservation Media become terminal for a variety of reasons: External interference Damage Deterioration with time Changing standards, formats, expectations The failure rate for all storage media is 100%; the question is when. Digital media are easy to backup and replicate

8 Planning For Preservation Estimated Media Life: Hard disks (in continual use): 3 5 years USB Drives (in continual use): 3 5 years Commercial CDs and DVDs: years User created CDs and DVDs: <15 Archive quality CDs and DVDs: unknown Video tape (consumer grade): years Audio tape (consumer grade): years

9 Tools of the Trade David Dictum #1 Personal AV material may seem trivial today, but will become priceless in an instant sometime in the future take lots of pictures and make lots of audio and video recordings.

10 Tools of the Trade David Dictum #2: Make a copy of everything you value and never trash your AV originals.

11 Tools of the Trade David s Dictum #3 Digital image quality is driven by the quality of the original and the process used to create it more than any other factors.

12 Tools of the Trade Scanners: Scanning is (almost) never as good as an original digital image. Scanning at reasonably high resolutions is necessary if enlargement are required most people cannot see the difference in scanned images greater than 300 dpi if these are not enlarged The ratio of scanning resolution/printing resolution is the enlargement factor: Scanning film at 2700 dpi and printing scaled to 300 dpi gives 2700/300 = 9x the enlargement of the original film size. 9x is about 8x12 inches from full frame 35 mm. This enlargement requirement is why film needs high resolution and why using large or medium format film was a good idea.

13 Tools of the Trade More Scanners Scanners add a level of interpretation to the visual record I try and scan as close to the original as possible, and edit after the fact Modern scanners and video programs operate in RGB CMYK interpolation is done at output.

14 Tools of the Trade CMYK is a subtractive color model, as opposed to RGB, which is additive

15 The Golden Ratio is to as is to

16 Perspective

17 Tips & Tricks 1. Use the best tools you can. 2. Don t go Photoshop Crazy 3. Restoration is often art more than journalism. 4. Expert help is often valuable you pay for judgment. 5. Don t be afraid to experiment.

18 Things I Wish I d Known Expensive equipment doesn t replace experience and judgment. Among the most important judgments you must make is knowing when to stop. You can only exercise so much good taste on someone s behalf.

19 Composition

20 The Photographic Art

21 Restoration Projects

22 Thank You!