Introduction to Images and Documents Digital Stewardship Curriculum

Temperature and Relative Humidity Temperature: 65-70 degrees Fahrenheit Relative Humidity: 30-40% (fluctuating less than 10% per day) Cold storage for sensitive materials: color photographs, nitrate film, or acetate film. (room temperature or below), clean, and stable environment (avoid attics, basements, and other locations with high risk of leaks and environmental extremes) - Also heard 30-50% rh 40 degrees or below for cold storage - some articles out there about using household freezer units with certain requirements

Even if you don’t have temp and rh controls... monitoring systems, from basic to more advanced - machine readable data Get a thermometer and humidity reader – track manually

Handling and storage Clean hands, or gloves - keep food away! Passed PAT: Folders, sleeves, envelopes - some flat Paper enclosures, mylar Organize by similar size, not overcrowded If displaying Light Mounting -clean hands -enforce this with staff/interns/students, gloves can be problematic sometimes but really useful sometimes -have rules posted -Photographic Activity Test - https://www.imagepermanenceinstitute.org/testing/pat - safest to use, make sure your supplies have passed this test! -storing large photos flat, or cased images uncoated polyester, polypropylene, or polyethylene (when viewing frequently) - storing in evenly filled boxes, with supports if needed SO IMPORTANT -display - use duplicates, avoid natural and artificial light (filters, sleeves), safely mount -If you have to use originals, make sure to rotate - don’t leave on display -Use proper materials, do not damage originals, SHN resource showing you how! -Light can fade prints AND paper - both natural and unnatural light -Different prints have different sensitivities -Can get filters for lights - esp in storage rooms - but keep dark when not in use.

SIMILAR SIZES depending on format

Photo Formats Photograph Process, Photograph Type Negatives and Prints Ways to identify Support material Color and tone Surface Size How the photo is deteriorating image from ebay -Identifying photos - Why? dates, information, know how to best take care of them. -Many different types of photographic processes, and the final result (print) may vary ---albumen print cabinet card -want to think about prints vs. negatives = Print (developed or photomechanical), negative (black and white or color) -Can’t show you every single type of photograph in the time we have - so we will just discuss HOW you might go about identifying

Support materials graphics atlas what the photo is printed ON or attached to -plastic border, wider on bottom of print - polaroids contain both the negative and positive elements (integral) -attached to a thick sturdy card - cabinet card or carte de visite -metal! tintype, daguerreotype

Color and Tone cyanotype - blue tone over entire photo autochrome slide transparency (rgb)

Surface letterpress (photomechanical - printing out print) comprised of dots, 3 colors salt print - developed out print - paper fibers visible, matte surface Matte or glossy

Size standard sizes for different formats, also unique-looking types

Deterioration www.mtgothictomes.com, graphics atlas foxing - brownish red spots (stains that happen with age - unknown cause, perhaps fungal - humidity makes it worse) - often in albumen prints silver mirroring - reflective, bluish hue in darkest shadows (humidity) - silver gelatin and albumen most common, but can happen to others

Photo dating and metadata Family, community, land history Clothing and hairstyles Scenery, background, event information If you are doing descriptions, you can get a lot out of photos. wisconsin historical society digital collections

Photo dating and metadata Notch codes Photographer information Metadata written on or attached to photos, envelopes Metadata from related items or collections People, elders ID people, places, activities If you have staff doign this work - make VERY clear guidelines about what to look for, and what format to write descriptions in.

Photo ID resources Graphics Atlas website PSAP - Photos and Negatives Workshops - historical societies, universities Books: Care and Identification of 19th Century Photographic Prints Photographs: Archival Care and Management

How to start digitizing? In house Collaboration Outsourcing LNW Before we move into technical information...when you are planning and thinking more about your scanning projects - you have options for how you can choose to proceed -You can gather all the materials you need, and do it yourself -You can find others in your area that have equipment, expertise, interns… -You can find a vendor who you trust who will digitize for you for a fee (also metadata, conservation work) All of these can be part of your overall digitization project - one is not better than the others, it just depends on what your project is, what resources and staff you have….and other factors CLICK

Good $100-200 Better $1500-1700 Best $2000-3000 Your goal is to create image files, in the best way you can... -for equipment, you will want to think about several factors - there are A LOT Of options out there -think about what you want the end product to be -what funding do you have? What staff do you have to use the equipment? -what formats do you have *bring out gbb -Mention maintenance contracts and upkeep etc

Copy stand with camera Large format Slide scanner LNW - think about collaborating with others Copy stand might be a good option - very flexible - but more specialized training Also could reach out to others who might have these peices of equipment that are more specialized

Questions to Consider What is being digitized? Where are the files going? Where will they be stored? Who will create them? What guidelines will be followed? What are the technical specifications? -what format, what material -how will they be used or accessed? - are they thumbnails or long term preservation? And do you need access copies? -do you have storage space set aside (3-2-1, etc)? Fit in a DP plan? -who will work on the project? -What guidelines or standards will you follow? -What are the tech specs, or settings? The answers to all of these questions inform the decisions about how (equipment, throughput, staff, expertise, etc) and what (type of material, how much of it, how diverse it is - flatbed scanner will only work for flat, 2D paper material for instance)

I will be going over a lot of info - similar to when we talked about A/V materials -don’t need to memorize info, i will give you links to look back on -know where to CHANGE for digitization and CHECK these settings

File Copies - Master and Access Preservation Master Access Copy Web-ready derivative Most important point for organizing and preserving a digital collection - -long term storage, best quality that you can afford -short term (or long term) storage, smaller file created for providing access, editing -short term storage, might be smaller than access copy, might be further edited -Master and access copy might be created at the same time - never edit in your master, just your access. Access copy - when no editing is needed Web-ready derivative: Thumbnails, watermark -image files are not as big as audio or video files, but it is still very important

Standards for Images and Documents Where can I find them? FADGI http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/guidelines/ Library of Congress Sustainable Formats http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/intro/intro.shtml Library of Congress, NARA, Universities Standards are always developing - keep track of -fadgi Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative -loc National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) -other institutions share their policies and standards they follow (regional resources)

File Formats Best Practice: Master: TIFF (uncompressed) Access: JPEG (compressed) Other formats: DNG (RAW); JPEG 2000, PDF, PNG, GIF File type recommendation: TIFFs. Europe moving toward JPG 2000, but its a less stable file format overall. Low res jpgs can be created *from* high res tiffs but the reverse is not true - cannot make images higher quality or high res from low res File size will differ, depending on the size of the original item, as well as the resolution and bit depth at which the digital file is created Is the format going to be openable by viewers and editors that you use now, and many years from now Will the company supporting the format go away? Open source is typically better, won’t get tied up w/ a proprietary format. Doesn’t mean you CAN’T use something proprietary - just be aware of what you are using Again - the point of what quality you want to capture compared to how much can you store Some file formats that you might be familar with...

Resolution Resolution: The number of pixels in each dimension that can be displayed - the density of pixels in the image. PPI: pixels per inch (DPI = dots per inch) 4000-6000 pixels on long edge also, have worked places where 600 dpi unless oversize or very small and 300dpi for documents across the board - make specifications for workflow Or even based on file size

Finding an Item’s Best Resolution Measuring the long edge with a ruler 4000-6000 pixels on long edge Desired pixels divided by inches = Pixels Per Inch Use equation, or chart -Don’t try to save as a higher quality than is present in the original material

Can use this type of chart in your own digitization work The length of the long edge (in inches) corresponds to a higher or lower resolution to set your scanner to.

Bit Depth Bit depth: the color information stored in an image. (The higher the bit depth, the more colors an image can store.) 8 bit: 2^8= 256 colors 16 bit: 2^16 = 65,536 colors 24 bit: 2^24 = 16,000,000+ colors 48 bit: 2^48 = 3,000,000,000 colors A 1 bit image only shows two colors – black and white greyscale you will choose that setting and then 8 bit capture at a high bit depth, then convert to a smaller bit depth for access files we will be scanning at 48 bit, which is the highest archival quality, but much of the time, 24 bit is perfectly fine -Higher for color, lower for black and white

capturing more values per channel - more detail, more tones

more examples, you can see that the higher bit depth you go - you capture more. Between 24 bit depth, and 48 bit depth it is hard to see a difference! That has to do with how monitors are able to display this information. So again, we are capturing at 48 bit - the archival standard, but 24 is a pretty standard bit depth for projects that you don’t need to print, or preserve in the long term.

Technical Specs - Color Mode and Tone Color Mode: How colors combine over channels - each type of mode has a different number of channels. Adobe RGB (1998) or Adobe sRGB Tone: Range of values in an image - you want the whites not too bright and the blacks not too dark. Each pixel has a value of 0 - 255. -Example - cmyk mode for full color printing, RGB for presenting on the web -Blacks should not be lower than 9, whites should not be higher than 247 -Tone is very much based on the goals of the project

Using a color bar -checking that your equipment is capturing accurately -over time -for the future An option to use - can do high quality image scanning without, it is just another tool to use for quality control, and future information

Photograph Identification Activity Use worksheets, work in pairs, to match the photographic process with the print. Graphics Atlas - tool for identification help ---going back to the START of the digitization process (figuring out what formats you have)! 1 text descriptions of each type on back of paper, website up, and 2 handouts in binder. image from http://www.phototree.com/identify.htm