Improving Your Image The IoE approach to Quality Assurance Erpanet June 02 Victoria Fenner, English Heritage

Images of England a new photographic survey of England’s historic buildings, that will result in a digital image library with up to 370,000 images the digital library will be accessible to all via the internet, free of charge

Objectives Creating a digital image library for future generations, a ‘point in time’ record Making heritage information more widely available and accessible now Internet is delivery mechanism

Management £4.4 million project National Monuments Record, the public archive of English Heritage

Listed buildings Designated for: –architectural interest –historic interest –historical associations –group value –age and rarity 370,000 + separate ‘listings’

Listed Building System Created in a joint project between the DCMS, English Heritage and Royal Commission Source of indexing and architectural descriptions for Images of England Not all buildings ….

19th century milestone, Creech St Michael, Somerset Grade II © Mick Humphreys LRPS

Telephone box & stamp machine, Whitley Bay, N Tyneside Grade II © MJ Saunders

The volunteers Army of volunteer photographers (>1,100 as of June 02) 35 mm cameras, colour negative film Providing photographic skills, local knowledge

The survey team Provide volunteers with film, a list of targets and supporting documents Brief them fully, including the standards expected

The defining image shows architectural character indicates function, where relevant shows something of a building’s context is a truthful image is of high technical quality provides visual information as well as being a ‘good picture’

Flowline Key relationship - link between the number of the listed build record, the film number and frame number Complex process, with 370,000 targets, 15,000 films and over 1,100 volunteers Essential to build in safety mechanisms

After photography Contractors process, print and scan IoE creates links between frames and films and the listed building records

Creation of digital originals Volunteers keep prints and negatives, digital originals are being created from 35 mm colour negative films Contractual specification of scanning requirements - resolution, colour depth and dynamic range, meta data etc.

Range of digital images Master set of images uncompressed TIFF files, archive only and available on demand Thumbnail, low, medium and high resolution JPEGs also created - first two only on website

Quality Assurance Digital images quality assured for: –scan quality –photographic quality –establishing the right building has been photographed

Standards established Each image is given numerical score for scan quality and for photographic quality ‘Is it the right building’ - Pass or Fail

Scan quality Grades 1 and 2 only Grade 1 = pass = website Grade 2 = fail = re-scan or correct defect

Photographic quality How well does image meet the defining image criteria? Aims to be as objective as possible, to achieve a consistent standard Image QA guidelines drawn up

Defect codes Grade is determined by the presence and severity of ‘defects’ Singly or in combination Grades 1, 2, 3 & 4

Photographic error codes Temporarily Obscured Differential Lighting Permanently Obscured Distorted Cropped Dull Image Framing/Composition Levelling Key Listed Features not visible Flare Vignetting Group Incomplete Unidentified Camera Fault Focus Photographer’s Bits Water/condensation on lens Multiple Exposure

Archiving policy Different media Back-ups Migration policy

Variables at source Source photography –photographer skills –lighting and differential conditions Buildings themselves and locations Overcome by: –standards, guidelines, feedback, QA, review, audit trail

Variables in digitisation process Artefacts High volume and high quality Maintaining the workflow –constant throughput vs. flexibility Overcome by: –standards, building quality into scanning contract from outset, QA, change control

Thank you!