Process to get photos here
What follows is a page from my old site that I wrote in March 2006
Process to get here
Here I wish to describe the process that got the Photos here. After picking up several large tubs of Photos from Lou, I brought them home and began trying to organize them. Some were already in slide carousels and some in boxes (original slide boxes) but a large portion were somewhat loose and some literally loose in bags. This partially explains why some have a "dirty" look to them. The first couple of hundred Photos were from carousels already organized while the next ones were built up from various loose Photos being bundled together in new carousels. After the first 800 or so, I then attempted to organize them together better. I then scanned the first 1700 or so and showed these at Lou's at Christmas. I then dropped off one tub and picked up another. I then proceeded to go through all the Photos from the various containers and completely organize them by various categories (now being reflected as keywords or groupings). I then continued to scan these. In the end, I processed about about 4300 standard size Photos and about 200 glass Photos (older heavy ones that I don't think any of us saw as kids unless it was before I have any memory). I ended up not scanning about 500 or so. These were either very technical ones related to NSP work, his thesis or I could not think of any reason that any one would be interested in viewing these.
Here is the step that each slide took in the complete process (which as I write now in March 2006 is still not done). Once I saw that there were more than 1000 Photos, I decided to number each slide with a 4 digit index number, thus allowing up to 9999 Photos. I wrote this on the slide (except the glass ones) and then recorded it in an Excel spreadsheet. In the spreadsheet, I also recorded any notes that Dad wrote on the slide and if there any month/year stamp from the developer, as well as slide number for the roll. (Actually, the first 1700 Photos I did not record the stamped information but I plan to go back and get this next week. I also sometimes modified Dad's writings on the slide to conform to my point of view rather than recording it literally as I did with the later Photos. For example, while Dad may have recorded "Ginny", I wrote mom, at first). I sometimes added comments at this time into the spreadsheet as well. Next, I made a trip to the Marketing and Media Relations office at Central College and used their equipment to scan the Photos. They have a scanner and a tray that can scan 12 Photos at once. The scan takes about 5 minutes and produces a large .TIFF file. While I am scanning the next batch, I would open this .TIFF file (in Photoshop) and break up the large image of all 12 Photos into 12 individual Photos, also saved as .TIFF. During this process, I would crop out the extraneous part, change image to one layer, and then save it as a separate file with the file name corresponding to the index number on the slide. I would then copy these files to our network so that I could access them from my office computer at work. When I got done with an hour or two, I would go back to my office, copy the files to my local machine. Often I couldn't keep up with the breaking the large files of 12 into smaller files while scanning so I ended up finishing these steps at my office. (Each page of 12 also took about 5 minutes to split apart into 12 separate files.) Next, I compared each of the saved numbered files against the actual slide to ensure that I had not made a mistake in the file name/number. Sometimes, at the same time I would add comments or other slide information into the spreadsheet. Next, I took each of the large .TIFF files and converted them to high quality .JPG files, saving a lot of space. I then took the .JPG file and made a small and medium version that I would use on the web. I would then copy these to the web server and copy the excel spreadsheet information into the database that I had created for this project. Then, as I had sufficient quantities, I backed up the large original .TIFF files onto a CD and also on a DVD. I ended up using 47 CDs and 7 DVDs. Next, I began the process of trying to clean up the original .TIFF files. This involved tweaking the lighting and coloring, where needed, in Photoshop. I also tried to remove blemishes on the Photos at this time as well. This included dust/dirt that had gathered on the slide or other such blemishes. Some of the Photos had some type of mold and I couldn't do much about that but small specks I was able to clean up to some degree. (If there are any that you are particularly interested in, more work could be done with the original slide by scanning it again and trying hard to clean it up.) I then made new .JPG files of these at both high and max quality and then again small and medium versions for the web. This particular process is still in the works. Finally, I am working on going through all the Photos and adding comments and questions where I can. Where relevant, I am also providing web pages of places that we went for further information.
While I was in the middle of scanning the Photos, I also worked on designing the database that holds all the information and also this web page that is used to deliver it. I have made many iterations in this web site and have found it quite useful and interesting.