This weeks work at SwiB - May 14th 2012

Following last weeks first blog entry I have now decided to do two seperate regular entries each week, one for SWiB and another for Cothele - This is because there is just too much to write about each one and having been particularly snap happy with the camera phone this week there is simply not enough room for all the things I want to say unless I do them seperately! So... Here goes!

 

 

SWiB

This week at SWiB I have been continuing to scan, edit and upload my Roy Westlake "Iconic Images of Plymouth" photographs onto the database. This week I managed to sucessfully scan another 10 segments of the collection onto the system and am well on track to conclude my scanning activities for this collection in next weeks session.

Last week I talked about how when scanning images you need to adjust certain settings depending upon the type of negative film you are using and therefore I have decided to provide a screenshot of the process:

Firstly we select which negatives we would like to use from each segment or subcategory, usually there are many duplicates so we use the lightbox to choose anything between 2 and 10 images to upload. We then place each negatived onto the scanner using the film holder to secure them in place. We then preview the images, marquee the ones we would like to use (shown in the left hand box)  and then scan them in having selected the right settings from the the left hand Epson Scan menu.We then use photoshop to crop and edit the images although personally I dont like to edit them too much as I feel it detracts from their original provenance and lets face it beauty!

Here I am scanning!



Below are some images of the Black and White negatives I was scanning using the light box, its amazing how clear the images become when viewing them in this way and the colour negatives particularly so. You can see that when held against a dark surface such as the wooden desk it is particularly difficult to pick out duplicates whereas when using the lightbox, people and even text is clearly visable making the selection process easier for uploading.

These negatives are early 1950s images of Spooners Department store in Plymouth, these images are of the newly opened store following the total destruction of the previous store in 1941 during the Blitz on Plymouth. 




http://plymouthlocalhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/spooners.html






 

















Having completed each subcategory they are returned to the labelled and numbered Roy Westlake 22 Envelopes which I sorted and categorised in the previous session. Once I have finished scanning the selected images from each envelope I then note on the front how many I have done so that this information can then be loaded onto the database, it is important to note how many of the images in each subcategory have been uploaded as members of the public searching the database may request the rest of the images in that collection to also be uploaded (duplicates or not!)

The subcategories, only 10 more to go!




Next week I plan to scan the rest of the Images