Scanning

Very Important - Clean your scanning glass while the surface is cool, before starting to scan, removing any dust and smears as they will otherwise appear on your scanning results. Dust specs on a scanned image will create extra labor to remove them with a photo program. You can use "canned air" to touch up between scans if needed. You may need to use canned air on the surface of the photo as well.

SCANNING

First I save all my scans as 800 to 1200 dpi JPGs for archiving (the smaller the subject in the photo, the more dpi). On my last computer I used 500 to 800 dpi as I ran into "virtual memory" problems when opening them in a photo program for resizing or cropping. The photos are then saved at the highest possible resolution

I then crop out excess background (but not too close) and change the size to about 8 inches tall, usually aim the crop to be a 8 x 10 format. I reduce resolution to 72 dpi and save it again for e-mailing. I use a separate file folder for the e-mail sized scans.

Next I crop again if needed and make the photo 4 inches tall and save it for the website again in a separate folder. I use a uniform height of 4 inches for my website saved photos to make it easier to use them together on a page. You might wish to use a different height in your collection.

When scanning from a magazine, a newspaper clipping or anything paper with something printed on the back side, I put a black piece of cardboard or thick paper (black scrapbook cardstock works great) against the backside or between the pages when scanning to keep the backside printing from showing up on the scan.

If there is a caption under or beside the photo that identifies the horse or provides information about it, include it in your scan. It will authenticate the photo and provide identification if the photo label is later changed or missing as well as save the additional information contained in the caption.

If the backside of a photograph has information you want to keep, scan it too and use the same file label adding _r after the file name. It will be saved next to the photo front scan and be easy to find for future reference. You can also write a note and scan it to same information about a photo. It helps to add a piece of darker paper on top of the piece you want scanned to help the scanner recognize the edges of your note or photo back.

I also leave a small post-a-note on the upper magazine page edge of the magazine scanned from to make it easier to locate the original in the future. I write the month and year I scanned it on the post-a-note.

I often place a piece of colored scrapbook paper over the top of photos while scanning to add a colored border around the edge that you can later add text information to. While it adds an attractive frame it also is a good place to put information that there is no room for on the file name. Colors that harmonize with the background or horse color looks best. For example a red background would not look as good with this photo but a dark "tree green" would have been just as attractive as the tan is.

NAMING PHOTO FILES

If scanning from a magazine include the source in your file name.

example: Fadl_AHWoct65p56 - the source code translates to Arabian Horse World, October 1965, page 56

example: IbnRabdan_AHTfeb1989p65PR translates to Arabian Horse Times, February 1989, page 65, Pyramid Report. Note the capitalization in the horse's name eliminates the need for spaces to indicate separate words.

When saving a photo to your archive, include the photographer's name and when the photo was taken if known.

example: Sabrah_1975AlBrakensiekPh

If the photo comes by e-mail with no other information other than name of the horse, it is best to email back right away and ask for photographer name while the sender still remembers. Include the year taken in the label if known.

All of these source information notations will allow you or someone to go back to the source to rescan at a higher resolution, get more information related to the photo (see the article or ad that went with the photo) or credit the source in an article or on a website.

SETTING UP AN ARCHIVE

I set up file folders for each group of photos. For example I have a folder named BabsonDisc. It contains high resolution photos of Babson Arabians. The Disc part of the file name reminds me they are high resolution files to be stored on a disc. Within this file is a sub file named SavedCD which is for photos I have already saved to a CD. As photos are archived to CD they are moved to this file. I use alphabetical CDs in a binder for my Babson Disc file so that I can add to the proper letter disc rather than having to create new back up CDs each time I archive. I set my CD burniong program to finalize only each CD session, not the whole CD, so I can keep adding photos until the CD is full.

For your own horses, you may wish to create a folder for each horse then add your best photos to it as you take them. You can store each horse's photos on it's own CD. You can create a file for other farm's horses under their farm name if you wish. Create a filing system that works well for you.

The low resolution Babson photos are in the BabsonStallions and the BabsonMares files. Geldings go in with the stallions. I have separate folders for BabsonSirecho, BlueStar, StEgyptian, GenList and other bloodgroups. That gives me a better chance of finding photos when I need them. These are also stored on CDs.

SAVE YOUR PHOTOS AND SCANNED IMAGES ON A portable hard drive, CDs or DVDs so you won’t lose them in a computer crash. As I found out the hard way, there are two kinds of computers... ones that have crashed and ones that have not crashed YET.

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