Tag Archives: Photograph

Why Do I Need Data About My Data? – Metadata

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Here is James Tanner’s answer (from “What is Metadata?”) on FamilySearch to the why metadata question:

OK, so why add metadata? This is also an easy answer. You add metadata so you can find photos on your computer and remember the information about who, what, when and where. Once the metadata is added to your photos, you can use your computer’s search function to find the photos by searching on any of the words or names you have added to the photos and stored with them in their file. How will you know if your program is storing the information with the original file or in a separate file? You might need to search in your program’s preferences or options to find a reference to adding data to your photographs.

Adding metadata to your photograph not only helps you but it helps anyone you might share that photo with, if they know to look for it. The metadata stays with the photo so anyone who has the photo can get access to the information and know everything you know about that photo. Adding metadata takes time but when it comes to family photos and documents, it is the who, what, when, where etc. that makes the photo have value.

Metadata can also be added to other types of files other than photographs. Denis Barrett Olson wrote an article about using metadata to establish provenance. There are lots of ways to use metadata to organize files and make sure that important information about a file stays with that file.

Now we know why we want to use metadata, the challenging part is actually taking the time to add it to our files.DOABLE Sidebar O

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step two: organize with the DOABLE Approach to Telling Your Family’s Tales

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Step Two: Organize

Once you have taken on the challenge of doing a story project and having worked through the first step of deciding what you want to do, you have a pretty good idea of what you want your story project to be. Now it is time to gather and organize everything you have that might help you complete this project. Find any photos, documents, letters, etc. that you or your family already have. If you are already fairly organized this might be a simple step. But if you are like most of us, your family documents and photos are not very orderly and they are in many places.

Have a long-term strategy:

Take some time to think about a long-term organizing philosophy so that anything you do now will work towards that goal. I don’t recommend trying to put all of your family photos and documents in order before you tackle this story project. If you try to do that you might never get to the project. But if you have a plan in mind than with each story project your documents and photos will be come more and more organized and more easily accessible.

Digitize:

With this long-term plan in mind sort through you family memorabilia for those items that might be useful for this project. Those items like photos and documents will need to be scanned. Some other items may work in a scanner but others will need to be photographed. Make sure your scan resolution is at least 300 dpi depending on the size of the image and the project you have in mind. While usually jpeg is a good format, tiff files are better for long-term preservation and storage. It will be easiest in the long run if you come up with a good naming convention for your images that you can remember and give you the information you need. Metadata is a great place to store the little details about the images. If you are familiar with metadata you can add that later. Besides letters and journals it is good to transcribe them too.

Share your images:

While all this can be tedious remember that by scanning them you are helping to make sure that these priceless items are saved for the future even if something should happen to the original. Sharing your images with your family is a great way to help insure that no disaster will destroy all the existing copies.

Repeat with extended family:

Having digital files to share with your family could also help to smooth the road for you to get access to any items that they might have that would be helpful for your story project. There are good portable scanners that make it possible to visit a relative and scan their collection without those precious items ever having to leave their possession. Find any family histories that have previously been written. Also check for online sources of information from extended family.

So what shape is your family archive in? While I’ve made progress over the years I still have lots to do. I’ll keep working on it and slowly it will get there, one project at a time. Do you have a file naming convention that you like? I’d love to hear about it. I’m still not happy with what I’m currently doing.

90th Birthday Slide Show – in process

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I’m working on a slide show for my mom’s 90th birthday. I love the power of images and music but I forget how long it takes to sort through 90 years of photos even when they are already scanned. I’m planning to put info like who is in each photo in the metadata but I haven’t gotten that done yet. If I had a simple search would have provided me with the photos I had to work with.

I decided to show the photos in reverse order, starting with the most recent and moving back in time. For a sound track I’m planning to use “Sentimental Journey”. I hope I don’t run into any major snags. Time is running short and the power company has a planned outage tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. I sure hope that the electricity isn’t off that long. I was so focused on the photos tonight that I was an hour late for a meeting. Opps! Hopefully I’ll have it finished by this time tomorrow.

I have to find more time in the future to do projects like this. Have you done any slide shows or videos? I’d love to see them if you are willing to share them.

Gift Idea #30 – Family Home History

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idea numbers30Many families have a home they have lived in for many, many years. If your family is one of them, consider putting together a history of your family home. It can be interesting and enlightening to see the role a house can play in your families history and the memories made there.

I did a small book about the home the my mother and most of her siblings were born in. This home was built by her father and when it was time to sell the old family home she had a really hard time with the idea. I put together the book in hopes that it would help her be more at peace with selling the home. I’ll post about this project sometime.

Gift Idea #28 – Duplicate Old Family Photos

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idea numbers28A really nice gift to share with family is their own copy of the best family photos. My mom did this for us one year. She had enlargements made of a family group shot from her childhood and from my dad’s. If you want to make it really nice you could a frame so that it is ready to go on display.

Having up pictures of ancestors or family members when they were much younger helps to connect the generations and create opportunities to share who they are. Name plaques would be a nice addition to the project.

Gift Idea #25 – Family Collage

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idea numbers25There are lots of options in using family photos to make a collage. Most of them fall into two categories. The first one is a wall collage. This is when you take your photos (usually framed but they can be unframed) and arrange them on a wall in your house. Here are some examples to get your creative juices going. I really like the ones that include some vinyl lettering.

Family Collage Ideas

Family Wall Collage Ideas

The second style of photo collage is to put together the photos so they fit into frame. This can be done digitally or the traditional way with glue and scissors. If you have some experience with a photo editor like Photoshop the digital way can be lots of fun. Or there is software designed just to help you put together your own collage.

Collage Maker

But there are services available to have your collage put together for you. I found a couple of them.

Custom Photo Collages

Family History Collage

Sometimes though it feel good to work with physical photos and paper instead of the digital ones. For the truly hands on approach here are some directions on how to make a collage in the original way.

How to Collage

Gift Idea #21 – Memory Game

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idea numbers21When I saw this memory game on Pin Hole Press I thought it would make a wonderful gift for getting to know family members. Besides doing current family members photos you could pick photos from ancestors too. And you don’t need to order these from Pin Hole Press, you can make your own memory cards. If you make a nice big set it could be fun for all ages of your family.

Another twist on the game would be to make cards with names and cards with photos and you have to match the name to the photo. Or if you family is even more familiar with their ancestors you could find a simple image that represented a story or milestone in that person’s life and use that as the match.

Playing memory with ancestor cards would create lots of opportunities to tell stories or share memories about your loved ones. Depending on the situation, the game could be played so that the person who makes the match tells something they know about the person they found the match for. This could be a game that add to over the years as you and your family learn more about their family members.

Pin Hole Press Memory Game

 

Gift Idea #17 – Historically Inspired Photo Shoot

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idea numbers17Do you have an old family photo that you really love? How about using it as the inspiration for a new family photo? You could replicate the scene, the style of dress or just the arrangement of the people. Then you could hang the two images next to each other on the wall. Or it would be fun to use the two images together on a post card or greeting card to send to family and friends. This project will also give you the opportunity to share stories or memories about the original photo and the people in that photo.

If you are inspired by this idea, just let those creative juices run and see where it takes you.

 

Gift Idea #5 – Collection of Family Photos

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Most families have someone who is the keeper of the photos. Somehow that task has fallen to me. So last Christmas I gathered up the images I have. Scanned the ones that hadn’t been scanned. Then cleaned them up and label them consistently. I just did the ones connected with my mom’s parents from their childhood through their deaths. I cut DVD‘s for my mom’s siblings. For all of my cousins I sent a link to the SmugMug gallery that I set up with the same photos. That way they can get access to and download them as desired. This is a great project because it gives everyone access to those precious photos plus it distributes copies in more places to make sure they are preserved in case of disaster. An added bonus is that now they don’t have to come to me when they want a photo.

My advice on a project like this?

  • Pick a time frame. Don’t feel like you have to do it all. Make it something doable. You can always add to it later.
  • Pick a logical naming convention.
  • Make sure you scan them at 300 dpi or higher. If it is a really small photo I like to do 600 dpi or more so that it can be blown up larger than the original.
  • For long-term storage tiff is a better format than jpeg, because jpeg is a lossy compression and over time with opening and saving and opening and saving you lose data. But most people are more comfortable with jpegs. So you could scan as tiffs and then save a copy to jpeg for sharing with your family.
  • Find an easy way to distribute them among your family.