Ambrotype or Daguerreotype? A quick and easy way to tell the difference

September 11, 2007

There are two types of cased images you might find in your family collection: ambrotypes and daguerreotypes.

The quick and easy way to tell the difference between the two is that a daguerreotype will look like a mirror when you move it in the light. An ambrotype will not.

I was thinking about this today when I put away an ambrotype I purchased on ebay. It was listed as a daguerreotype. I don’t think this was a deliberate deception, just ignorance.

For more information about these hauntingly beautiful cased images, check out Wikipedia’s entries for ambrotype and daguerreotype.

The daguerreotype entry says this:

Daguerreotypy continues to be practiced by enthusiastic photographers to this day, although in much smaller numbers; there are thought to be fewer than 100 worldwide. Its appeal lies in the “magic mirror” effect of light reflected from the polished silver plate through the perfectly sharp silver image, and in the sense of achievement derived from the dedication and hand-crafting required to make a daguerreotype.

Wait a minute…

There are artists who use these historic photo processes today?

Talk about a beautiful anachronism! I would pay oodles of money for a daguerreotype or ambrotype of an iPod. Not that I have a budget for that kind of frivolity, but still. The Wiki has several links to these contemporary artists if that idea intrigues you, too.

[photo credit] “Erika” Ambrotype on black glass by artist/photographer Quinn Jacobson. Made May 2007, Viernheim, Germany.

UPDATE: OK. Forget what I said about the iPod. That was just the first thing that came into my head. What I really want is to see a daguerreotype or ambrotype of the Neverwas Haul.
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Dating British Photographs

July 17, 2007

Reader Andrew Millard left a helpful tip in the comments section about a web site for dating British photographs:

http://www.cartes.freeuk.com/time/date.htm

Andrew says: “It has a wide range of dated photographs that you can compare to your own undated ones.“

Thanks, Andrew!
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Learning how to date old photographs

July 14, 2007

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Last month, Randy over at Genea-Musings found this wonderful photographic treasure in his Aunt Geraldine’s papers. He asked for input from readers to help date this pair of cased photographs. Randy’s post contains some great resources to help you date old photographs, so be sure to stop by. It’s nice to have resources pooled together like that. Thanks, Randy!

Dating old photographs is a very effective way to help identify who is in the photo. If you can narrow it down to a decade and you know your family tree, it’s much easier to figure out who is pictured in an unmarked photograph.

Here are two great books that will help you date your photographic treasures.

Uncovering Your Ancestry through Family Photographs
by Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective

As far as I’m concerned, Maureen Taylor is the Supreme Maven of Photo Dating. Lucky for us, she shares her expertise in easy to understand books written with genealogists in mind. This updated version of one of her classics is a must-have for every family archivist.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. Every single rating on Amazon.com is 5 out of 5. Here’s the first review, click here to read them all.

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A beautiful and useful book, January 5, 2001

By	Mark Howells (Puyallup, Washington State, USA) – See all my reviews

This book is an outstanding way to expand your family history skills through photo research. It provides step-by-step advice on how to identify ancestors in photos using their poses, clothes, studio props, and other information.

After giving a history of photography with emphasis on identifying types of photographs by era, the author provides chapters such as “Looking for Clues”, “Identifying Costume”, and the very important “Identifying the Photographer”. The book also gives detailed information on how to build your own family photograph collection including the use of photograph worksheets and proper labeling.

The photographs used to illustrate the book are simply glorious. It is a visual treat to follow the pictorial examples given to explain the text. Each photo is an exquisite specimen of how our ancestors faced the camera.

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Oh, and don’t forget to visit Maureen’s Photo Detective blog.

Dressed for the Photographer
By Joan Severa

If you’re serious about dating photographs, there’s another book that will make your task much easier. You don’t need this book if you have an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of costume. What’s that? You don’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of costume? Yeah, me neither…and I sourced historic photos for over six years. It takes a long time to build that expertise.

Once again, family historians are fortunate that an expert has shared her knowledge with the rest of us. Joan Severa is a former costume curator at the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Joan’s book, Dressed for the Photographer, is PACKED with example photographs and arranged chronologically. The images are large enough for you to see the detail, and the book is printed on high quality paper (that’s why it’s so pricey). Joan points out all the hallmarks to look for when dating a photograph, including clothing, jewelry and hairstyles. She also does a fantastic job including photographs of regular working people, not just the wealthy. Amazing book. Nothing else like it out there.

[Photo Credit: Randy Seaver, Genea-Musings blog]
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Other articles you might enjoy:
5 tips for preserving your one-of-a-kind family photographs
Where should I store my family photographs?
What to keep? What to toss?
Flash drives are NOT for long term storage
Why do archivists wear white gloves?

File names for your digital photographs

July 9, 2007

Should we keep the computer generated file names or come up with our own?

There are advantages to the machine generated name:

• They easily sort in order of creation
• There are no repeated file names
• You don’t have to think about it, it’s already done. ^-^

Remember, the file name itself is not the only place to put information about the photo. If you want scads of information about your photographs at your fingertips, your best bet is to create a simple database in FileMaker Pro or Access.

You can create fields for information like who owns the original*, when it was taken, the names of everyone in the photo, the condition of the original, whether the digital file is the “unmolested digital master” or a copy that you restored digitally. One of the fields would be “file name.” Since you will search the database to find what you’re looking for, it doesn’t matter if the file name is something vague like xqp02064.tiff.

*(Genealogists, for example, often have digital copies of ancestral photos sent to them by distant cousins.)

Regardless of what kind of name you choose, it’s a good idea to write the file name on the back of all scanned photographs. Use a soft No. 1 pencil. If the print won’t take a pencil mark, you can slip it in a sleeve and write on the sleeve. Or you can mark it with an archival permanent marker on an edge that has only background information. (That ink might bleed through eventually, so don’t write over people’s faces.) My local camera company adds the file name on the back automatically when I print my digitals. I love that feature.

Generating Your Own Names: The 8.3 Rule
To ensure that your files have maximum portability, you need to follow the 8.3 rule. That means you have 8 spaces to describe your new digital photograph, plus the 3 spaces after the dot for the file type. It’s difficult to jam identifying information using this constricted format. I’ve tried, as you can see from this excerpt from my “8 Blunders People Make When They Scan Photographs” booklet:

I recommend starting with a date code. That way, sorting by file name will automatically sort chronologically at the same time. I use a 3 number date code with “1” for 1900s and “2” for 2000 and beyond. After that, a family name code, or even an individual code if you have already creating this kind of indexing system. The last 3 spaces are for a brief description. GP for a group portrait, for example.

A 1919 photograph of the McConnell family would get a file name like this: 119MCCgp.tif

And a 2006 photograph of the Jacobs family would get a file name like this: 206JACgp.tif

Is the 8.3 rule still necessary?
Maybe not. I asked Paul Hedges, Director of IT for the Wisconsin Historical Society, and he told me he uses longer file names for his family history documents. Here’s his summary of the situation:

“8.3 and 31 and 255 are supported across all the major operating systems. 8.3 is probably the safest, but lacks the flexibility to provide useful names. In the end, pick a standard, stick with it, and you’ll be OK.”

For more information about file naming protocols, Paul suggested the following articles at wikipedia:

8.3 Filenames
Long Filename
ISO 9660
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© Photographer: Cristian Nitu | Agency: Dreamstime.com

What to keep? What to toss?

June 19, 2007

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/17374145.htm

Here’s an excerpt from author Cindy Larson:

Preservation. As for the archival advice, it’s not too bad. The article emphasizes the importance of stable temperature and humidity for long term survival of paper memorabilia. That’s dead accurate. It also says that paper storage containers are better than plastic, which doesn’t “breathe.” I agree with that advice. Plus you have no idea how safe that plastic is, unless it’s passed the Photographic Activity Test or PAT. But…

Email. The article claims that letters are slowly being replaced by e-mail, and you should “consider saving at least some of your newsier e-mails.” I would argue that this shift occurred years ago. And let’s not forget that digital is more permanent than a sand painting, but not much else. The easiest solution is to just print out your most important correspondence. Not everything, of course. Then you end up with the same problem of too much paper.

Best advice in the article. I’m all for purging, but remember that there might be someone in your family who wants what you’re about to toss. The older the stuff, the more important this becomes. Family historians are often the family archivist as well, so why not call up the genealogists in your family?

Tackling a large family photo project

April 18, 2007

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Thanks to Trevira for leaving a comment about her favorite online photo printer. I hope others will join her and Amanda and Barbara. Had a terrible experience? Love your printer? It’s not too late to leave your comment.

Oh, and, Trevira? I think it’s all kinds of cool that this blog has been your inspirado. Here is my promise to you and anyone else who is tackling a Really Big Photo Project:

You can do this.
Seriously, you can.

Here are a few tips to keep you on track:

(1) Your entire collection does not need to survive 200+ years. That means you don’t have to give all of it the Cadillac treatment. Invest only in the shots that mean the most to you. And by invest I mean invest real money in high quality enclosures, and invest time to write the stories behind your photographs.

(2) Lose the dreck. Don’t be afraid to edit. You’re not doing future generations any favors by leaving the editing up to them.

(3) Big projects are scary. Just remember: “Baby steps, baby steps, baby steps.”

(4) Break your project into chunks (see #3) but keep in mind that the smaller the chunks, the longer it will take to complete your project. Rope off a half day every and you’ll see real progress. And real progress is the BEST motivator.

(5) The more fun you have doing it, the more often you will work on your project. Crank your favorite music while you work. Or take advantage of the buddy system and schedule a monthly photo date with a friend who lives in town but who you don’t see often enough. Or host a brunch and call it a photo bee. Whatever works.
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P.S. For those of you who are patiently waiting for a recording of my Photo Savers / Story Keepers workshop, I’m happy to report that all the permissions have been cleared. It shouldn’t be long now, really. I just need to learn a new software program. Ahem. What was that bit about baby steps?

Get those snapshots off your computer and into your life

April 14, 2007

RealSimple’s tip of the day is How to Organize Your Digital Photos.

The article discusses ways to upload and share images via online digital albums. There are, of course, many more options than the ones suggested in this piece.

Print your digitals. Hands-down the single easiest thing you can do to extend the life of your photos. It’s so cheap these days that there’s really no excuse not to. And unlike the days of film, you don’t have to pay for the bad shots. Such a deal.

Where should you send your digitals to be printed? The same place you used to send your film. If your trusted local photo shop is long gone, you’ll have to pick a mail order service. I’ve never used the mail order ones, so I don’t have much to say about it.

Got an online digital provider that you love? Share your great find by posting a link in the comments section, below.
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Shhh…can you hear what your photos are saying?

April 13, 2007

Unclutterer and overseas scanning mills

April 10, 2007

Not long before I left with my kids for a Spring Break trip to Florida, bekee sent me an email about the cool new Unclutterer blog.

More specifically, she pointed me to a recent entry about purging photo collections called “Photo Processing (with a Garbage Bag).”

Overall, I thought the author made some great points, although I have a few quibbles.

…that no longer surprises you, does it?

First of all, a big thumbs up to this sentiment:

Get rid of all the horrendous shots and end up with a box or folder of “keepers.”

Yes, yes, yes!!

All photos are not created equal. Here’s an article I wrote to help non-archivist decide what is and what isn’t a “keeper.”

Unclutterer also recommends slip-in photo albums, which is my personal favorite because they are so simple and easy. I especially love the ones with room to write a quick caption.

Unfortunately, I have yet to find a single one that has passed the Photographic Activity Test, or PAT. Not sure what the PAT is? Click here to learn more about what the PAT is and why it’s important if you want your photos to survive tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

In addition, Pioneer never bothered to answer my repeated phone calls and emails about whether or not they have had any of their products tested. Grrr. Light Impressions sells plenty of items that have passed the test, but their Imperial Slip In album either failed the test or was never tested in the first place.

So all I’m left with is slip in pages with 3 hole punches from PrintFile, plus (non-vinyl!) 3 ring binders. A very safe option, but not the most attractive. On the upside, this is an inexpensive choice.

But wait.
There’s more.

This is the part of Unclutterers‘ entry that freaked me out the most:

If you want to go all the way and really minimize, skip the physical albums altogether and go straight to digital. There are a number of services out there like DigMyPics.com that will scan your negatives or prints and return them to you on a CD-ROM or DVD. Then you can trash all your old physical media. Don’t feel guilty about it. Any time you want a print you can just make one.

Holy guacamole, I hardly know where to start…

• Everyone knows that digital photos take up less space, but the plain truth is that they will not last as long as prints or negatives. I’ll say that again: PHOTO PRINTS WILL OUTLAST DIGITAL COPIES. For an eloquent explanation of this reality, I highly recommend Stewart Brand’s essay “Written on the Wind.” It’s not too long and basically jargon-free.
• FYI, if you save your digital pics as JPEG files you’ll lose information each time you make a change and re-save. Changes like eliminating red eye or cropping or adding a caption.
• Some scanning mills (but not DigMyPics.com –> see my full correction here) send your photos overseas for scanning, usually China or India. Why? Because Americans don’t want to pay more that 10 cents per scan, that’s why. But why on earth would you risk losing all your photos by allowing them to be shipped so far away? That’s madness in my opinion.
• Bottom line? Digitization is a great way to create a backup copy of your most cherished photos. It’s also an inexpensive and fun way to share your photographs with others. But please for the love of all that is good, DO NOT TOSS YOUR ORIGINALS AFTER SCANNING! (This also holds true for home movies on film, fyi.)

Unclutterer bravely conquers other types of organization, too, and there are some real gems. Here’s some utterly practical advice for anyone with an Imelda Marcos-style shoe habit:

Photograph each of your pairs of shoes, print the photos on your ink jet color printer, and then tape the photo to the outside of the appropriate shoe box.

Brilliant!

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Photo Credit: Alicia, via Unclutterer
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SaveMyMemories.org

April 1, 2007

SaveMyMemories.org has a handy-dandy crash course on preserving digital photos. The “quickstart” overview promises: “Protect your photos with these 4 easy steps!”

Here’s a sample from the hardware overview:

• If you get a new computer, check all of your previous storage media to make sure the new computer can read them before you dispose of your old computer.
• If a medium is becoming harder to find in the stores, make sure you transfer your photos to a newer medium. Most likely, you’ll be able to use a program like Windows Explorer or a backup program to make the transfer. If you use a backup program, make sure that it stores your files in a format that can read by other programs such as Windows Explorer. Some backup programs store files in a format that can be read only by that program.

They also have a trade-off table which is all kinds of fabulous. Wish I had thought of it, actually. Bookmark this one for sure, and pass it along to your friends. One caveat, though…I noticed that two formats got to duck the longevity question. Every other format includes an estimate of how many years it will last. Except CDs and DVDs. Instead, it says: Use ‘archival or photo grade quality’ only.

Huh? As I’ve explained before, terms like “archival” and “photo grade quality” are unregulated and therefore completely meaningless. How come these formats didn’t have to cough up an estimate in years? Hmm. Made me wonder who/what I3A is. So I visited the about page and wouldn’tcha know it — Kodak is a major sponsor. Kodak manufactures CDs and DVDs, yes? Just askin‘…

I was going to recommend that you bookmark the Additional Resources list, but after a closer look I’ve decided against it. First of all, they are guilty of one of my pet peeves: Links that start a file download that aren’t labeled as “pdf” or “doc” downloads. I prefer to know ahead of time if it’s not a link to another website.

Secondly, what the heck is going on with this blanket disclaimer?

Please note that the websites listed here are intended as additional references for your use. They can be a good starting point for further exploration. Nevertheless, I3A does not necessarily endorse any of the contents of these sites, and we are aware that material on any one website may stand in apparent contradiction to material on other sites. Industry knowledge about long-term photo preservation is evolving, so it’s important to keep your own knowledge up to date.

Listen, if they’ve actually read them and can’t endorse them then I’m certainly not going to send you there. On the other hand, I appreciate their honesty regarding the likelihood of future updates to the list. Ahem. Skip this part, or take whatever you find with a grain of salt. And remember, you can always do a fact check using the Preservation Answer Machine.

Overall, a great resource…despite all my snarky comments.

A tip of the hat to Family Matters “Tech Support for the Family Historian.” Great blog, check it out.
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