Category Archives: Tuesday Tip

Genealogy, Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tips/ Saving Digital Photos

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While looking through my stats for this blog I noticed a search engine term for “should
I save family photos in .tiff or .bmp?”

When you are using a digital camera the photographs will usually be saved  in .jpeg (Joint Photographic Experts Group) format or RAW.

When you download your photos on to you computer you will then pick a format that you want to work with in your photo imaging program, such as Photoshop or Paintshop-Pro. What format you save them in will depend on what you want to do with them.

I am working on a photo album.  These photographs are newly developed as all I had were the negatives.  I took the negatives to a photographer and he did a wonderful job copying them for me.

When I began, I scanned them and saved them in .tiff ( targeted file format). This format is excellent for printing. It also does not lose information after being opened and closed multiple times. These are large files and most internet service will not handle these files, such as Facebook, Google+ or Shutterfly.com.  While I was cropping and filing these photos, I saved them in both formats and put them in two folders one of which have all jpeg copies of these photos and one that have .tiff copies. I have now placed the .jpeg files on-line for family to see. The .tiff files are in another folder and I will put them on a CD with an index and information about the photos. I will most likely burn the .jpeg photos to this disk as well.

I found a site that will explain the different formats and what they can do for you and what their draw backs are. You can find it at Digital Photography School.  The title of the article is “What is the Best File Format to Save Your Photos In? PSD * TIFF * JPEG * GIF  * PNG”

This certainly is not the last word on this subject,this will give you an idea what you can do with your photos! Enjoy it will be an adventure as you work with your photographs.

Happy Hunting!

Genealogy, Ramblings, Tuesday Tip

“Everything is on Ancestry” or is it?

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I am the new kid on the block when it comes to the blogging world and I am trying to figure out this new tool. Having said that I am not new to the genealogy world, which doesn’t mean I know everything and I don’t expect to every know everything!

I spent 10 yrs hosting and chatting with other genealogists in the Golden Gates Genealogy Forum on AOL. I hosted in General Chat and in the Beginners Chat. When Ancestry first hit the bandwidths there was so much excitement! Prior to that time there was a lot of information  found in such places as Rootsweb, USGenweb and personal home pages of folks doing and posting their genealogy work. Yet one still had to work hard at even researching on the internet to find much of anything. It’s amazing how much there is now compared to then, but I digress. When Ancestry opened its doors, we had to battle with those who would send beginners to Ancestry and tell them that they would find their whole tree there! YIKES! I was even told before getting my computer and internet … the Internet had all of my family! NOT!

A colleague of mine that hosted with me, came across this yet again just the other day while she was hosting another chat, a new person came in asking how to start their genealogy and another person piped in, get an account with Ancestry and you will find your whole family! Now granted Ancestry has a prolific amount of information, it still does not have all of your family and to tell you the truth neither does the internet.

There will still be ancestors the either refuse being found or that you will have to do your work the old-fashioned way and visit cemeteries, libraries, court houses etc.
I suspect I may never prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that John McCartney was  the father of Isaiah (Isaih) McCartney, I do know that I am most likely going to have to take a trip to Columbia  Co. PA and area to get them attached or dispatched 😀
The folks that are collaborating to find out who Robert Jackson’s ancestors where may never find that out either. There are just somethings that have not passed the test of time and are lost and will not be  found, no matter how abundant the information is on the internet.

So to the beginners out there, Ancestry and all the other resources out there are wonderful and have tons of information, your family will not all be found by following the little green leaves and it will all not be found on the internet. One more bit of information, if you find your family online especially in sites that host sharing trees, or on personal websites make sure you document and research for yourself. There is still a lot of miss information out there and wrong connections. One still needs to do their home work.

For those of you seasoned genealogist, don’t just send the newbies packing for Ancesty please honestly answer their question and find out what they mean by how do I begin? Show them the ropes befriend them and guide them along. I believe doing this will set the beginner in right stead to understand what they are really facing.

My hats off to all those out there that do strive to make a difference in the world of genealogy.

Happy Hunting!

 

Tuesday Tip

Tuesday Tip-On scanning black and white photos

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AH! Ha!

There are tips you learn before you try your hand at a task, there are others that jump out at you when you believe you are doing everything just right.

Well tonight’s tip comes from learning the hard way. I am just thankful I only scanned 20 photos and not a much larger number.

I am chugging along, remembering that I have seen that one should save photos in TIFF and at least a 300 DPI resolution if not more for archives. Scanner set for TIFF check, set at 600 DPI check, and set to black and white check! After all the photos I am scanning are black and white. What could go wrong, nothing this should be a breeze. Scanner is working quickly and it’s not taking all night. (that should have been a clue)

Pictures are all now scanned, and I am now cropping the photos. They look good in the thumbnails but when I open them up bigger they sure don’t look right, they are very grainy and and full of shadows! What the heck did I do! I know some of you are already chuckling, silly silly girl. These photos should be very fine, but they aren’t (scratching head)

This was scanned on black and white, tiff and 600 dpi and converted to jpeg so I could upload it.

OH!!! the light goes on! The pictures are indeed black and white, but in black and white photography there are nuances that scanning in black and white does not catch, it literally turns the photos black and white no in between colors. Now that I have figured that out and I am now scanning again, and in the mean time I have written this while re-scanning the photos.

This is scanned in color, tiff and 600 dpi, converted to jpeg so that I could upload it.

The settings that I am now using are color, TIFF and 600 DPI. I am much happier with these results! Maybe with the next batch of black and white photos  I will try gray scale. Never know what I might get it always helps to know how things turn out in other formats, a process that I might be able to use in other aspects of photographic work.

Now to upload the rest of the pictures to Ogilvie Family Photos so that I can share them with my family.

Happy Scanning!