The August 2015 meeting of the Madison County Genealogical Society was held at the Edwardsville Public Library on Thursday, August 13, at 7:00 pm.
President, Robert Ridenour, called the meeting to order.
The following is the Treasurer's report for the month of July:
Do you have a family member that
is interested in (or even obsessed with) genealogy? A membership
in the Madison County Genealogical Society would be a very thoughtful
gift. A gift card will be sent to the recipient of any gift membership.
The following memberships are available:
Individual/Family Annual Membership $20.00
Patron Annual Membership $30.00
Life Membership $250.00
Contact our Secretary, Petie Hunter, at [email protected],
about a gift membership.
On August 13, 2015, Tom Pearson,
Subject Specialist in the Genealogy Room of the St. Louis Public
Library, presented Picture This: Finding, Filing, and Editing
Digital Photos for the Genealogist. The program included
information on finding, filing, and editing digital photographs
of special interest to genealogists. Mr. Pearson discussed Image
File Formats, Digital Image Editors, Image Filing Systems, and
Fair Use of Images.
IMAGE FILE FORMATS
Image file formats are standardized means of organizing and storing
digital images. Image files are composed of digital data in a
format that can be rasterized for use on a computer display or
printer. An image file format may store data in uncompressed,
compressed, or vector formats. Once rasterized, an image becomes
a grid of pixels, each of which has a number of bits to designate
its color equal to the color depth of the device displaying it.
There are several formats widely used in digital images. GIF,
PNG, JPEG, BMP, and TIFF are image formats widely used.
GIF Useful for displaying graphics with few colors and basic shapes.
Still widely used for producing image animation effects. Small
file sizes.
PNG Originally developed as an open-source alternative to GIF
(GIF is now also patent-free). Good for files with large, uniformly
colored areas. Designed to make nice with web browsers.
JPEG Used by nearly every digital camera (JPEG 2000 is used in
some digital cameras for video applications), and universally
supported by image viewers and editors. Files are compressed (and
therefore smaller in size), but a JPEG image also degrades in
overall quality each time it is saved.
BMP Handles graphics files in the Windows OS. Large file sizes.
TIFF Some digital cameras can save images in TIFF format, but
this format is not supported by some web browsers. High-quality
(and therefore very large-sized) TIFF images are the photographic
standard in the printing industry.
DIGITAL IMAGE EDITOR CLASSIFICATIONS
Basic Editors are applications that allow you to make simple changes
to an existing image. They help you quickly and easily make small
adjustments to the overall lighting, colors, and tones of your
images without the clutter of a lot of advanced tool sets. They
also offer tools such as cropping, sharpening, and red eye correction.
Ease of use is the key.
Mid-level Editors offer more advanced tools like layers, adding
captions and shapes, the ability to select portions of the image
and make adjustments to just those portions, etc. They will also
offer filters for applying textures, artistic effects, edge enhancements,
borders, and frames. The breadth of image enhancements and drawing
tools are the most important considerations.
Advanced Editors have additional photographic features that work
with the features of specific cameras and the files that they
generate. They usually compete with professional programs like
Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro in some aspects if not all. The primary
criterion is the ability to work with imaging from many devices.
Digital Imaging Suites bundle related modules or applications
to extend the functionality of the core (basic) image editor.
The extra features can be intermediate or advanced, so that suites
generally offer all three levels of capability. There is no primary
criterion for this group because they cover aspects of the other
three classes.
IMAGE FILING SYSTEMS
You may already be using an image filing system for your family
photos that allows you to easily retrieve photos of interest.
If so, great! If not, however, Mr. Pearson suggests this system:
[Last name First name Middle Name]_[DOB]_[State/Country of birth]_[File
type]_[Topic]_[Photo #]
FAIR USE OF IMAGES
In general, if a website is not a federal government website,
and its terms of use do not specifically state that images on
the website are public domain/copyright-free, then assume that
all images on that website are protected by copyright. Ask permission
of the webmaster before using any of the images on a website or
in a printed publication.
PRESENTATION HANDOUT
Mr. Pearson had a handout containing lists of digital image editors,
sites with information about fair use of images, and sites that
are sources of various types of images. If you would like receive
an electronic copy of this handout with live links to all the
websites mentioned, send an e-mail requesting a copy to: [email protected].
This presentation was very well received and provoked many questions
and comments.