Jazz up Family History Research Reports Using Images.
Genealogy research results in a number of facts with supporting documentation for each fact. The information load per individual is manageable, but as the family tree expands through research, the information load can become substantial. If the information has hardcopy components as well as digital, then fulfilling the purpose of the research, assembling a complete family history document, can be a chore. The tools and tips discussed below can help minimize the effort in presenting Family History Research.
A document and photo scanner is an essential component for the conversion of hardcopy information to digital format. The major decision to be made at the time of scanning is, how the image will be displayed. Once the decision is made on the usage of the image, simply follow the rules of thumb for image resolution requirements. Typed document detail can be adequately captured with 150-200 pixels per inch (ppi) scan resolution, unless the document is stained or discolored, in which case a grayscale scan of 200-300 ppi will allow the manipulation of the image for cleanup purposes. Obviously documents can be scanned at any resolution, but below 150 ppi, typed letters begin to look jagged and incomplete and above 300 ppi file sizes get fairly large. The tactic is to save high-resolution scans for objects where higher resolution provide options for display in the future, such as printing a "blowup" of a photograph. A 300 ppi scan will yield a "good quality" print at the original size of the photograph, while a 600 ppi scan will yield "good quality" with a print twice the size of the original. In general high resolution scans generate large file sizes and they will show dust and fibers that were not cleaned off the photo or scanning bed.
In spite of your efforts with the scanner or attempts to compose the scene before snapping the picture, some images need more work to make them acceptable. The tool of choice to accomplish image corrections is a Photo Editor. The selection of Photo Editing software must be qualified by four major criteria; what features you want, your computer system's capabilities, budget, and the software's learning curve. A pixel-based editor, an all purpose tool for editing scanned images and digital photographs, is adequate to carry out the manipulations discussed in this article. Typical image edits are: red eye removal, color balance, contrast, brightness, de speckle, rotation, cropping, and resizing. The image re-size feature is commonly used to shrink files -by decreasing resolution- to be e-mailed or destined for inclusion on web pages. Both of these destinations have two features in common, both will be displayed on a 96 ppi computer monitor and both may be accessed via a slow dial-up connection. Shrinking the files will lessen the likelihood of session abandonment due to long load times over dial up. The process of resizing a digital image alters the image by deleting detail or creating fill-in pixels; using the "Save as" command to create an altered file preserves the original. Preserving the original images is always a good practice. It leaves open the possibility of re-editing the image when your skills have improved or with a better image editor.
History is a stream of fleeting experiences and images. A digital camera can capture these images as the essence of current family events for future historians. My camera functions as both a digitizer for documents as well as for documenting burial locations, past homes of ancestors and for recording snapshots of current relatives. Success with a camera is constrained by the user's ability to correctly apply the camera's resources. A camera has a limited number of pixels to capture a target scene, so narrow the focus of the snapshot to the important elements and or select the backdrop. To figure out what size photo will give you a "good detail" printout simply hover your cursor over a picture file write down the pixel dimensions and then divide each number by 300 ppi. The resulting numbers will be the dimensions of a "good quality" photo in inches. To observe the variations of detail, experiment printing photos with lower resolutions, the photo's may turn out to be satisfactory.
Clearing up tenuous connections in Family History research and breaking thru information roadblocks is what genealogy is all about. Family Historians will eventually reach a point in their research where they will need access to a birth, death or marriage certificate to retrieve a maiden name or the parents of an ancestor. If it's not available via the Internet, this information roadblock can usually be overcome by research at a regional archive near where an event occurred. The only issue that might remain is fitting the trips into your overall travel/vacation budget. There is a solution for you whether the trips are domestic, or international. Visit the web site to get more information.
About the Author: Mike Porras is a Technical Consultant in the Information Technology arena. He is an avid Genealogy Researcher. He enjoys traveling to resolve Family History research dead ends. Visit his site Today! Wholesale Travel,
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