need help with National Register of Historic Places guidelines
2010-01-27 by Paul
I would very much appreciate some fellow photographers' critique of the current National Register of Historic Places photo guidelines. These guidelines recently expanded their usual guidelines when they accepted only black and white archivally processed darkroom prints. Please read these guidelines and afterwards see my questions: ----------------------------------------------------------------- Image file format (Set the camera for highest image quality). BEST: Tag Image File format (TIFF) or RAW format images. This allows for the best image resolution. Acceptable: JPEGs converted to TIFFs, by a computer conversion process, are acceptable; however, JPEGs must not be altered in any way prior to conversion, (other than renaming them). Do not use the JPEG setting on the camera, if a higher quality setting is available. RGB color digital TIFFs are preferred. Digital Camera Resolution (Set the camera to the maximum or largest pixel dimension the camera allows). BEST: Six megapixels or greater 2000 x 3000 pixel image) at 300 dpi Acceptable: Minimum two megapixels (1200 x 1600 pixel image) at 300 dpi ------------------------------------------------------ Here's the link for the complete list of guidelines: http://www.nps.gov/history/nR/publications/bulletins/photopolicy/index.htm ----------------------------------------------------- The guidelines also state they will accept color digital images, but from I have learned on this forum is that color digital images compromise the archival qualities of prints. Paul and others believe (and I agree) that the most archival prints are made with Eboni carbon ink cartridges, which is what I use in the 3MK approach in an Epson R1800. Also, I needed to convert the jpg to tiff in order to use QTR. Last fall I had a good e-mail exchange with a staff member of the Register and she said my approach would be acceptable, that they would accept black and white prints using 100% carbon ink in the cartridges. Now they are telling me however (see above) that I must submit only the unaltered files. I tried to explain that I must alter them in order to achieve a black and white print. In Photoshop, I call up my original color jpg file (shot in a Canon Pro-1 at its highest jpg resolution, 3264x2448 pixels), then I use Channel Mixer to convert to black and white, and sometimes apply a Curves adjustment for contrast. I simply have to alter the original camera files to get a good quality black and white print, I can't just print the right-out-of-camera file. I tried to explain to them that even with traditional darkroom photography, I usually had to crop the print (I was using medium format, with square images), I had to use different contrast filters in the enlarger, perhaps do a little dodging and burning, etc. So even then I "altered" the print. It's quite a Catch-22. I sometimes think the people setting up these guidelines, with all due respect, don't understand some of the aspects of digital photography. I'd really appreciate some comments, feedback, suggestions... whatever! A computer friend of mine said that when we think we're on the leading edge, we're actually on the bleeding edge! Thank you all so much, Paul