Images on the Web - Photography

It is hard to guess what a person in the future will consider history or what they will wish they had some form of pictorial reference for. We can only make it simpler for ourselves as we look through these photos a few years after they were taken, for our students and children as they look at material decades later, and for archivists that will look at the material a century-or more-in the future by following good storage and archiving practices while we have the chance.

Start with a good photo

A wayward camera strap ruins some photos while other photos are overexposed. Sometimes these photos are the "best" on the role, an event now lost in time because rewind only works on the VCR. Problem photographs can be alleviated with good photographic practices in the beginning.

Kodak has ten techniques for improving the quality of photographs that everyone should follow. They are:

Kodak also provides a Guide to better pictures on their website, which goes into greater depth on topics such as lenses, filters and film developing.

Storage: Keeping a record

Once you have your new and improved photographs back from the developer, now is the time to create a brief record of the photographs for your personal use or to provide captions to photos on your website. We recommend that you provide the following minimal information about your photographs:

When: the date the picture was taken
Where: where the picture was taken
Who: who is in the picture, in some order (left to right)
Why: identify the project
Photographer: who took the picture

With the rules about taking pictures of students and school events, you may also want to include information about securing permission to use the images with this information. Store this information with the photographs.

Students may not volunteer to take this task off your hands, but it is a good exercise that they can complete together. You will also get feedback about the quality of the pictures, the ones that they like and ones that they hope never to see again, all important considerations when selecting the ones that parents will see or choosing which ones will go on the website.

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