Commons talk:National Archives and Records Administration/Restore

Unsuitable

The minimum threshold for serious restoration work is a 10 MB TIFF file. An image is not large if it is under 100 MB. The majority of suggested restorations fail to meet the minimum technical parameters. Durova (talk) 21:44, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

Can you explain what you mean by a minimum threshold? These may not be the largest images we could hope for, but they are the highest quality scans of these documents that exist. And many of them do still need to be cleaned up for dust specks and scratches, cropped, and so on. They may not be ideal, but I wouldn't think they'd be completely unsuitable. Dominic (talk) 13:35, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Rescan

Is there any mechanism to request an image be rescanned? In particular, the original photo in File:"An MP on motorcycle stands ready to answer all calls around his area. Columbus, Georgia.", 04-13-1942 - NARA - 531136.tif appears to be mounted in some way and its borders seem to be obscured by the mounting frame. If it could be removed from the mounting more of the image might be recovered. Note that we have a Category:African American soldiers with many photos, however none shows the nature of segregation in the US military during World War II as clearly as this powerful image.--agr (talk) 08:01, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

In general, we can do rescans. In fact, we can add requests to the list for the next NARA scanning party. I'm unsure about this one, though, because I'm not sure if the mounting could be removed without damaging the image, or if we'd be permitted to do it in any case. I'll inquire, though. :-) Dominic (talk) 14:43, 6 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. I realize removal may be a problem since the photo appears to be taped in place. Perhaps there are professional conservationists there who could help or provide an opinion. A negative answer would at least tell us to work with what we have. I think it is an important image.--agr (talk) 19:59, 6 September 2011 (UTC)

procedural questions/suggestions

Perhaps this happens in a place I have not yet discovered, but it's unclear to me what some of the images under suggestions might need. A version in a smaller size? Perhaps they have color balance problems my eye is not detecting? In some cases it's obvious; in others less so. The link for reporting errors says to put re-scan requests there, but one I listed has N/A under action taken, which seems to imply that it may be on the wrong list. Another issue is that it's not always clear whether something is "done". For example I did some patching on the portrait of Jefferson Davis, and cropped it to a slightly odd size to reduce the amount of repair needed. If this does not meet the needs of the person who listed it I would not mind trying again. If in fact there is currently no mechanism for discussing these things I'd like to suggest that we use the discussion page of the image -- unless of course someone has a better idea. Elinruby (talk) 07:39, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

Most of these images have defects. On some, it is evident, on others, it is more subtle: open the image at full size, and you will see scratches, black and white dots, etc. For example, on this one, there is a horizontal scratch just below his mouth. That's difficult to correct. It is usually best to keep the highest resolution possible. Also it is better to upload the restored file separately if you do major corrections. For Jefferson Davis's portrait, there is still a lot to do. I can make a try if you want. Thanks for your help, Yann (talk) 08:29, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

OH! I just saw the "done" section. I believe that's new? How do the images move to that category? Just trying to understand the workflow, so I don't impede it trying to help. Elinruby (talk) 07:42, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

I created this section with images I have restored. Some need a but further work. You are free to add your own restorations. Yann (talk) 08:29, 15 November 2011 (UTC)